It was such a delightful experience to be able to listen to Aaliyah's One in a Million album from start to finish this past weekend, her melodious vocals flowing smoothly through my Sonos speakers. It was a moment that fans have been waiting for years, as behind-the-scenes business wrangling has kept much of her relatively short discography away from most streaming platforms. And by August 20, just days before the 20th anniversary of her death in a plane crash, finally, her second studio album was available to enjoy and rewind and move on and completely immerse myself in. Its sonic glory.
Her third and final studio album is set to come out in the fall, and a balance of sorts will eventually be restored. Because for too long, only her first and most sinister album, Age Ain't Nothing But a Number, was widely available, a fact that felt like a slap in the face to her legacy.
In death, like in life, Alia deserves better.
But what, exactly, is "better"? Particularly within the past few years, a few things have become undeniably clear: She deserved to be better protected by those around her, than someone who had seen the writing on the wall, when an older man, R Kelly, was writing the song for a 14-year-old to sing as an old "boyfriend". The music industry shouldn't have exposed Kelly's illegal marriage to Aaliyah when she was just 15 (or the many other allegations that have arisen over the years) under the rug.
More difficult, at least for me as both a fan and critic, is to reconcile that early part of my career with the rest of my work. A part of me would love nothing more than to mention Kelly when discussing Aaliyah—who would later go by the terrifying nickname of "The Pied Piper of R&B." It remains infuriating that victims of (alleged) sexual abuse are forever attached to the names of their abusers, often to the detriment and oversight of everything they have gained. But while age is nothing but number one stained in fans' minds forever, it's impossible to ignore how important it was in establishing Aaliyah's continued appeal, even as she distanced herself from Kelly. .
It's been said many times before, but can't really be exaggerated: "One in a million" sounds like it's predicting the future; Really, it seems so now. In Timbaland's skittering production, staccato phrases to Missy Elliot's lyrics, and Aaliyah's melodic interpretation you can hear the descendants who have followed her – Drake, Jayne Ecko, Sid, Normani. Her various looks in the video were flashy, sexy, and mysterious, as she wore low-rise pants, a crop top and bra, and, in one scene, a silver eye-patch that seemed to come straight from a science-fiction dystopia playbook. Was .
She seemed completely formed, completely confident and secure in her body. This was also true in her other songs from that era, from "If Your Girl Only Knows," a self-assured midtempo joint in which she claims how she "won't be a fool" to a boy who tries to cheat. making him, "Are you that someone?" An earworm where she insists on keeping hookups down until she can prove she's serious. And if you were a young black girl like me in the '90s, of course you were probably going to look at her and see how cool she looked without thinking twice. You'd assume she was an older woman, because if you're under 12, everyone older than you seems ancient, and what young man is capable of controlling that much? Yet she wasn't even 18 when she recorded One in a Million.
That's what makes her special—she stood out from the ballads (Mariah, Whitney, En Vogues) and teen pop stars (Brandy, Brittany, Christina) of that era because she seemed to command without needing to do too much. . His theatrics were subdued and contained, more agile and less face-to-face. However, I'm starting to wonder what it even means to be a young teenager, in an age where everyone is still trying to figure out for themselves (and usually awkwardly).
Female teen pop stars usually emerge with a hint of innocence in their public persona, even as they suggest their own sexuality and promote the sexual fantasies of many a boy or man: Britney Spears here The prototypical example is ("...Baby One More Time" in a schoolgirl dress and pigtails; she covered with the infamous Rolling Stone lingerie and stuffed teletubby), but this was from the '90s and early '00s, from Christina Aguilera. The same was true for Spears' contemporaries, from Mandy Moore to Jessica Simpson. The playbook for the eldest of those stars seemed to be this: virginal and sexy (and in the process the breakout bridging the line between religious groups and middle-class suburban parents), then, a few years later, when you' In your late teens or early 20s, enter your "mature" period, that is, go full-sex keto. Suggest a sweaty, dance-orgy in your video; get dirty Be blamed for corrupting America's tweens.
