Aaliyah: A Deep Dive
A look into the life of singer Aaliyah
Having a look at Aaliyah, will be adding relevant information as I go.
Aaliyah 💀 2001 (22)
Born: Aaliyah Dana Haughton, January 16, 197, New York City, US
Died: August 25, 2001 (aged 22) Marsh Harbour, Abaco Islands, Bahamas
Cause of death: Airplane crash
Other names: Baby Girl
Occupations: Singer, actress, dancer, model
Years active: 1989–2001
Spouse: R. Kelly (m. 1994; ann. 1995)
Labels: Blackground, Jive, Atlantic, Virgin Records, Universal Music Group
Aaliyah is the younger child of Diane (née Hankerson) and Michael “Miguel” Haughton, a warehouse worker. When she was five years old, her family moved to Detroit, Michigan, where she was raised along with her older brother, Rashad.
In Detroit, her father began working in the warehouse business, one of his brother-in-law Barry Hankerson’s widening interests. Her mother stayed home and raised her and her brother. Aaliyah attended a Catholic school, Gesu Elementary.
Her uncle Hankerson was an entertainment lawyer who had been married to Gladys Knight. As a child, Aaliyah traveled with Knight and worked with an agent in New York City to audition for commercials and television programs, including Family Matters.
In 1989 at age ten she appeared on Star Search. She auditioned for several record labels and at age 11 appeared in concerts alongside Knight. After attending a Gladys Knight concert with music executive Suge Knight, and seeing Aaliyah perform on stage, rapper Tupac Shakur wanted to sign her to a record deal.
After Hankerson signed a distribution deal with Jive Records, he signed Aaliyah to his Blackground Records label at the age of 12. Hankerson later introduced her to recording artist and producer R. Kelly, who became Aaliyah’s mentor, as well as lead songwriter and producer of her first album, recorded when she was 14.
Aaliyah’s debut album, Age Ain’t Nothing but a Number, (👀) was released under her mononym “Aaliyah”, by Jive and Blackground Records on May 24, 1994
Christopher John Farley of Time magazine called the album a “beautifully restrained work”, noting that Aaliyah’s “girlish, breathy vocals rode calmly on R. Kelly’s rough beats. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic felt that the album had its “share of filler”, but described the singles as “slyly seductive.” (Creepy)
In February 1996, Aaliyah was featured on the Kris Kross single “Live and Die for Hip Hop”, which also featured Jermaine Dupri (the song’s producer) and rapper Da Brat. That year, Aaliyah left Jive Records and signed with Atlantic Records. She worked with record producers Timbaland and Missy Elliott, who contributed to her second studio album, One in a Million.
The same year, she began her acting career, playing herself in the police drama television series New York Undercover. During this time, Aaliyah participated in the Children’s Benefit Concert, a charity concert at the Beacon Theatre in New York. She also became the spokesperson for the Tommy Hilfiger Corporation. During her campaign with Tommy Hilfiger, the company sold over 2,400 pairs of the red, white and blue baggy jeans she wore in their advertisements.
She made her acting debut in the action film Romeo Must Die. The film marks Aaliyah’s only film that was released during her lifetime, before she was killed in a plane crash one year later
The film’s setting is Oakland, California, but other than a few establishing shots, film production was entirely in Vancouver, British Columbia. Principal photography began on May 3, 1999, and ended on July 23, 1999. Filming locations included Gastown, Grandview–Woodland, Vanier Park, Chinatown, Versatile Pacific Shipyards, and the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden.
Aaliyah began to work on her second film, Queen of the Damned. She played the role of an ancient vampire, Queen Akasha, which she described as a “manipulative, crazy, sexual being”
The album spawned the singles “We Need a Resolution”, “Rock the Boat”, and “More Than a Woman”.
