Baby Girl

by Kathy Iandoli

  Her stunts weren’t over the top, but at least she did them herself, which included one scene where Jet Li’s character uses Aaliyah’s body to fight a female nemesis since he wouldn’t strike a woman. She high kicks and twirls against his body, while still somehow looking like she’s dancing. Aaliyah went through one month of training for the one action scene, since again she turned down a stunt double. The scene was rehearsed over and over until they were ready to shoot, which in and of itself took three days. Martial arts weren’t a foreign concept to Aaliyah, either. “I used to take [martial arts] when I was seven or eight,” she said in an interview during the film’s press junket. “It sparked my interest again.” The idea of turning the scene into a martial arts dance was Jet Li’s. “I am so glad I had the chance to work with Aaliyah,” Jet Li told HelloBeautiful in 2020. “She’s charming, beautiful; it was a great experience in my life.”

  Filming started in early May of 1999 in Vancouver. DMX was brought on when both Aaliyah and Joel Silver paid him a visit. “When I was on tour her and Joel Silver came to my dressing room to see if I wanted to be a part of the movie,” DMX told Billboard in 2011. “Most people would have their people call, but she came herself. I’m like, ‘Is this a trick question? You have to ask me if I want to be in a movie with Aaliyah? Hell yeah.’ ” He then met the cast and crew in Vancouver to start filming. He described her presence on-screen as “sexy but kind of gangster.”

  Scattered throughout the film are little winks to Aaliyah’s fans, only further proving that the film was really intended for her fan base. In one scene of the film, there’s a toy orangutan, which was actually a real-life gift to Aaliyah from her late grandmother Mintis that she carried with her. In the record-store scene, a Lil’ Kim Hard Core poster is in the window, along with a poorly placed poster of R. Kelly’s album R. There are also moments throughout the film where either Aaliyah is dancing to her own music at the club or, again, in the record-store scene her song is blaring through the speakers as Anthony Anderson’s character, Maurice, exclaims, “This is my shit right here!” He later goes on to look for Trish and refers to her as “your Aaliyah lookin’ ass.”

  The film did well globally. With a $25 million budget, Romeo Must Die made over $18 million the opening week of its release (March 22, 2000). Domestically it made $55,973,336 and internationally $35,063,424, raking in over $91 million in combined sales.

  Despite critics feeling that Aaliyah and Jet Li lacked significant romantic chemistry on the screen, Aaliyah’s performance was favorably reviewed. Elvis Mitchell of the New York Times wrote: “Romeo is a come-on, with cooing Hip-Hop songs popping up whenever Aaliyah, who’s a natural, glides across the screen.” Mitchell also predicted the success of the film, based upon that hip-hop element. “Dreary as it is, Romeo is bound to be a hit, thanks to its well-selected and wall-to-wall Hip-Hop soundtrack—particularly good songs by Timbaland and, yes, Aaliyah—that’s so pervasive Romeo might as well be a musical,” Mitchell continues.

  The Romeo Must Die soundtrack became a moment for hip-hop, due largely to the number of Aaliyah tracks on the project. It arguably served to sate fans as they anxiously waited for her third album to arrive. The soundtrack was released under Blackground and featured Timbaland, Magoo, Playa, Ginuwine, and other acts like Destiny’s Child, Joe, Mack 10, B.G. of the Hot Boys, and Chanté Moore, among others. Aaliyah’s songs helped propel the album up the charts, as it reached Number Three on the Billboard 200 and Number One on the US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. It also made its mark overseas, touching places like Australia, Austria, the UK, Switzerland, New Zealand, and Germany—all within Top 20 charting positions.

  Aaliyah brought some hits with her. She and DMX continued their creative momentum for the soundtrack on the song “Come Back in One Piece.” The track is a hip-hop love song, where Aaliyah lightly pleads with DMX to come back home safely (“in one piece”) when he’s done running the streets. They arguably have more romantic chemistry than her and Li in the song’s music video (directed by Little X), where Aaliyah went to DMX’s stomping grounds to film it. “We did the video in Mount Vernon and Yonkers. I got to bring Aaliyah to the hood,” DMX continued to Billboard. “Not many people can say that.”

