No one truly knew Aaliyah Dana Houghton. Just 22 years old, she’d already lived a life most veteran entertainers would envy, but extreme public exposure at a young age made her a reclusive, personal figure. When I interviewed her this spring, it was a brief, platitudinous conversation. She was friendly (we should all have the pleasure of answering the phone and hearing " This is Aaliyah " coming from the other end) and forthcoming, but she made it clear her life belonged to no one but herself.
And could you blame her? Aaliyah was a teen star, thanks to 1994’s Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number. Decked in baggy clothes and a ski cap, she was a truly bad creation, mixing street appeal with professional training to compelling effect. Her songs were written and produced largely by R. Kelly, who’d made a name for himself as a musical provocateur — an image that was only enhanced by the rumors of his marriage to her.
Such attention put Aaliyah on the defensive. By the time of her 1996 follow-up, One in a Million, she’d replaced Kelly with soon-to-be-superproducer Timbaland. That’s when her storied inaccessibility began as well. Although her songs were littered with narratives of betrayal and hurt, Aaliyah pled the Fifth. After all, she never penned her own material. " I don’t know if I’ll ever really write a song, " she told me. " I try to pull from my own experiences in my life to put the passion and feeling in my music, but I can’t say that anything comes from a personal experience. "
Nevertheless, her torch songs resonated with audiences of all stripes. Unmistakably urban, these numbers slid into pop radio with their silky melodies and shimmying rhythms. And the poised and stunningly beautiful Aaliyah made a great pop star. Earlier this year, she flew her entire production team to Australia so she could complete Aaliyah (which was released in July) while filming her part in the film adaptation of Anne Rice’s The Queen of the Damned.
When I asked her about her precocity, she was typically humble, yet confident: " I’ve never really had that much of a problem with getting respect. I’ve always been blessed to have just that. It’s how you carry yourself. I’ve always been a very mature person and I’ve always known what I wanted, and I go after it no matter what. " This ambition and focus served her well in the cannibalistic music and film industries, which have been known to swallow whole those with less determination.
Yet it may have been the excesses of the music business that led to her untimely passing on Saturday. Reports from the Abaco Island airport where the Cessna 402 crashed indicate that the pilot complained about excess baggage, being fearful that the plane would be too heavy for takeoff, and that the passengers insisted on bringing it all on the tiny plane anyway. Departing for Opa-Locka Airport, in the Miami area, at around 6:50 p.m., the Cessna crashed seconds later. Engine failure is believed to be the cause; the crash site was just 75 yards beyond the end of the runway, indicating that the plane barely made it off the ground.
Aaliyah had been in the Bahamas filming a music video for the next single from Aaliyah (believed to be " Rock the Boat " ). The video was being directed by famed video stylist Hype Williams; both he and Aaliyah’s dance troupe were scheduled for later flights.
Like Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur before her, Aaliyah was cut down in her prime. Whereas the two rappers were victims of gunplay, she seems to have been be a victim of fate. Over time, she may well be looked back on as urban music’s Ritchie Valens, a performer who was on the cusp of professional greatness, personal grace, and true international fame. Of all her contemporaries, Aaliyah had seemed the most immune to the vagaries of her trade, the one who figured to outlive her time in the industry. As she told me, " This is my life and I want to have longevity. It’s important to take breaks, to be out there and be seen without getting to overload, but I’ll always have something more for this life. " Indeed, this life will seem hollow without Aaliyah’s dazzling presence. And among the many sorrows of this tragedy, the most devastating may be that the true genius and beauty behind her powerful public persona will remain forever a mystery.
