Crews 
Producers of ‘Aaliyah: Princess of R&B’ have been receiving major flack for months, and after its television premiere on Saturday night which received even more scrutiny than before, Executive producers Howard Braunstein and Debra Martin Chase, along with author Christopher Farley have spoken out about the criticism and backlash via WashingtonPost:
On Aaliyah’s family not giving the rights to use her music
While the movie couldn’t use original Aaliyah recordings, they were able to obtain publishing rights, so Shipp recorded covers of the songs
“We’re trying to honor this woman and tell this story of this journey and her overcoming obstacles,” Farley said. “We felt we had enough of the music to still make a terrific film, and we’re excited to tell the story we were telling.”
On telling the controversial story of Aaliyah’s relationship with R. Kelly
The trio argued that R. Kelly, as controversial as he may be, was part of Aaliyah’s life, and an important influence on her music. Farley, who has done extensive research into her life, reiterated that the marriage is a matter of public record, not fictional drama.
“The evidence is there that they were married,” Chase added. “We tried to keep it very tasteful and respectful in our portrayal.”
On the family claiming that neither Lifetime or the producers contacted them
“We absolutely reached out to them, and Lifetime did too,” he said. “They chose not to cooperate with it.” He said that he has no concerns about threats to block to the movie from airing. “Hopefully they’ll enjoy it,” he said. “I hope they’ll be proud.”
On the twitter/social media backlash
Producers admitted that the fury “was hard to ignore, but you can’t dwell on it,” noting that these fans didn’t really know what was going on with production.
