what's up i'm aaliyah what's up i'm aaliyah what's up everybody it's aaliyah it means the highest
most exalted one the best it's islamic definitely want to achieve what my name is all about
you're a great singer what else do you do well of course i love to sing and i love to dance and
act and i love swimming i've been singing for so long when i was little i did a lot of school plays
i did a lot of performing around the michigan area and then at the age of nine i got into
it on a professional level i got agents in new york here um and then i did a lot of auditions
for record companies and my uncle barry hankerson who still manages um our kelly introduced us and
then i sang for him and that's how i got hooked up with our cat growing up for me everything was
based on entertainment i come from a family that's always been involved in this business
and i went to catholic school went to performing arts high school where i majored in dance but took
drama and music so um but i was always grounded my parents made sure i had everything that a child
has i went to parties i went to my prom i did all those sort of things so they kept me real when i
came home and then i went into my fantasy role when i went out and traveled and did videos and
all of that i had a great childhood twelve was when i got my deal my uncle got a joint venture
with john for his label and i auditioned for jive and he signed me and that's how i came out
especially in the nation so um i've seen hip-hop rnb the models have a special jazz
that sound can relate to a lot of people like if you fall in love with someone older or if
an older person falls in love with someone younger is really everyone can relate to it
not just one group of people and of course because we knew when i came out that age
would be you know the big thing an issue um well okay how we got that was it was one of
my favorite songs in the album so which is um one reason why we chose it for the title and
i do really believe that age nothing but a number a lot of people tell me that i'm
really mature for my age so i um you know i really believe in that so my parents always
tell me you don't act however old you are so you know i really do believe in it in some
instances in some instances ages or numbers but all around i really don't think it really matters
yeah well image is important i mean to differentiate yourself from the rest of
the pack so um and i've been very blessed to have creative control over every aspect of my career so
what you see is me everything i do is my choice so um i just stay true to myself and wear what i like
and if something is out there that's that's cool i'll take it and make it mine so i try my best
to continue to be a trendsetter well i've always bought heal figure ever since he first came out
because i always felt that it was me my image is the baggy pants little tube tops and i've always
loved tommy so it's great for me to model his clothes because i really feel comfortable in it
i watch a lot of the fashion shows a lot of the runway models and see what's the next
thing happening and then intertwine that with what i'm doing image goes hand in hand with the music
and that's how people identify you you know they separate you knowing your music and knowing your
style and your image so that's why it takes me a while to put things together especially if i'm
doing a dressy thing rather than a sporty thing because what you see here is really me the baggy
jeans and skull caps and everything so when i'm when i'm doing a dressy thing i've got to still
remain in my image so it takes me a while to put something really good together that still looks
like alia the alia look the alia hair um it's very simple i'm very protective of my hair uh
i don't really know exactly what to say you know i get it washed pressed you know blow dry press
flat iron my favorite outfit would be i love black so uh i have this really cute black tank top that
rips in it across the chest so it's you i'm covered but it's still a little sexy so you show a
little bit of skin and it's cut on the stomach as well and my nice low rying hip hugger jeans patina
liano jeans my big black chunky belt and stiletto uh sergio rossi boots pointed black simple that's
my favorite outfit love jewelry i'm a girl of course i love jewelry i like simple jewelry though
um sometimes i like a little bit of ice like so this was a birthday gift from a friend and this
ring right here my grandmother gave me and never take it off won't come off until i get married
and other than that i like fun jewelry like this this is one of my favorites charm bracelet um you
can change the charms and i wear my best friends her name is says dada and she wears mine says lee
his another nickname is my friend just lee and uh everything represents her
i met rob through my own manager barry henkerson because he's also robert's manager
and i met him right before his first album came out that's how we hooked up well
i don't know if it was a particular thing it's just that when we met we kind of clicked you
know we had like a certain vibe between us it was something special and we've been pretty close ever
since so really it's just it was just a certain thing i guess that happened when we met each other
it was it was it was a good experience it was fun watching him put songs together from
scratch taught me a lot so hopefully i could be able to produce another in
collaboration with him of course so he's been a great influencer
well no we're not related at all no we're not we're just very close he's my best friend
rob is great to work with because really it's not like we work because we're like really close
so it's like just fun really we just hang out sing i don't ever remember working yeah it's
just like fun they were saying all kinds of things about oh early is married right i just