Alia was rarely given the chance to show that kind of innocence – she was branded as "mature" out of the gate. From the start of his career, the dichotomy between his real and perceived age was an integral part of his image. It was right there in the title of that debut album; In the lyrics of the song, where she seductively states that "age is nothing but a number, throwing down is nothing but a thang." His exact age in early interviews was usually regarded as an open secret - "I won't reveal it, but I'm in my teens, I'm still in high school"; "You know I don't tell my age, it's a secret," she replies, with a laugh and a smile, when asked how old she is.
The clash with the acceptance of her youth was how Kelly and her management team played down that important aspect of her age, the way she sported baggy outfits, dark sunglasses, and a swag of hair on one eye as she There was a neo-noir female fatale from 'Hood'. (Veronica Lake was a frequent reference point for critics describing her form and mysterious aura.) The public very much accepted it and played with it. Billboard's review of Age Ain't Nothing but a Number described her as an "urban teenage mermaid"; A review in the Washington Post placed her as a refreshing departure from other teen stars of the time because, unlike her, "she does not try to assume feelings she has never felt or the extent of her experience." take the material out of it" - meaning that Alia's image as a fully erotic woman (not a 15-year-old girl) with a "go all the way" experience was so strong at the time that it was normal and etched in stone. Went. When you leave the public's first impression in this business, there's apparently no point in holding back.
And so he didn't—instead, he continued to build that personality, leaving Kelly behind. If the one in a million largely avoids the trouble that lies at the core of the age of being nothing but a number, that's because Swengli wasn't involved, and Aaliyah was a bit older. Still, there is tension and growing sadness over the idea that the singer was forced to grow up too soon. The evolution from Age-Era Aaliyah to One in a Million-Era Aaliyah was not such a big leap stylistically; She was still being put to the fore and received as more experienced than her counterparts, and compared to Janet Jackson (who by then had completely transformed into her uber-sensual janet.-era). was coming to the surface. "It is still illegal to act on the idea of Aaliyah's sexuality", Dream Hampton wrote in her contemporary review of One in a Million, while noting that since her debut, the singer "encouraged Lolita fantasies". Was." (Hampton would later executive produce the Damming and Watershed documentary Surviving R. Kelly.)
In the video for the title track, his love interest is R&B singer Genuvine, who was almost a decade older than him; Years later, Timbaland, who was 23 when he first met 16-year-old Aaliyah, would admit in an interview that he was "in love" with her, and that she "fights" to control his attraction to her. Had to do (By all accounts, their friendship remained platonic and professional.)
Aaliyah's fame as a teenage female pop star had a different net—instead of dodging aggressive questions about whether or not she was a virgin or if she'd get a boob job, she married a much older man illegally. Questions about marriage were avoided, while some seemed upset by the fact that it was a question that had to be asked earlier. (Most interviewers, in fact, seemed to be headlined by it.) Neither scenario is healthy for a young girl, but at least in Aaliyah's case, the divide seems clear: To the public, white boyhood was "corruption." "Something for strong protection and defense from; Black innocence - black innocence - cannot even be understood. And while Black girlhood is not fathomed, it is not safe, as evidenced by the many accounts of young girls and women portrayed in Surviving R Kelly.
And yet, there is a narrative of the resilience that can be derived from One in a Million, which finds power in the singer's creative choices over her image and sound post-Kelly. He seemingly took the parts that felt most like himself—the air of mystery, the laid-back vibes—and reworked them to help pioneer a new path into pop and R&B. Her boldness seems less put-on and more natural, like the older teenager/budding young adult's thinking of the time, especially on serious tracks like "4 Page Letter". I love hearing it this way, because I remember what it was like to be 16, 17 years old, discovering my personality and attitude towards relationships.
In the last years of her life, she found more nuance to me at age 22 - on "Try Again", for example, she expresses her hesitation to start a new relationship, while trying her best to try a little more. Stimulates romantic interest. To earn his love and respect. The word that would follow her to the end—"mature"—still applies here, but this time how it's played and expanded with her vocal lyrical interpretations compared to her sexuality. She was growing up, even though she was treated like an adult in her childhood.
Aaliyah's tragedy is that there are so many "what ifs?" Which will remain unsolved forever. The upside is that, at least professionally, she has managed to persevere despite the many people and institutions that have failed her personally. His last albums deserve to be heard as such, and his legacy should be remembered as such.