Aaliyah had a
vocal range of a
dramatic soprano.
[10] With the release of her debut single "
Back & Forth", Dimitri Ehrlich of
Entertainment Weekly expressed that Aaliyah's "silky vocals are more agile than those of self-proclaimed queen of hip-hop soul
Mary J. Blige."
[39] Aaliyah described her sound as "street but sweet", which featured her "gentle" vocals over a "hard"
beat.
[40] Though Aaliyah did not write any of her own material,
[10] her lyrics were described as in-depth.
[41][42] She incorporated
R&B, pop and
hip hop into her music.
[7][43] Her songs were often uptempo and
melancholy, revolving around "matters of the heart".
[44] Her songs have been said to have "crisp production" and "staccato arrangements" that "extend genre boundaries" while containing "old-school"
soul music. When she experimented with other genres, such as
Latin pop and
heavy metal, writers panned the attempt.
[44] As her albums progressed, writers felt that Aaliyah matured, calling her progress a "declaration of strength and independence".
[38][42] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic described her eponymous album,
Aaliyah, as "a statement of maturity and a stunning artistic leap forward" and called it one of the strongest urban soul records of its time.
[42] She portrayed "unfamiliar sounds, styles and emotions", but managed to please critics with the contemporary sound it contained.
[42] Ernest Hardy of
Rolling Stone felt that Aaliyah reflected a stronger technique, where she gave her best vocal performance.
[45] Others felt that she was "satisfying rather than extraordinary", stating that she added little to modern R&B.
[46][47]Aaliyah focused on her public image throughout her career. She often wore baggy clothes and sunglasses, stating that she wanted to be herself.
[52] She described her image as being "important… to differentiate yourself from the rest of the pack".
[53] She often wore black clothing, starting a trend for similar fashion among women in United States and Japan.
[10][54] Aaliyah participated in fashion designer
Tommy Hilfiger's All America Tour and was featured in Tommy Jean ads, which depicted her in
boxer shorts, baggy jeans and a
tube top. Hilfiger's brother,
Andy, called it "a whole new look" that was "classy but sexy".
[54] When she changed her hairstyle, Aaliyah took her mother's advice to cover her left eye, much like
Veronica Lake.
[55] In 1998, she hired a
personal trainer to keep in shape, and exercised five days a week and ate
diet foods.
[56] Aaliyah was praised for her "clean-cut image" and "moral values".
[57]Personal life
With the release of
Age Ain't Nothing but a Number, rumors circulated of a relationship between Aaliyah and
R. Kelly.
[10][58] Shortly after, there was speculation about a secret marriage with the release of "Age Ain't Nothing but a Number" and the adult content that Kelly had written for Aaliyah.
[59] Vibe magazine later revealed a marriage certificate that listed the couple married on August 31, 1994, in Sheraton Gateway Suites in
Rosemont, Illinois.
[10][59] Aaliyah, who was 15 at the time, was listed as 18 on the certificate; the illegal marriage was annulled in February 1995 by her parents.
[13][59][60] The pair continued to deny marriage allegations, stating that neither was married.
[58] Aaliyah was engaged to co-founder of
Roc-A-Fella Records Damon Dash at the time of her death and had plans to marry him after the premiere of
The Matrix.
[61]Death, funeral and wrongful death lawsuit
On August 25, 2001, at 6:45 pm (
EST), Aaliyah and various members of the record company boarded a twin-engine
Cessna 402B (
registration N8097W) at
Marsh Harbour,
Abaco Islands, The Bahamas, to travel to the
airport in
Opa-locka, Florida, after they completed filming the music video for the single
"Rock the Boat".
[62] They had a flight scheduled the following day, but with filming finishing early, Aaliyah and her entourage were eager to return to the United States and made the decision to leave immediately. The designated airplane was smaller than the
Cessna 404 in which they had originally flown. The whole party and all of the equipment were accommodated on board.
[63] As a result, when the aircraft attempted to depart, it was over its maximum takeoff weight by 700 pounds (320 kg) and was carrying one excess passenger, according to its certification.
[64]The plane crashed shortly after takeoff, about 200 feet (60 m) from the runway.
[62] Aaliyah and the eight others on board, pilot Luis Morales III, hair stylist Eric Forman, Anthony Dodd, security guard Scott Gallin, video producer Douglas Kratz, stylist Christopher Maldonado, and
Blackground Records employees Keith Wallace and Gina Smith, were all killed.
[65]According to findings from an inquest, conducted by the coroner's office in The Bahamas, Aaliyah suffered from "severe burns and a blow to the head", in addition to severe shock and a weak heart.
[66]The coroner theorized that, even if Aaliyah had survived the crash, her recovery would have been virtually impossible given the severity of her injuries.
[67] The
National Transportation Safety Board(NTSB) report stated that "the airplane was seen lifting off the runway, and then nose down, impacting in a marsh on the south side of the departure end of runway 27 and then exploding in flames."
[68]It indicated that the pilot was not approved to pilot the plane he was attempting to fly. Morales falsely obtained his
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) license by showing hundreds of hours never flown, and he may also have falsified how many hours he had flown in order to get a job with his employer, Blackhawk International Airways.
[69] Additionally, an
autopsy performed on Morales revealed traces of
cocaine and alcohol in his system.
[70] The NTSB reported that the maximum allowed gross weight of the plane was "substantially exceeded" and that the center of gravity was positioned beyond its rear limit.