say well you know i i say no but no really i want to let everybody know that it's not true
i'm alia nadalia kelly and it's just no it's not true but i think you know hey this comes with
the territory when you're in this business people are going to talk so i just ignore it three years
ago there was this terrible room around what is the deal with you and aaron kelly are you all
married or not no i'm not married um robert's doing his thing i'm doing my thing he's a great
producer great artist who i do admire and um there's there's nothing nothing there at all
you're not working with r kelly this time was that a conscious decision or was it just circumstantial
that was a decision i made um i thought it would be best for my career and me personally
to move on and uh really take control of this album um like i said earlier to really
show my color so that was a decision that management and myself made i was wondering if
if your decision was also based on any of the the personal the personal side of things honestly
there were negative things that were said in the past
and that was one reason why i did feel it was best for me to move on that was a rough period
for me and my family very tumultuous time and um but i'm a very strong person i think it says a
lot about me that i'm here today and i answer the questions so um like i said it was hard for us to
get through but we did it and uh thanks to the lord and a lot of my fans i'd love to thank for
supporting me and uh that's why you know i said you know it's best for me to go ahead and move on
this album
is it shows the growth of the past two years i'm 17 now so i've grown in a lot of ways and
this album shows that it shows my vocal i think it shows all my vocal range i took a lot of risks
on the album i tried different things and that's that's that's the main change from
the from the two elements when one million was released i just turned 17 and i wanted to take
a step up from the first album show my growth had a little bit more sex appeal but it was still me
this is something that i've wanted since i was very young of course singing first first priority
but since i was a little girl i always danced and acted and things of that sort so once i got
my foot once i got established in music was when i said you know then i'm going to make the step in
the acting i want to do it the right way i wanted to train and make sure i was ready for it and
then this project came along and i felt this was it go for it so successful as a musician as a
singer why would you want to be an actress well something i always did i performed since i was
very very little singing dancing acting and i always wanted to take the step into another genre
i took my time i waited i studied and it's something that i've always loved i want to be
known as a full-on entertainer you know and be able to double and dab a little bit of everything
so this is this is a great step for me i love music with my heart and i love acting as well
there's some similarities but yet there are a lot of differences as well and i like
doing both and with that can i get to explore a different side of myself it can be very cathartic
in a lot of ways and same with music so i don't want to abandon one for the other i want to try
to do both as long as i can i definitely have to say um my mother really both of my parents because
they they helped me in this career they helped me get you know get started they got me vocal lessons
and anything i wanted to do in terms of music they encouraged me so i really consider them to be my
role models this is something alia has always wanted to do oh very proud of her you know she
wouldn't have to do this for me to be proud of her but this just adds to it you know i'm proud
of everything she does she's a beautiful lovely young woman thank you mom thank you very much
i have to say my mother she sings and she noticed my talent when i was four i would hum
i would come with her a lot around around the house and she noticed i could carry a
tune and all the people she listened to all the artists she was into i listened to when i went
on star search i sang my funny valentine which was a song she's saying in a play
she taught it to me and that was what i performed a lot so she is plays a major part in that it
seems you have a great support system and your dad travels with you and your brother
my family's with me most of the time my manager is my uncle so you know he's been in the business
for a while so having him you know helped a lot and getting a lot of things done because he had
a lot of connections well you have to grow up quickly in this business because you have to
you know know when no not to go somewhere no one to go back to the hotel or whatever
but you know my mom travels with me a lot and my dad and my brother so having them around helped
me a lot and having my uncle you're an artist also black black round wreck this big shout out
to them which is actually a cousin and your uncle so how does that feel to work for a family is it
pressure or is it easier it's the best i wouldn't have it any other way they love me
i know they have my best interest at heart and we are very good at separating business and families
yes he's in all three videos so you know you should recognize creeping around the videos
my brother's cool he was in the video that part you know sitting on the basketball side so y'all
wanna know that's my brother love him dearly my brother and i will probably get one song on this
album we're trying that out experimenting a little bit with that so maybe there'll be one maybe two
songs on the album that me and my brother we work together on that i'm a homebody stay home
i'm very close to my brother um with a very tight family unit so we all love to go to the movies
