Aaliyah Discussion

[Zinc.]

A New Limited-Edition Streetwear Collection Celebrates Aaliyah’s Timeless Style

[Zinc.]

Beyoncé, Aaliyah, Left Eye Auditioned for Josie and the Pussycats

[🇯🇲 dollybaby 🇯🇲]

Oct 26, 2017 6:59:36 GMT -5 Zinc. said:

Beyoncé, Aaliyah, Left Eye Auditioned for Josie and the Pussycats

Wow..I never knew that.

[Caviar]

Happy 39th birthday QUEEN.

[Queen of Insomnia.]

I know age ain't nothing but time flies painfully slow since she's gone. This angel was born on this very day and blessed this world with her music, voice, style and dedication. There will be no other precious soul like her. I'm just glad she was here.

[Zinc.]

Happy Birthday!!!

[bat1990]

Happy Birthday, baby girl!!!!!


(Is her uncle dead yet so her music can be re-unleashed upon the world?)

[SHOOTER]

I'm hurt that I've officially worn my Aaliyah CD out and need to purchase a price-gouged replacement online. Barry needs to rot!

[bat1990]

Jan 19, 2018 12:34:13 GMT -5 SHOOTER said:

I'm hurt that I've officially worn my Aaliyah CD out and need to purchase a price-gouged replacement online. Barry needs to rot!

I ripped mine to my phone for portability.

[Linnethia Monique]

Jan 19, 2018 10:37:19 GMT -5 bat1990 said:

Happy Birthday, baby girl!!!!!


(Is her uncle dead yet so her music can be re-unleashed upon the world?)

Unfortunately his son is also a label co-founder so evil will just live on until he dies as well. Jomo and Barry can both rest in hell.

[SHOOTER]

Jan 19, 2018 13:45:40 GMT -5 bat1990 said:

Jan 19, 2018 12:34:13 GMT -5 SHOOTER said:

I'm hurt that I've officially worn my Aaliyah CD out and need to purchase a price-gouged replacement online. Barry needs to rot!

I ripped mine to my phone for portability.

Trust I’ve got my MP3s safely stored but I also still buy CDs and can’t fathom the thought of it not being in my collection. Such a shame a whole generation is missing out on the album because I’m confident it’d be a steady catalog seller if it were ever resurrected and would’ve definitely sold more than the 2.6m it did had they not taken it out of print.

[Caviar]

I still got my original deluxe version.

[bat1990]

I could see our girl being a leader of the #MeToo movement if she were still here. Maybe it would finally tear down R. Kelly's ass.

[Relaxing Cup]

those pictures are so big on this page...

[Queen of Insomnia.]

https://www.instagram.com/p/BeU8-sqhU5d

[Linnethia Monique]

Come Over IS THAT SONG!

[think pink.]

Mar 29, 2018 11:27:15 GMT -5 Linnethia Monique said:

Come Over IS THAT SONG!

I wish I could open my Spotify app and play it rn 😭. Something must be done to get her music on streaming platforms.

[Caviar]

I miss her

[think pink.]

Mar 29, 2018 20:11:08 GMT -5 Caviar said:

I miss her

Always. She left such a void.

[George]

Mar 29, 2018 11:27:15 GMT -5 Linnethia Monique said:

Come Over IS THAT SONG!

For the longest time I'd always prefer Changing Faces' version, but I've grown to like hers.

Maybe it's because I still view it as an unreleased track that doesn't feel completely finished enough (since it wasn't included on her self-titled album).

[Caviar]

[think pink.]

Sooo purchasing.

[🇯🇲 dollybaby 🇯🇲]

Gotta save up my coins for that one!!!

[SHOOTER]

The fact we can buy some makeup and can’t buy her damn music. MESS!

[Zinc.]

19 min mark.

[Zinc.]

