A couple of years later, “Are You That Somebody,” a single made for the Dr. Where Age Ain’t Nothing But A Number was defined by Kelly’s rote new jack swing and carried by her vocal depth, One In A Million was clever, fun, and forward-thinking. She really helped make us what we are today.” The gamble paid off.

“From day one, she had that much faith in our music that she treated us like we already sold a million records, when we hadn’t sold anything yet. “Tim and I were new producers,” Missy told Rolling Stone in 2001. But with members of the Supafriends ~ Timbaland, Missy Elliott, and, eventually, the late Static Major - by her side, Aaliyah easily eclipsed her work with Kelly. Internally, there was a concern that her career would flounder, that she would not be able to match Kelly’s production and songwriting elsewhere. Kelly,” Aaliyah is understood to have been a survivor of his predation, but at the time, many people blamed her for the secret relationship and the falsification of her age on a clandestine marriage certificate.

Today, especially following testimony aired in Lifetime’s “Surviving R. Kelly, who’d produced her 1994 platinum-selling debut Age Ain’t Nothing But A Number. In 1995, she’d ended a professional and allegedly predatory sexual relationship with R. But in between being on set during the day and in the studio at night, Aaliyah also had a lot to reckon with. During that hiatus, she’d taken an interest in acting, starring in a couple of films and lining up others, including two upcoming Matrix movies. Just weeks earlier, she had released her third album, Aaliyah, a well-received collection of songs that mapped her personal growth during the five years since her second full-length, 1996’s One In A Million. In life, Aaliyah was often described by friends and collaborators as angelic in her death, that image persists. The Cessna twin-engine crashed moments after takeoff, killing the singer and eight others. In August, after wrapping her scenes in the Bahamas, Aaliyah boarded a flight home. She seems peaceful, softer than in previous clips. The video for “Rock The Boat,” the 2001 single that would be her last, looks as if it were beamed down from one of the mythical seven heavens: gently lapping water, the flare of a bright sun, women dressed in all white. Whether you b elieve in the afterlife or not, it’s easy enough to picture Aaliyah in heaven.

Rihanna greatest hits blogspot 320