just kick it rent videos video games but i'm a simple girl so what is the right guy for aaliyah
i'm someone who's going to be very understanding because my career is important to me that's number
one um someone would make me laugh that's so important i love to laugh so be funny intelligent
no he wants out of life yeah simple things now as far as my personal life is concerned i
don't really discuss it and the reason i don't is because when you become a public figure your life
really belongs to people it belongs to the public and that's fine that comes with the territory but
there's some things you have to hold on and keep for yourself and that part of my life
is definitely for me so i don't discuss my relationship status i'm a very mysterious person
and when you first meet me i don't really think you know where i'm coming from it takes a while
to get to know me i think it's because i take my time to get to know people you're going to get
someone who's affable who's nice but you're not going to get the whole picture of alia for a while
we're very close we have a wonderful friendship outside of the work relationship
and um we just click and he knows me like the back of his hand and i know him like the back
of my hand so it's like i think that's why the work comes out so great he knows that um
i'm gonna try things that other people probably wouldn't try i'm a risk taker and i'm always for
staying on the cutting edge and he's an innovator so if he has like the craziest sickest track he
knows he can give it to me and i'm going to go for it so we have a lot of fun together it's a
very tight-knit family missy play tim and all of us tipliner you work together a lot and you all
seem to have a great chemistry what's it like in a studio like how do you all collaborate in the
studio it really is magic ever since tim and i met we just clicked so when we go into the studio he's
playing the track i'm telling him what i'm feeling and it just evolves from there you know static did
a lot of writing on the album and we all get into the album we get to the studio i should say we uh
we just vibe you know and it just happens and that's the best way to do it you know statical
going layer reference let me hear it i may tell them what i want to change and that's just how
it comes together it's just amazing chemistry i didn't really think i was the queen of soundtracks
i didn't even realize that i've done a lot until just recently when someone named them off to me um
i've done during to the past that was a really great soundtrack for me because i got a chance
to see the movie before i did it and i like animated features so i was excited about that
one and also because that song went to the oscars that definitely meant a lot dr doolittle was very
important because it was a highlight in my career was one of the biggest songs of 98 for me and
it was just a great video great song you know i love eddie murphy so i wanted to do a song
on the soundtrack and that song just it really shocked me i when i first recorded it i felt it
was a hit i loved it but i didn't know it was going to do what it did so to have it
become a grammy nominated song with such a great video that was one of the most played videos on
mtv it was just it's great it was a highlight of my career definitely anastasia was cool my
company at the time brought it to me told me about it i got to screen it and i loved it i
love animated movies and um geros did that song and at the time i hadn't even thought
that his possibility this could go to the oscars so when i got that call at 5 30 in the morning
like you're gonna be on the oscars oh i can't tell you it was amazing it was great yourself
there's some songs you're gonna be reading yes there's gonna be some songs that will be
affiliated with the movie and we've got a lot of great ideas
i was 17 and one in a million so i was still in the team category and now i'm a young adult i
think it's an amazing album a lot of upbeat songs very edgy very grown so the main difference is
that you feel that i've grown and i know that said a lot but it really is evident when you hear this
album you feel alia as an adult as a young adult i have time before i need to take a vacation right
now i want to work the album i want to do my work for the matrix i want to tour so there's
a lot that i want to do work-wise i'm a bit of a workaholic so when i get too tired and i'm
i'm down and i'm out i'll say look i need a vacation but i'll be from
i don't know you know right now it's hard to say what i want my legacy to be you know what i want
people to say when i'm long gone at this point right now i'm gonna say that i want people to
see me as an entertainer someone who can do it all that's how i was trained my parents
you know they grew up loving the people of the classic movies you know you're sammy davis juniors
you know all those all those people fred astaire and those kind of artists that could do it all you
know you had to be able to do it all and that's how i was trained and i want people to look at
me as a full-on entertainer and a good person so you know we'll talk a few years down the line and
we'll see where my head is at then but that's what i want for right now i have to honestly say that
everything is worth it the hard work the times when you're tired the times when you're a bit sad
the the good moments when you're on stage performing in front of thousands of people
in the end it's all worth it because it really makes me happy
and i wouldn't trade it for anything else in the world i honestly wouldn't there's nothing better
than loving what you do i've got good friends i've got beautiful family and i've got a career
a career that's blossoming and still growing
and i am truly blessed and i thank god for his blessings every single chance i get