On August 25, 2001, Aaliyah Dana Haughton visited the Bahamas in order to shoot a music video for her song Rock the Boat, 19 years ago. She unfortunately never returned. The 22-year-old died in a plane crash with eight others on their way back to the U.S.
What We Know:
- Before her death, the singer had been making headway as an actress. Her passing deeply affected friends, fans, family, and so on. Many celebrities attended her funeral such as Busta Rhymes, Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, Lil’ Kim, Jay Z, and Missy Elliott, along with her then-boyfriend Damon Dash.
Your music has always been 10 STEPS AHEAD & Your sound is still FUTURISTIC👽Your fashion always been ONE OF KIND. You rocked your outfits with SWAG & SAUCE!🔥Just know that you are still inspiring generations til this day🙏🏾We love you💜#Aaliyah🕊 pic.twitter.com/SNxiOiWFJC
— Missy Elliott (@MissyElliott) August 25, 2020
- Elliott, alongside Timothy Zachary Mosley a.k.a Timbaland, were the producers responsible for helping create Aaliyah’s sound after her eventual split with R. Kelly. She married R. Kelly as a teenager, but that marriag e was later declared invalid. As soon as Elliott and Timbaland took over Aaliyah’s production, hits such as One In A Million became a double-platinum smash in the late ’90s.
- At the time of the new producers taking over, Aaliyah frequently stated her trust in them handling her career and sound. Elliott said to Billboard in 2018 that “she had an ear and she knew what that music made her feel like”. For example, work on one album ended up being an even better collaboration project that lasted up until her passing.
“She was next level to understand that this is some next level (music). This is not just the sound that’s going on right now — this is a new sound that is being created. This whole movement is new,” Elliott continued.
- On Wednesday, Aaliyah’s family, who manages social media accounts in her name, gave fans the news of a future release of her entire musical catalog via various streaming platforms. Talks between the estate and record labels have begun, most likely to reach new deals that will help distribute her music that’s been locked away for so long.
Official message from the Estate of Aaliyah Haughton. Thank you for your continued love and support! 🙏
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.#aaliyah #aaliyahhaughton #aaliyahmusic #aaliyahforever pic.twitter.com/rRDIVaHVfo— Aaliyah (@AaliyahHaughton) August 25, 2020
Barry Hankerson, Aaliyah’s uncle and once a manager for Kelly, has control over all the recordings under his Blackground label. For years, Hankerson has refrained from releasing his niece’s music, despite consistent demand for it. The only instance of her music being released in the past couple of years was the Ultimate Aaliyah collection that appeared on Apple Music for one day in 2017, then removed.
