Aaliyah will forever be remembered as "The Princess of R&B."
She was poised for a long and bright career, but then in 2001 she tragically died in a
plane crash at the age of 22.
Here's what the last 12 months of her life were like.
Aaliyah's popularity was growing at the turn of the twentieth century, as she translated
the momentum of her music career onto the silver screen.
In 2000, she made her acting debut alongside Jet Li in the action film Romeo Must Die.
She was praised for her performance, while her song from the movie, "Try Again," earned
her a Grammy nomination, won her two MTV Video Music Awards, and reached the top of the Billboard
Hot 100.
Transitioning into acting was something that Aaliyah had wanted for a very long time.
As she revealed in an interview with CBS,
"Since I was little, I started in singing, I did acting, I danced, I did plays.
In high school I took a bit of drama, but music was first."
Aaliyah was clearly excited about what her career had in store for her, but alas, her
untimely passing prematurely ended what could've otherwise been an incredibly fruitful onscreen
career.
One thing that made Aaliyah stand out was her unique sense of style.
To this day, her fashion prowess is an inspiration for anyone looking to channel effortless 90s-style
swagger.
One brand that will forever be associated with her is none other than Tommy Hilfiger,
which she modeled for on multiple occasions.
In fact, it was during one photoshoot that she met her best friend, Kidada Jones.
The two of them even had plans to embark on their own fashion label.
Kidada recalled to Fader in 2011,
"It was called Dolly Pop.
Right when she passed we were getting ready to sign our contracts for that.
We were making plans for this brand that was gonna be girly and cute and have Japanese
inspiration."
Right before Aaliyah's passing, her stylist Derek Lee was drawing influence from her Jamaican
heritage and finding ways to incorporate it into her music, which they did so while filming
the music video for "Rock The Boat."
In 2016, Lee reminisced to Vibe,
"She was down for whatever and plus being on an island you had lots of opportunities
to go in with this Jamaican stuff."
After getting a taste of the silver screen with Romeo Must Die, Aaliyah didn't wait very
long for her next big screen project.
She snagged the title role of Queen Akasha in the vampire flick Queen of the Damned,
which she began filming in late 2000 and spent five months in Australia for the shoot.
"So you were down in Australia for some time."
"Yeah, yeah."
"How'd you enjoy that?"
"I loved it.
It was beautiful.
The people were beautiful."
While talking about the movie with MTV, Aaliyah shared,
"It's a really cool film, it's fun, it's scary.
I'm the queen mother of all the vampires, the original bad girl.
It was a fun part to play."
When Aaliyah passed away in August 2001, Warner Bros., the studio behind the film, found itself
in a bit of a bind.
The release date was delayed multiple times.
As producer Jorge Saralegui noted at the time,
"What could we do with [the marketing campaign]?
Nothing but go forward and hope for the best.
Is it ghoulish?
It can certainly be seen that way.
It's certainly tragic and weird and upsetting to some people.
The main thing was that her family was comfortable with it."
Ultimately, the team behind Queen of the Damned pushed forward, as the film was finally released
into theaters on February 22, 2002.
Queen of the Damned didn't exactly light the box office on fire, but Aaliyah was nevertheless
on the path to becoming an even bigger movie star, as she had landed the part of Zee in
the sequels to The Matrix.
Filming began in March 2001, and she managed to shoot some of her scenes in May of that
year.
She was slated to return to Australia as production continued into 2002.
The character of Zee was supposed to be featured prominently in The Matrix Revolutions, the
third installment in the series.
But this never came to pass for Aaliyah before she passed away.
The role was ultimately filled by Nona Gaye.
A tribute video was produced in honor of the singer in which some of the cast and crew
remembered their friend.
Producer Grant Hill noted,
"It's just a very strong, very deep loss to everybody involved."
"You know, it's not something that you sort of switch gears quite so quickly."
Hill also noted that he believed it took a long time for the Wachowskis, who directed
the films, to absorb what had happened.
If Aaliyah had been able to complete her work on the Matrix sequels, her next step as a
pop culture icon would surely have been very interesting.
In 2016, Derek Lee speculated to Vibe,
"She was probably going towards film and TV really hard.
It was her next revolutionary step."
In July 2001, Aaliyah released her third and final album, which was preceded by the release
of the single "We Need a Resolution" in April of that year.
One of the creative forces behind that track was Timbaland, who co-wrote and produced it
in addition to being featured in the song and music video.
By this point, Timbaland and Aaliyah went back years with each other.
Back in 1996, he co-wrote and produced "If Your Girl Only Knew," which appeared on Aaliyah's
sophomore album One in a Million.
Missy Elliott, who wrote the song with Timbaland, recalled to Fader in 2011,
"[Aaliyah] was my little sister and Tim was my brother.
And we became the Supafriends!
We felt like we was gonna save the world.
We was gonna change music every chance that we got.
We felt like we was gonna always be family.
Forever."
In 2015, Timbaland spoke out about the depression he fell into after Aaliyah's death when he
appeared on The Meredith Vieira Show in 2015.
"It's not just the loss of the physical, but it's the feeling, like she was music, and
that's a part of me."
