#wnar

April 13, 2001 – We Need a Resolution Single is released.

The first single off the highly anticipated 3rd (and sadly final) album is released on this day.

During an interview with MTV, Aaliyah was asked if the song was about a specific person or situation. Remaining mature and professional, Aaliyah would deny what the song was personally regarding. After her death, Timbaland was interviewed (via phone call) and stated they had an argument and regretted never apologizing but wouldn’t elaborated what the argument was about until years later when more details surrounding the song would emerge.

Timbaland (at first) did not want to participate due to financial conflicts with Blackground Records but had a change of heart during the last week of the album’s production after speaking with Aaliyah. “Timbaland did it out of love for BabyGirl.” according to Static Major. The single “Loose Rap” was slated to be the album’s first released but due to Timbaland meeting his deadline that week (March 2001), WNAR was pushed forward as the first single and music video production began immediately the following month.

It would later come out years later that the song was actually about a real-life disagreement between Aaliyah, her fallout with Tim and Missy, and Blackground records.

In a special (Static Major) tribute interview with Tim Barnett on Midnight R&B Edition in 2022, Barnet revealed some tea to the fanbase saying:

“To keep it a buck, I think the only reason Tim jumped on board when he did after we got back from Australia was that he realized one monkey don’t stop the show: in this case two monkeys. So, you and Missy, ya’ll not gonna stop the show.” He would go on about how Missy tried "$hitting" on Aaliyah and the hypocrisy of her so-called paying homage to Aaliyah "Like you miss babygirl , but you weren’t even f***in with babygirl at the time, and that's facts".

Aaliyah’s first single We Need A Resolution from her third & final album was released 19 years ago. Here are some illustrations I’ve done over the years inspired by the iconic looks in the video.