August 25, 2001, at the age of 22, Aaliyah was killed in a plane crash along with eight other people on board, when the overloaded aircraft she was traveling in crashed shortly after takeoff. The pilot was later found to have traces of cocaine and alcohol in his body and was not qualified to fly the aircraft designated for the flight. Aaliyah’s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the aircraft’s operator, which was settled out of court. After her death, Aaliyah’s music has continued to achieve commercial success, aided by several posthumous releases, including the compilation albums I Care 4 U (2002) and Ultimate Aaliyah (2005). She has sold 8.1 million albums in the US and an estimated 24 to 32 million albums worldwide.
With the remaining crew left behind on the island, and too scared to get on a plane to return to the United States following Aaliyah’s crash, singer Lenny Kravitz, a personal friend of “Rock the Boat” choreographer Fatima Robinson, sent his private jet to collect her and the dancers.
Quincy Jones told the Associated Press that he was devastated by her death.
Gladys Knight said she felt “blessed” to have known Aaliyah and stated: “I watched her grow up, and, with the rest of the world, saw her achieve success with her special and unique talents.” She continued: “From an early age, I knew she had enormous talents, an intrinsic gift. When she first performed with me in Las Vegas, she was still quite young, but she already had it – that spark the world would later see and fall in love with.”
Destiny’s Child lead singer Beyoncé Knowles praised her good nature and stated: “She was one of the first celebrities we met, she was so nice, we went out, we hung out with her, and it’s really sad and we’re trying to be strong.” Lil’ Kim described the crash as “really devastating” and said she “could never find anything bad about her”
DMX called her “talented, classy, warm, beautiful, compassionate, humble.” Damon Dash said he was “crushed and heartbroken over the loss of such a beautiful and talented woman whom I loved deeply and meant the world to me”. Sean Combs remembered Aaliyah as “just one of those individuals that would light up a room”, adding: “She was very down to earth. She was a special individual... We all saw her grow up from a little girl into a woman. It’s a hard, sad day for everyone.” Ginuwine referred to her as family, said he would miss her and offered his condolences to her family, while speaking to the New York Daily News from Los Angeles. Brian McKnight complimented Aaliyah as being “really genuine and nice and not jaded about being a star”. Jill Scott said she felt numb over Aaliyah’s death given her age, talent and beauty and added, “It hurts, and it’s sad, and we’ll miss her.
On August 27, Troi Torain, a radio shock jock known professionally as “Star”, made a segment on New York radio station Hot 97 mocking Aaliyah’s death by playing a tape of a woman screaming while a crash was heard in the background. Rumors circulated that he was attacked by friends of Aaliyah, which he denied.
The other victims’ bodies were repatriated on August 29. A U.S. Embassy spokesman reported that Virgin Records America paid the cost of all mortuary services in the Bahamas, the return of the bodies to the U.S., as well as the funerals. Aaliyah’s family was staying at the Trump International Hotel in New York when her body was returned.
According to the findings of 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.
The coroner theorized that she went into such a state of shock that even if she had survived the crash, her recovery would have been nearly impossible. The bodies, some of them badly burned, were taken to the morgue at Princess Margaret Hospital in Nassau, where they remained until relatives made positive identification.
The accident was investigated by the Civil Aviation Department. It determined that the aircraft was over its maximum takeoff weight by more than 900 pounds (410 kg) and had one more passenger than it was certified to carry.
An informational report issued by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) stated, “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. It indicated that pilot Morales was not approved to fly the aircraft. Morales had falsely obtained his FAA license by showing logs of hundreds of flight hours he had never flown. He may also have falsified the number of hours he had flown to get the job with his employer, Blackhawk International Airways. Additionally, Morales’ toxicology report revealed traces of cocaine and alcohol in his system.
Aaliyah was signed to appear in several future films, including a romantic film titled Some Kind of Blue, and a Whitney Houston-produced remake of the 1976 film Sparkle. Houston recalled Aaliyah being “so enthusiastic” about the film; the project was shelved after she died. Before her death, Aaliyah filmed some scenes for the sequels of The Matrix as the character Zee. A portion of her role in The Matrix Reloaded was filmed; these unused scenes were included in the tribute section of the Matrix Ultimate Collection series.