I can go on for days talking about how much I love Aaliyah. But for today, I just want to focus on her second album, One In A Million, produced by Timbaland and Missy Elliott (yep, when they were still a duo), because it is probably one of my favorite albums ever. My favorite Aaliyah songs all are on this album, and her fashion was my favorite at this time. For this album, she started her signature over-the-eye haircut and continued wearing her baggy clothes with sex appeal when the mid-90s R&B groups started dressing more girly. SWV, TLC, Xscape, etc. all sported the baggy clothes look but Aaliyah made it her signature style. One In A Million hit all the right spots with the classic slow jamz, but with a mysterious and fresh new sound of R&B producing. Missy Elliott is one of the best songwriters and Timbaland had a distinct sound in his productions that could never be duplicated. Aaliyah's soft but wide-ranged vocals and the well written/produced tracks of this album became an instant hit on the R&B charts. Either with her shades on or an over sized leather biker jumpsuit, we all knew it was Aaliyah, but still kept us wanting more from Aaliyah.
One thing I always admired most about Aaliyah was her dancing. Of course, we all remember the Try Again and Are You That Somebody videos and how it was all choreography, but most pop videos were all dancing anyway. But take it back to the mid-90s when she released videos for the singles off her album One In A Million- her dance moves were the shit. Her choreographer Fatima was the mind behind ALL of Aaliyah's choreography and she has a distinct way of matching the style of dancing with the music. My favorite Aaliyah song, video, and choreography would definitely have to be for the song One In A Million, which became the first and biggest hit from her second album of the same name. The choreography can be seen in the YouTube live performance of the song which I attached below. The choreography Aaliyah used during this time was all footwork, pop-n-lock, and male stripper moves (?) to slow R&B songs, but Aaliyah looks so much at ease singing her song live and smoothly bustin' her moves! (Click 'Read More' Link for videos)
Aaliyah performs One In A Million and nails the choreography on Showtime at the Apollo (God I miss that show! The original "America's Got Talent" if you ask me...)
Official video for One In A Million w/ Ginuwine (Notice Missy & Timbaland in the car Aaliyah is laying on - I wish they were still a production duo, and still chubby hehe)
Aaliyah performing 4 Page Letter (w/ live band) - another one of my all time favorite love songs, and great choreography too!
4 Page Letter Official video - a simple song about love letters but the melodies and beat make it so much more! Missy Elliott knows how to write a damn good slow jam... "Yo turn ma music up....up some more....up a little bit more..." CLASSIC!
I am sure there will be many more Aaliyah posts in the future.
R.I.P.
