{From Just 4 Aaliyah}
In my teenage years, you had two choices on who you could idolise. You could pick the blonde, brainless, faux-virginal pop princesses like Britney/Christina or you could choose the intelligent, sassy princess of R&B, Aaliyah. I feel I made the right choice, because Christina has lost faith her talented raw voice and resorted to drunkenness and auto-tune, and Britney is now a shell of her former self striving to regain her former glory. But Aaliyah will be forever timeless.
This was Aaliyah’s debut single, and the fashion in this video is truly dated and cringe-worthy. Exposed boxers and crop top with oversized denim and leather topped off with a bandana is not exactly the style she is well known for now. A lot of female rappers dressed like men in the 90’s, so she went for this unflattering look to blend into the rap scene. I also blame R Kelly’s influence as well, as he did try to mould her into his ideal of a R&B songstress.
This video was in the soundtrack of her first major film Romeo Must Die, a personal favourite of mine. The video is overloaded on rhinestones and leather with a substantial Asian influence. I believe this was the zenith of Aaliyah’s music career, at this point she had established herself as a fantastic singer and dancer and was on her way to becoming a big movie star. The clothes are more like costumes than outfits, so unless you want to look like a bikers mistress I wouldn’t attempt to recreate these looks. But I do think her dip-dye hair is cute as hell. And does anyone else love the Room of Mirrors scenes a la Enter the Dragon?
It’s rare to see a music video where the singer has more clothing on than the backup dancers. You can see there’s a lot of acid washed denim, all white outfits, with a few Caribbean-styled clothes thrown in for measure. Not really my style but the scenery and underwater shots are breathtakingly picturesque. Sadly this was her last video, as the plane she left The Bahamas in crashed with no survivors.
It’s been many years since Aaliyah’s death, but I still feel her influence on my life. I’ve adopted her sleek style and penchant for leather, bought some of the cheap memorabilia that was released as soon as she was put in the ground (all the profits went to charity though), I’ve even had my hair cut in a similar style to hers recently. Every now and then I play her songs and feel sad because she was inches from achieving her dreams when her life was cruelly stolen from her.
The name Aaliyah means ‘The highest, most exalted one, the best.’ And that she most certainly was.