Timbaland also revealed that for a while after his friend's passing, he lost the motivation
to create any type of art.
He was ultimately able to pull himself out through the power of prayer, and nowadays,
he can feel her presence through his music.
Weeks before her death, Aaliyah was spending time with her boyfriend, Damon Dash, the co-founder
of Roc-A-Fella Records.
This meant that she was also hanging out with Jay-Z, one of the other founders of that label.
The three of them spent the warm summer months at the East Hampton, New York house that Jay-Z
shared with Dash.
It was actually Jay-Z who brought Aaliyah and Dash together, although it's possible
that the rapper also had feelings for the singer.
In 2015, Dash told Hip Hop Motivation,
"I was going at her, but Jay was going at her...Aaliyah was the type of girl that would
give you a shot.
She didn't care what people thought.
She'll date you...But you might end up in the friend zone."
Dash also covered this subject when he talked with Page Six in 2019, as he noted,
"[Jay-Z] tried very hard.
I did not mean to fall in love with Aaliyah, she was just that cool.
But you know, we were both going hard...everybody was trying to get to Aaliyah, it was not just
Jay."
Although Aaliyah reached the heights of fame, she knew how to keep her personal life separate
from her professional endeavors.
Nevertheless, a few weeks before her untimely death, she filmed Diary of Aaliyah, a half-hour
documentary for MTV that gave her fans an inside look into her life behind the scenes.
The special featured footage of her shopping, traveling to Paris, and conducting business,
such as walking the red carpet at award shows.
As the singer explained,
"This business is really 24-7.
It's a lot of glamour, it's a lot of work, and you can get lost."
Near the end of the documentary, Aaliyah mused,
"I can definitely say that I'm a truly happy young person.
There's so much more that I want to do in my career and I'm going to work hard to do
and to achieve."
She added,
"Everything is worth it.
The hard work, the times when you're tired.
The times when you're a bit sad.
In the end, it's all worth it."
Aaliyah's self-titled third album was released in July 2001, a month before the plane crash
that took her life.
It became her first top 10 album when it landed in the Billboard 200 at number 2, and, by
September, after her passing, it had shot to the very top of the charts.
The album received significant praise, and perhaps that had something to do with the
fact that Aaliyah herself served as an executive producer.
She brought in elements of R&B stylings and also made sure to showcase how much her voice
had matured.
In her MTV documentary, she noted,
"I really just feel this album is a reflection of me.
I feel it's the best work that I've done to date, so I'm hoping that people really feel
me on this one."
While Aaliyah never got the opportunity to see just how many people her music touched,
her legacy still lives on to this day.
Journalists have noted that her influence can be seen in various artists who have followed
in her steps, such as The Weeknd, Tinashe, and Rihanna.
One of the album's producers, Rapture Stewart, summarized Aaliyah's impact by noting,
"Say how Beyoncé is very innovative in her thinking, now to me that was Aaliyah...But
her lane opened up so wide because there was a void left from Aaliyah."
In August 2001 in the Bahamas, Aaliyah began shooting the video for "Rock the Boat."
It would be her final music video.
Filming at the tropical destination began on the 24th, with Aaliyah and her crew arriving
the day prior.
Her stylist Derek Lee noted on an episode of Behind the Music,
"Everything fell into place perfectly.
It was almost a dream."
The crew woke up fresh on the morning of the 25th, with production ahead of schedule by
4:00 PM.
They decided to wrap everything up a day early, with Aaliyah wanting to head back to reunite
with her family and boyfriend.
The finished video would ultimately end up being a beautiful send-off for the Princess
of R&B.
"Rock the Boat" producer Kevin Taylor described the video to NME as, quote, "very ethereal
and heavenly."
He also noted,
"There are lots of shots of water and clouds, and the video ends with Aaliyah swimming up
from the bottom of a pool, almost looking like she’s going into the clouds.
It's really beautiful.”
As bold as she may have seemed, Aaliyah did have one fear: flying.
In fact, she reportedly wasn't comfortable boarding the small plane that took her to
the "Rock the Boat" shoot in the Bahamas.
Damon Dash recalled the incident in 2016 during an appearance on The Real.
"Yeah, she was like, 'I don't like that plane,' And I was like, 'Don't get on it.'
And she was just like, 'You know, I gotta do it-' It was, you know, it was a complicated
situation, but she had to go do that video."
Despite the singer's misgivings, the trip to the dreamy destination went flawlessly.
On the afternoon of August 25th, Aaliyah and her crew had hoped to take the same 15-seat
plane back to Florida, but the charter company, Sky Limo, wasn't planning to pick them up
until the next day.
They ended up hiring Blackhawk International Airways instead.
As John Frank, executive director of the Cessna Pilots' Association, told CNN,
"Clearly the airplane was above its certificated gross weight when it took off, by several
hundred pounds at least."
The aircraft barely made it off of the runway, and then it crashed into a marsh shortly after
takeoff.
Six people, including Aaliyah, died instantly, while three others died later from the injuries
they sustained.
"Rock the Boat" director Hype Williams told MTV,
"Those four days were very beautiful for everyone.
We all worked together as a family.
I know there's a lot of pain involved, but that's all the more reason people would appreciate
what we've done as a group."