  The international double A-side to “Come Back in One Piece” was the aforementioned “I Don’t Wanna,” which beat the DMX-assisted track, as it reached a charting position on Billboard at Number Five on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart (Number Thirty-Five on the Billboard Hot 100, Number Twenty-Two on the US Rhythmic). “Are You Feelin’ Me?” wasn’t released as a single, though it was later filed under Aaliyah’s deep cuts and also appears in a pivotal scene in the movie.

  And then, of course, came “Try Again.”

  The track at its core was designed for empowerment, as Static Major wanted to create an inspirational song. Where the hook says “dust yourself off and try again,” it originally said “you can be a fireman.” The track was about living out your dreams and making them come true. “You can do anything; that’s what he had written,” Jimmy Douglass remembers. “And then Barry was like ‘that’s kind of cool, but you gotta put some love in there, man. Otherwise it ain’t going anywhere.’ So Static restarted and changed it into ‘dust yourself off and try again.’ And then he made some of the metaphors about love instead. Get knocked down in love and just getting back up. And there’s a hit record.”

  Much like “Are You That Somebody?,” Aaliyah wasn’t in love with the song at first listen. But once she got into the studio and added her own subtleties to it, she became more used to it. The song was chosen as the lead single for the Romeo Must Die soundtrack, so Aaliyah was forcibly made to feel comfortable with whatever would happen with the song and wherever it would land. Little did she know….

  * * *

  “Try Again” catapulted Aaliyah to another level. It was more than just Timbaland’s little ode to Eric B. & Rakim’s “I Know You Got Soul,” where he opens the track with the line “It’s been a long time, we shouldn’t have left you…” over the hazy synths of the intoxicating beat. It was more than the transformative meaning behind the song—where what was once a cut listing all of the possible occupations you could become evolved into a melody about telling someone to “keep trying” if they really want you.

  It was Aaliyah, front and center, yet still remaining elusive.

  By this point she was a pro at tackling Timbaland’s beats, knowing when to fade in and to fade out, even when she was simply repeating the same lines over and over again until we all understood. “ ‘Try Again’ helped smuggle the innovative techniques of electronic dance music onto the American pop charts,” Kelefa Sanneh wrote for the New York Times, “and it established Aaliyah as pop music’s most futuristic star.”

  Years later, producers from all genres still seek to find that creative balance that Timbaland and Aaliyah struck on “Try Again.” Electronic producers are in search of ethereal female voices to glaze over their genius beats while allowing their sound to remain the star of the show. Likewise, singers actively seek out producers who will elevate their sounds by hugging their vocals with pleasant noises to make hits that are no longer their sole responsibility. In both of those regards, Aaliyah actually failed. She was never an accessory to the production; her star power was a force of nature. Even when she tried to let something other than her shine, it was nearly impossible. It was a humble glow, but a glow nonetheless; and while “Try Again” was once again a miracle within a soundtrack, it was yet another building block for what was to come for Aaliyah’s rise to the top.

  While the track made history in its sound, it also made history on the charts. “Try Again” was released on February 22, 2000, and by the week of March 18 it made its debut on the Billboard Hot 100 at Number Fifty-Eight. By the week of June 17, it reached the top of the chart, making it the first single to crack the Number One slot through radio airplay alone. It also reached Number One on the US Rhythmic chart, and made the Top 5 on the US Mainstream T
op 40 and the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. Globally, it reached the Top 5 across the UK charts (even getting to Number Two on the UK R&B chart) and Top 5 in Norway, Portugal, the Netherlands, Germany, Iceland, Denmark, Canada, and Belgium, as well as Top 10 and Top 20 across other territories. Danette Chavez of The A.V. Club said that the song “serves as a far better legacy for Aaliyah than the movie from which it sprang.”

  The music video was directed by Wayne Isham and is a combination of the futuristic vibes of the song mixed with re-created scenes from the movie, along with clips of some actual scenes. Jet Li makes a cameo in the video, shadowboxing through a hall of mirrors, with Timbaland in the cut mouthing lines and beatboxing against those same mirrors.

  And then there is Aaliyah.