Age Ain't Nothing But A Number

ALBUM SALES: 1,458,443
ALBUMS W/TEA 1,524,136
ALBUMS W/TEA W/SEA ON-DEMAND AUDIO 1,592,682
ALBUMS W/TEA W/SEA ON-DEMAND 1,618,219
STREAMING ON-DEMAND 141,124,425

Aaliyah

ALBUM SALES: 2,652,707
ALBUMS W/TEA 2,726,416
ALBUMS W/TEA W/SEA ON-DEMAND AUDIO 2,728,033
ALBUMS W/TEA W/SEA ON-DEMAND 2,822,827
STREAMING ON-DEMAND 144,616,834

One In a Million

ALBUM SALES: 2,376,549
ALBUMS W/TEA 2,385,117
ALBUMS W/TEA W/SEA ON-DEMAND AUDIO 2,387,018
ALBUMS W/TEA W/SEA ON-DEMAND 2,449,852
STREAMING ON-DEMAND 97,103,761

I Care 4 U

ALBUM SALES: 1,741,146
ALBUMS W/TEA 1,857,145
ALBUMS W/TEA W/SEA ON-DEMAND AUDIO 1,902,461
ALBUMS W/TEA W/SEA ON-DEMAND 2,066,689
STREAMING ON-DEMAND 314,316,783

I Care 4 U is eligible for a 2× platinum certification.

[SHOOTER]

We probably won’t get OIAM and Aaliyah on streaming services until Barry and Jomo die.

[think pink.]

May 29, 2018 1:02:04 GMT -5 SHOOTER said:

We probably won’t get OIAM and Aaliyah on streaming services until Barry and Jomo die.

Things can be done to make it happen sooner rather than later.

[Zinc.]

The 98 Greatest Songs of 1998

1. Aaliyah, "Are You That Somebody?" (No. 21, Hot 100)

You can’t even find the song.

“Are You That Somebody?” is currently lost outside the stream of capital, thanks to the chicanery and stubborn grief of Aaliyah’s uncle and manager, Barry Hankerson. The digital streaming platforms don’t carry it, and the YouTube uploads aren’t beaming money to any label. On some level this is correct, because “Are You That Somebody?” should forever live in the beyond, as something to chase.

It’s of the past -- 20 years come June -- but still sounds like the future. Produced and written by Timbaland and Static Major and sung by Aaliyah, the song was recorded like a dream. At 4 a.m., Tim received a call from Hankerson, explaining that they needed a hit to put on the Dr. Doolittle soundtrack by 8 a.m. Talking animals and PG-13 Eddie Murphy? It hardly mattered -- the near-half-a-million bag beckoned and the great work began, with Timbaland hunched over a drum machine, Aaliyah in the booth, Static waving a blunt and smiling because he had the hook. They made the hit Hankerson asked for, and more.

Before you get to the baby, there’s the staccato bass line and drum sounds. You could stutter-step through the empty pockets left in the beat like you were dodging fat, lazy raindrops. The clucking and popping is a human mouth, only it’s tap dancing. “Boy,” Aaliyah begins like she’s creating a perfectly round bubble of sound, drawing out the vowel and vibrating it. The lyrics describe love like a secret, and if this boy is let in on it, he can’t tell nobody. Fifty-three seconds in, the baby pops out, right on time and totally uncalled for, a genuine moment of awe for the Hot 100, where the song would eventually peak at No. 21. Prince himself used the same sample to close out “Delirious” in 1982, but man, the chutzpah to let it coo repeatedly through this skeleton of a beat.

As Grammy-winning producer Bryan-Michael Cox told Vibe in 2008, “It ain’t been a record like that since.” A year later, Drake interpolated Static’s hook for Young Money’s “BedRock,” and one year after that, James Blake submerged and pitch-shifted Aaliyah’s voice for his breakout single “CMYK.” Like Sasha Frere-Jones wrote in The New Yorker, the song is “still effervescing” and inspiring new work, many years after the Grammys gave it a nod for best female R&B vocal performance. Ten out of ten people agree: This shit is not regular.

“Are You That Somebody?” persists in the cultural imagination despite being unavailable for sale on Amazon or iTunes, despite being unstreamable on Spotify or Tidal or Apple Music. Tens of millions of us know, by heart, a field recording of an infant made in 1969 -- an infant who will never be identified. Aaliyah passed away in August, of 2001. There is no way to tell her that nearly two decades later, “Somebody” remains like the secret cave her and Timabaland’s crews populate in the song’s video: sacred territory hidden in plain sight, accessible only to the two of them. -- R.S.

[Caviar]

Ground breaking song