The Aaliyah song that was recorded in just 4 hours
8 January 2026, 17:32
One of RnB legends, Allyiah’s biggest tracks was recorded in just one studio session. But which song was it? And what was the time crunch? Here are all the details.
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Aaliyah is one of the greatest artists that ever lived, helping shape the RnB genre into what it is today with her hit tracks ‘One in a Million’ and ‘More Than A Woman’ remaining iconic in the music world, in spite of her sudden death at a young age.
The singer's collaborations with the iconic producer Timbaland are perhaps some of her best work, and it is one track in particular with her collaborator that reportedly was written and recorded in just one session.
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The hit song ‘Are You That Somebody’ is debatably her most recognisable track, currently having over 244 million streams on Spotify.
At the time of its release the track was super popular, winning a Grammy award in 1998, for Best Female RnB Vocal Performance as well as a VMA for its feature in the film Dr. Doolittle.
However, the masterpiece didn’t take as long as one would think, with producer Timbaland revealing that they had less than 24-hours to write and record the song.
What is even more surprising is that the dynamic duo didn’t even use up all of the time, taking just 4 hours to lay down ‘Are You That Somebody?’.
Timbaland discussed in an in-studio interview about how the song almost didn’t happen, with the pair collaborating with the infamous late-producer, Static Major, after a late-night show.
He said: “We just came from doing the show, all of a sudden, last minute, ‘Can y’all do a record tonight and it’s going to be the single for Dr. Doolittle?’"
He continued: “We knew we had to put out something because all lights were on us, no matter what we did, we had the single. It was etched in stone that we had the single, we had to finish it.“
The ‘Carry Out’ producer explained their initial reluctance, but admitted it was the influence of a $500,000 (£370,000) payout between them both that got them to work!
So, despite the track still getting plays to this day, and definitely remaining in the RnB Hall of Fame, it was made within a matter of hours.
Aaliyah - Are You That Somebody (Original Video)
