What Made Aaliyah So Special Is More Complicated Than It Seems
It was such a pleasurable experience being able to finally listen to Aaliyah's One In A Million album from beginning to end this past weekend, her lilting vocals pouring smoothly through my Sonos speakers. This was a moment fans have been waiting on for years, as behind-the-scenes business wrangling has long kept the majority of her relatively small discography off most streaming platforms. And as of Aug. 20, just a few days ahead of the 20th anniversary of her death in a plane crash, it was finally here, her second studio album available to enjoy and rewind and skip ahead through and immerse one's self in, in all its sonic glory.
Her third and final studio album is set to arrive in the fall, and an equilibrium of sorts will have ultimately been restored. Because for far too long, only her first and most fraught album, Age Ain't Nothing But A Number, had been widely available, a fact that felt like a slap in the face to her legacy.
In death, as in life, Aaliyah has deserved better.
But what, exactly, does "better" entail? Especially within the, was penning songs for a 14-year-old to sing as a come-on to an older "lover." The music industry shouldn't have swept the revelation of Kelly's illegal marriage to Aaliyah when she was just 15 (or the that have arisen over the years) under the rug.