  “I knew ‘Try Again’ was going to be a dance video, and she was going to wear one outfit for the entire thing,” Derek Lee recalled to Nylon. “So it had to be really strong, and really her.” The goal was to take her signature style of a bra top or midriff and baggy pants and completely elevate it. He chose to do that with a Dolce & Gabbana crystal bra top, complete with a matching choker and belt. Her pants were loose, but not sagging, with chains affixed to either side of her rotating hips. Her hair is pin straight and parted down the middle; her eye makeup is dark, shadowy, and dramatic. The look became so iconic that it was chosen as Aaliyah’s outfit for the 2019 unveiling of her wax figure at Madame Tussauds in Las Vegas. Celebrities like Kim Kardashian even replicated the look on Halloween in 2017. There are moments throughout the video where Aaliyah is dancing but also a part where she mimics a fight scene. Since she was already a master of wirework during the filming of the movie, she even climbs the side of a wall while guided by Jet Li in the music video.

  In September 2000, Aaliyah took home the MTV VMAs for Best Video from a Film and Best Female Video, beating out pop titans Britney Spears (for “Oops!… I Did It Again”) and Christina Aguilera (for “What a Girl Wants”), respectively. It was proof of the song and the video’s reach. To win against pop darlings showed Aaliyah had become one herself. She even flew twenty-two hours with her brother from Australia during her Queen of the Damned filming just to show up at the award show ceremony. It was well worth it. She was clad in her memorable Roberto Cavalli yellow-and-black zebra-striped dress, with a fur-fringed slit that revealed her one leg. Aaliyah was evolving in so many ways.

  While “Try Again” was a hit, it still served as a reminder that a singer was acting. That wouldn’t be for long, since her next role was geared to be the one that would allow Aaliyah to make the seamless move from music to film. “I wanna do films in the future where I don’t do any music,” she told MTV Europe Select in 2000, “and then I’d like to do it again.”

  CHAPTER NINE: TAKE IT PERSONAL

  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 gonna get someone who’s affable, who’s nice; but you’re not gonna get the whole picture of Aaliyah for a while.

  —Aaliyah, Teen People, 1999

  Aaliyah originally started working on the Aaliyah album in 1998, cutting some preliminary tracks in the studio. It was two years after One in a Million, so the timing was ideal. However, with Aaliyah’s growing film stardom, her long-awaited third album was put on pause to focus on her new career extension. Songs like “Are You That Somebody?” and “Try Again” clearly kept her afloat musically, so by 2000 the world was more than ready for her to get back into the studio and start working on her album again. By then, however, a few things had changed.

  In May 2000, the announcement was made that Aaliyah would be moving from Atlantic Records to Virgin Records. It wasn’t the most surprising move; the Romeo Must Die soundtrack was a joint release in March of that year through Blackground and Virgin, with co-financing through Warner Bros. Records (which is under the same umbrella as Atlantic). In two months’ time, news circulated that Aaliyah was “so impressed” with how Virgin handled the Romeo rollout that she decided to make the label her new home and pushed Blackground into pursuing a joint venture. By August 2000, the deal was finalized, for an estimated $15 million. In the deal announcement, HITS Daily Double also noted: “In addition to the $15 million, Blackground is also expected to receive new business cards and several lifetime subscriptions to AOL.”

  * * *

  Timbaland was mentioned in the release as dropping his project in February 2001, but that never happened. He dropped his collaborative follow-up, Indecent Proposal, with Magoo in November, three months after Aaliyah’s passing. A shift started happening. Business with Blackground was souring for everyone, primarily for Missy and Timbaland. When the time came to record Aaliyah’s third album, Timbaland and Missy weren’t going to be a part of it at all. The plan was for Aaliyah to record the project while she was filming Queen of the Damned, which involved the team heading out to Australia. With Missy and Timbaland seemingly removed from the equation, Aaliyah had begun forming a new circle through the static, pun fully intended.

  Enter, again, Static Major.

  Stephen “Static Major” Garrett was born in Louisville, Kentucky. Raised in the Church, he met his two friends named Jawaan “Smokey” Peacock and Benjamin “Digital Black” Bush in high school. They formed the group A Touch of Class in 1990. By ’91, Static had already dropped out of school but remained with the guys. Jodeci was on tour and had a stop in Louisville, and Smokey’s mother managed to get them backstage. They sang Jodeci’s song “Stay” for DeVanté while backstage, and DeVanté gave them his pager number. He also later renamed them Playa. After some time, Static started to get cabin fever within the confines of Louisville. He wanted out. Badly. So he reached out to DeVanté, who brought Playa out to New Jersey, where they first met Timbaland and Missy, along with Ginuwine and Magoo. They signed to Swing Mob shortly thereafter and were all holed up in the toxic upstate compound with everyone else. While there, Static helped Timbaland piece together Ginuwine’s “Pony” track, while simultaneously contributing to Jodeci’s album, like everyone else.

