The T-Pain song 'Girlfriend,' which was supposed to be on his new mixtape The Iron Way, features Aaliyah.

He's not the first to get a posthumous assist from the late artist, but some have criticized T-Pain for putting the unheard Aaliyah verse in a song that includes autotune.

He pushed back against the criticism during the Q &A portion of a listening season for the mixtape.

I ain't discrediting Aaliyah in any kind of way, but you know how sometimes when people die. You know how somebody’s an asshole their whole life, but when you go to their funeral it’s like, “This guy is the greatest man that ever walked this Earth. You know what I’m saying…

"Because she passed nobody’s good enough to be next to her, he continued. "If she was still alive, then everybody would be saying, 'Oh you’re trying to be like Beyoncé.' But now that she’s passed, everybody’s like, 'Nobody can be like her.' That’s just how it is, and that’s how people are. People just look for shit to talk about.

It can apply to more than just Aaliyah. One could argue that the Tupac's and the Biggie's of the world also get put on a pedestal because they are frozen in time, and don't have the chance to sully their reputation by agreeing to do a feature with Migos, etc.