Aaliyah-The Thing I Like: The Song that Made Me Fall in Love with Her

I was in Jamaica when I found out she passed. Somebody called me, but there were so many different rumors on other artists like Luther [Vandross] and Whitney [Houston] at the time that I really cursed another artist out cause I thought they were playin. People were calling cause they thought me and Tim was with her. Then when they started saying this person was with her and this person and this person, I kept hanging up on people. But when I called Tim I could tell something was wrong.

Dame Dash:I knew her as an artist first; I mean I always liked her music, her dancing and whatever. Then when I met her we just kinda hit it off. It was like we had the same rhythm, the same ambition. She was taking over, like just into everything. She was already a fashion icon, she was getting into movies, she had already planted that seed. If she was alive today she would be so relevant. I see little bits of her everywhere I look, in a lot of artists.

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I always called her my muse because something about her motivated that kind of energy. She would be the first to admit that she had a slightly dark sensibility, and I do too, so we would go there together. Every idea I came to her with she would take it a step further. I felt like she was the first young R&B chick to explore more rock & roll elements, and musically she was open to a lot of things. I started sharing my tastes with her, like Portishead and Björk, and she latched on to a lot of things. She was always willing to stretch out and tap into other places for inspiration.

Most of the album's lyrics were written by Static, from the R&B band Playa.[19] While the band was growing apart, he was invited by Blackground to be a lead writer for the album after writing "Are You That Somebody?" and "Try Again". Static was a part of Aaliyah's close group of friends, which included Missy Elliott and Timbaland, and shared an infatuation with her.[20] He found Aaliyah to be ideal for his songwriting style, while she believed that he could accurately portray her feelings.[21] A subtly sexual lyricist, he wrote "Rock the Boat" for her in 1999, but Blackground felt she was not ready for the song. Barry Hankerson said of his songwriting, "We always were protective over every lyric ... But he did things where you never felt offended. You just felt like you overheard someone thinking ... he was clever ... Aaliyah depended on him [and] he depended on her." Elliott said that he was "a part of that bridge of Aaliyah growing up lyrically".[20] While she discussed the lyrics with Static, the singer consulted Bud'da about the sound and musical direction of the album.[22] She was interested in learning about the UK garage scene at the time.[23]

Aaliyah's vocals are sung in a restrained soprano style throughout the album.[49] Vibe magazine's Hyun Kim argues that its songs draw focus to her singing more than her previous records, "bringing it to the forefront as opposed to hiding it behind the layered production".[5] "Rock the Boat" is sung with breathless vocals by Aaliyah, who instructs her lover on how to please her sexually and equates her erotic high to a drug high.[50] Ballads such as "I Care 4 U", "Never No More", and "I Refuse" are sung more emotively, expressing melancholy qualities and hurt.[40] On "I Can Be", Aaliyah sings from the perspective of an adulterous man's mistress who wants to be his foremost girlfriend.[51] Alex Macpherson from The Guardian wrote that "Aaliyah's blank, numbed delivery" on the song "makes being the other woman seem like an emotionally masochistic form of self-medication".[52] Biographer Christopher John Farley says that she "emotionally detail[s] a song" unlike on her previous albums and that "her gentle voice now seem[s] like something elemental, a kindly wind blowing through the branches of a big tree."[53] According to Joshua Clover, Aaliyah pushes musical notes "into strange corners of syncopation's shifty architecture" on the more "shape-defying" tracks. Overall, "she makes the sonics tell the story, creating meaning outside the lyrics, pleasure beyond the hooks."[30]

Aaliyah helped establish the "beat"-based sound of R&B during the 2000s while impacting a new wave of black progressive musicians.[116] As The Independent's Micha Frazer-Carroll writes, acts such as Destiny's Child, Ashanti, Amerie, and Cassie capitalized on the success of the album's "idiosyncratic sound", while Aaliyah's "pared-back vocal phrasing" established an archetype for a "more stoic R&B singer" that would influence vocalists like Ciara and Rihanna.[4] Timbaland's commercial success with R&B-influenced singers such as Justin Timberlake and Nelly Furtado during the decade was later attributed by The Guardian's Rebecca Nicholson to his experience producing Aaliyah, writing that he "hasn't come close to creating anything as sonically stunning since".[117] Q journalist Eve Barlow credited the album in 2011 for "creating a blueprint that can be heard across pop music today" with acts such as R&B singers Beyoncé and The Weeknd, and the indie pop band The xx.[118] According to Kameir, Aaliyah's characteristic multi-part harmonies on the album foreshadowed those of Solange Knowles.[86]

Her debut, "Age Ain't Nothing But a Number," was produced by R. Kelly, who was briefly married to an underage Aaliyah in 1994. Kelly is currently on trial for alleged sex crimes involving numerous women and girls, including Aaliyah. In court last week, jurors heard testimony about the tangled channels navigated to procure a fake ID for the singer, who was 15 at the time she wed Kelly. Marriage documents falsely listed her age as 18, according to witness testimony. The marriage was annulled in 1995.

American singer Aaliyah released three studio albums, two compilation albums, and 26 singles. She was born in Brooklyn, New York, and was raised in Detroit, Michigan.[1][2][3] At age 10, she appeared on Star Search and performed in concert alongside Gladys Knight.[1][4] At age 12, Aaliyah was signed to Jive Records and Blackground Records by her uncle, Barry Hankerson.[5][6] He introduced her to R. Kelly, who became her mentor, as well as lead songwriter and producer of her debut album.[7][8] Age Ain't Nothing but a Number sold three million copies in the United States and was certified double Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).[9][10] After facing allegations of an illegal marriage with Kelly, Aaliyah ended her contract with Jive and signed to Atlantic Records.[11]

There's also some great new soundtrack songs in circulation, including Joe Jonas' upbeat "Go It Alone" from Rumble, Mickey Guyton and Vince Gill's powerful "Love Changes Everything" from American Underdog, and the Sing 2 soundtrack, which features covers by stars Scarlett Johansson, Taron Egerton, Reese Witherspoon, Halsey and more.

He specified that she had a headache, and I put that in the book. Maybe it was just for her headache, but the fact of the matter was she boarded that plane, from the way he described it, very unaware that she was boarding a plane, especially for someone who minutes prior, was adamant about not getting on the plane. All we know is that she did not want to get on the plane, something was handed to her, and she fell back to sleep. I had to present all of this, I had to.

Getting to re-watch Romeo Must Die and Queen of the Damned was really good too. I remember going to Queen of the Damned when it premiered and just being so mad that she was practically at the end of the movie, but nothing beat when she walks into that party and just starts slithering through and knocking people around. Getting to revisit those parts of her life and career and then hearing about all the wonderful things [about] putting the Aaliyah project together while they were all out in Australia, just seeing how much of a hard worker she was in that regard where she was filming Queen of the Damned and then walking to her studio and just working overtime to do her album, things like that [were] great too.

Mya Singleton is a freelance writer and photographer based in Los Angeles. Her work has also been featured on The Sports Fan Journal and AXS. Feel free to follow her talking all things music on Twitter @MyaMelody7.

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