  Static had a gift that few singers, songwriters, and producers possessed. He was able to really emulate the artists he was working with. It was almost as if he wore them while making their music for them. When he helped write and produce “Pony,” he also sang on the song so similarly to Ginuwine that it was almost as if you had no idea where Ginuwine ended and Static began. He would later bring that superpower to other artists’ projects, most notably Lil Wayne’s Grammy Award–winning song “Lollipop” in 2008. That same year, while shooting the music video for “Lollipop” in Las Vegas, Static wasn’t feeling well. He flew back home to Louisville, leaving his flight in a wheelchair when they landed, and was later admitted to Baptist Hospital East. He was diagnosed with a disease called myasthenia gravis, which is an autoimmune disease that causes neuromuscular issues within the body’s skeletal system, igniting heightened levels of fatigue. It was recommended that he have a procedure done, where a catheter is inserted through either the neck or the arm to filter the blood, much like how kidney patients do with dialysis. The blood was supposed to be filtered of its autoantibodies, and when it was inserted Static said he immediately felt something was wrong. When the nurse attempted to remove the catheter from his neck, Static went into a state of respiratory distress, convulsed, and bled to death. He died on February 25, 2008, at the age of thirty-three. The rumored cause was an aneurysm, though his family suspected malpractice, given the success rate of this procedure in any other instance. Even his doctor said he was supposed to make a full recovery within a day. A year later, his wife, Avonti Garrett, sued the hospital, a case she later settled outside of court.

  His passing was another grim example of a real talent not being able to truly realize the depths of his gifts while on earth.

  Sparks flew when Static first met Aaliyah, in more ways than one, and while “Are You That Somebody?�
� was their cute secret love letter that turned into a giant billboard for the world to admire, Static still lived in Timbaland’s shadow when it came to really helping Aaliyah shape her sound. That was until Timbaland wasn’t there.

  Static Major was at the helm of Aaliyah’s third album. As he had already dated Aaliyah and remained her good friend, there was a different kind of chemistry happening. While Aaliyah and Static were about four years apart in age, it was an entirely different dynamic from her last creative relationship that turned personal. Aaliyah was of age, and the lyrics Static wrote for her were based more on building upon her growth than revealing some forbidden love. Her parents had made the move to start monitoring her lyrics now, so in the end they had the final say on a lot of what was created for Aaliyah. But in Static’s hands, they shared a commonality. Their creative intimacy allowed for the lyrics to be even more personal to Aaliyah.

  “He was able to write for her so well because he knew her language,” Static’s mother told Vibe.

  Their sessions were different from ones she’d had in the past. Here she would sit with Static and discuss her life and he would write to her thoughts. He didn’t have to improvise and imagine what she might be going through, nor did he create a world for her where she would come in and make it hers. She was telling him what her vision was, and in turn he was putting it all together with her, not for her.

  “It’s different from the last LPs because I’m older. I’m more mature,” Aaliyah said in her behind-the-scenes interview for the album. “I think that’s very evident on the album, so it really showcases Aaliyah and who she is right now.”

  Aaliyah also started working with other songwriters and producers, where Static was primarily the conduit, though it was still a Blackground experience. Durrell Babbs, better known as Blackground R&B singer Tank, came through to help write for the project, along with Static’s Playa partner Benjamin Bush, known as Digital Black. More Blackground producers joined in too, like “J. Dub” Walker and Stephen “Bud’da” Anderson. Rapture Stewart and Eric Seats (known collectively as Key Beats) had worked on the Romeo Must Die soundtrack and jumped in now for Aaliyah’s new project. Together they all joined forces to create a new iteration of Aaliyah and, through their collective efforts, a project that would not only solidify her stardom but also serve as the perfect accompaniment to her Hollywood takeover. The new team was ready to work, with Aaliyah as the boss.