[68] John Frank of the Cessna Pilots Association stated that the plane was "definitely overloaded".
[71]The day of the crash was Morales' first official day with Blackhawk International Airways, an FAA Part 135 single-pilot operation. Morales was not registered with the FAA to fly for Blackhawk. As a result of the accident, Aaliyah's parents filed a
wrongful death lawsuit against the company, which was settled out of court for an undisclosed amount.
[78] Barry & Sons, Inc., a corporation formed in 1992 to develop, promote and capitalize Aaliyah and to oversee the production and distribution of her records and music videos, brought an unsuccessful lawsuit in the
New York Supreme Court against Instinct Productions LLC, the company that was hired in August 2001 to produce the music video for "Rock the Boat". The case was dismissed because of New York's wrongful death statute only permitting certain people to recover damages for wrongful death.
[79][80]Aftermath and posthumous recognition
The week after Aaliyah's death, her third studio album,
Aaliyah, rose from number 19 to number one on the
Billboard 200.
[81] "
Rock the Boat" was released as a posthumous single. The music video premiered on
Black Entertainment Television's
Access Granted; it became the most viewed and highest rated episode in the history of the show.
[82] The song peaked at number 14 on the
BillboardHot 100 and number two on the Billboard
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.
[83] It was also included on the
Now That's What I Call Music! 8 compilation series; a portion of the album's profits was donated to the Aaliyah Memorial Fund.
[84] The following two singles from Aaliyah, "
More than a Woman" and "
I Care 4 U", peaked within the top 25 of the Billboard Hot 100.
[83] The album was certified double
Platinum by the
RIAA and sold 2.95 million copies in the United States.
[16][85][86]"More than a Woman" reached number one in the UK singles chart making Aaliyah the first deceased artist to reach number one in the UK single chart, with their first UK release. The song "More than a Woman" was replaced by
George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord" which is the only time in the UK singles chart history where a dead artist has replaced another dead artist at number one.
[87]She won two posthumous awards at the
American Music Awards of 2002; Favorite Female R&B Artist and Favorite R&B/Soul Album for Aaliyah.
[88] Her second and final film,
Queen of the Damned, was released in February 2002. Before its release, Aaliyah's brother, Rashad,
re-dubbed some of her lines during post-production.
[89][90] It grossed US$15.2 million in its first weekend, ranking number one at the box office.
[91] On the first anniversary of Aaliyah's death, a candlelight vigil was held in
Times Square, where millions of fans observed a
moment of silence. Throughout the United States, radio stations played her music in remembrance.
[92] In December 2002, a collection of previously unreleased material was released as Aaliyah's first posthumous album,
I Care 4 U. A portion of the proceeds was donated to the Aaliyah Memorial Fund, a program that benefits the Revlon UCLA Women Cancer Research Program and Harlem's Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
[93] It debuted at number three on the
Billboard 200, selling 280,000 copies in its first week.
[94] The album's lead single, "
Miss You", peaked at number three on the
Billboard Hot 100 and topped the
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.
[83] In August of the following year, clothing retailer
Christian Dior donated profits from sales in honor of Aaliyah.
[95]Aaliyah was signed to appear in several future films, including
Honey (recast to
Jessica Alba).
[96] Some Kind of Blue and a
Whitney Houston-produced remake of the 1976 film
Sparkle were canceled due to Aaliyah's death.
[4][97] Before her death, Aaliyah had filmed part of her role in
The Matrix Reloaded and was scheduled to appear in
The Matrix Revolutions as
Zee.
[20] The role was later recast to
Nona Gaye.
[36] Aaliyah's scenes were later included in the tribute section of the Matrix Ultimate Collection series.
[98] In 2005, Aaliyah's second compilation album,
Ultimate Aaliyah was released in the UK by Blackground Records.
[99] Ultimate Aaliyah is a three disc set, which included a greatest hits audio CD and a DVD.
[99] Andy Kellman of
Allmusic remarked "Ultimate Aaliyah adequately represents the shortened career of a tremendous talent who benefited from some of the best songwriting and production work by Timbaland, Missy Elliott, and R. Kelly."
[99]A documentary movie Aaliyah Live In Amsterdam was
released in 2011. The documentary, by
Pogus Caesar, contained previously unseen footage shot at the start of her career in 1995 when the then 16-year-old was appearing in the Netherlands.
Legacy
Aaliyah has been credited for helping redefine
R&B and
hip hop in the 1990s, "leaving an indelible imprint on the music industry as a whole."
[41][100] Steve Huey of Allmusic wrote Aaliyah ranks among the "elite" artists of the R&B genre, as she "played a major role in popularizing the stuttering, futuristic production style that consumed hip-hop and urban soul in the late '90s."
[101] Described as one of "R&B's most important artists" during the 1990s,
[102] her second studio album,
One in a Million, became one of the most influential R&B albums of the decade.
[18] According to Sal Cinquemani of
Slant Magazine, Aaliyah provided a "missing link" between hip hop and
electronica.
[103] With sales of 8.1 million albums in the United States and an estimated 24 to 32 million albums worldwide,
[104][105][106] Aaliyah has been named the "
Princess of R&B" and "
Queen Of Urban Pop"
[107][108] and "proved she was a muse in her own right".
[109] Ernest Hardy of
Rolling Stone dubbed her as the "undisputed queen of the midtempo come-on".
[12]
