Missy Elliott Breaks Down Origins Of Aaliyah's "4 Page Letter" Ad-Lib

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Missy Elliott offers the backstory behind Aaliyah's "up some more" ad-lib on "4 Page Letter."

This summer, R&B fans were finally blessed with the DSP release of Aaliyah's catalog. Her self-titled final album is finally accessible on platforms like Apple Music and Spotify and arrived to coincide with the 20th anniversary of her death. Day-one fans have been revisiting the project while younger fans are just beginning to familiarize themselves with the impact that Aaliyah had on R&B.

 Kevin Mazur/WireImage/Getty Images

Songs like "4 Page Letter" remain legendary tracks in her expansive catalog. From Timbaland's production to Missy Elliott's songwriting on the record, Aaliyah tapped into a different side of herself on One In A Million. Of course, the single itself has managed to enter the world of TikTok after its DSP release. A fan reimagined the session for "4 Page Letter" and exactly what was happening when Aaliyah asked the engineer to turn her sound up. 

Missy hit Twitter this week where she offered fans some insight into what was going down during that session. She explained that she actually said it first in the reference track but Aaliyah enjoyed the bit so much she decided to include it in the final version.

"Funfact [laughing emojis] when I was in the booth singing this my engineer had the music to low so I was telling him to turn it up but Aaliyah thought I meant to do it so she sung it like i did on the demo but it was a mistake," she wrote. "She loved it so we kept it like that."

"And since Babygirl loved the mistake I told Jimmy the engineer to keep raising the music on the track everytime she say turn it up so it would make sense to the listeners so y’all wouldn’t think we was crazy," Missy continued in a separate tweet before confirming the TikTok video was a pretty accurate depiction of the studio session. 

Check Missy's tweets below. 

About The Author
Aron A. is a features editor for HotNewHipHop. Beginning his tenure at HotNewHipHop in July 2017, he has comprehensively documented the biggest stories in the culture over the past few years. Throughout his time, Aron’s helped introduce a number of buzzing up-and-coming artists to our audience, identifying regional trends and highlighting hip-hop from across the globe. As a Canadian-based music journalist, he has also made a concerted effort to put spotlights on artists hailing from North of the border as part of Rise & Grind, the weekly interview series that he created and launched in 2021. Aron also broke a number of stories through his extensive interviews with beloved figures in the culture. These include industry vets (Quality Control co-founder Kevin "Coach K" Lee, Wayno Clark), definitive producers (DJ Paul, Hit-Boy, Zaytoven), cultural disruptors (Soulja Boy), lyrical heavyweights (Pusha T, Styles P, Danny Brown), cultural pioneers (Dapper Dan, Big Daddy Kane), and the next generation of stars (Lil Durk, Latto, Fivio Foreign, Denzel Curry). Aron also penned cover stories with the likes of Rick Ross, Central Cee, Moneybagg Yo, Vince Staples, and Bobby Shmurda.
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