The first step was to create enough tracks Stateside to bring overseas. Static wanted to make sure that they didn’t reach the new continent empty-handed, so a month prior to heading over to Australia the newly assembled team gathered in Sony Studios in New York and got started. “On that particular album, we collectively just wanted to make the best possible album that we could,” Rapture told website YouKnowIGotSoul in 2011. “It was really like a family type of thing, there wasn’t any hostility recording that album, and that’s why the album came out the way it did. No one was competing to try to outproduce somebody else.” There was also the idea that everyone was valuable and a vital piece to the puzzle. “Everybody had their own style to bring to the table,” he continued, “so that made it a collective effort from everybody because we knew each person was going to bring fire to the project, so it wasn’t even an issue.”
The only real competition was ensuring that each producer and songwriter was represented, since they were working with limited real estate. It was only one album, but for everyone involved it was a chance to really shine. Aaliyah had market value that some hadn’t experienced before; being a part of the project really meant something, and everyone there knew it.
With the work they had previously done in New York City, a blueprint was laid so that Aaliyah could easily record once she got to Australia. “And so when we got there, it was like, okay, she can film the movie during the day and we would go to the lab at night,” manager Tim Barnett remembers. “And so we all stayed in the Como [Melbourne] hotel right there on Chapel Street. And it was crazy too, because she had just signed that new deal with Virgin. She was doing the Matrix movies, and then she had did Romeo Must Die, she was doing Queen of the Damned.” A lot was going on. Chapel Street is the Australian equivalent to Melrose or Rodeo Drive. “Our money was worth double over there anyway,” Barnett says, “and we’re over there on Aaliyah’s budget!” The team stayed over the course of a few months, had room service three times a day, and even took in some nightlife while creating what some consider to be Aaliyah’s magnum opus. They recorded in Melbourne’s Sing Sing Studios, which was within walking distance of their hotel.
“It just really gave Static more reign,” Barnett adds, though he made it clear that Aaliyah was the leader. Even when she would defer to Static, he would push her back into the lead. “It was so dope just watching the chemistry that those two had,” Barnett continues. “And watching Static produce her vocals and say, ‘Oh, nah, nah, nah, you should do it like this,’ or, ‘Try it like this.’ Static really pushed her to make it her record. Make it Aaliyah’s record.” The team was comprised of songwriters and producers would move from room to room throughout the studio, bouncing ideas off one another. It was almost a replication of what Static experienced with Swing Mob and Da Bassment, only here there was far less competition, much more camaraderie, and the end result was to make sure that Aaliyah had the greatest masterpiece possible. “To be honest, it was surreal,” Bud’da also told YouKnowIGotSoul in 2011. “We got to bond on different levels because we were in another country and you guys are all you got.” Aaliyah was on a rigorous schedule where she was filming, then recording, and taking some time here and there to decompress, but really she saw the finish line in front of her. There was an album and a movie to be made and she was going to do both concurrently, and they would both be game changing. With the album in particular, she already knew that she was holding all of the cards in making this project her most personal one yet.
It’s the reason why she chose to name the album Aaliyah, because for the first time she really felt like this album was specifically about her and for her. Much like the meaning of her name (“The highest, most exalted one. The best.”), she wanted the album to be held in the highest regard. “I wanted the name to really carry the project,” Aaliyah continued in her behind-the-scenes interview. Static left Australia in November, and Aaliyah stayed with some of the other team to finish up; Barnett made sure she stuck to the studio routine that she and Static had created during her movie filming. They returned Stateside around Christmas Eve.
A few of the tracks were in the running to be the first single. “Loose Rap” (featuring Static) was one of them, and what became her final single was also in the lead for the first. “A lot of us was like ‘Rock the Boat’ could have been it,” Barnett remembers. “ ‘Rock the Boat’ could have been the first one.” There were a few reasons why it wasn’t. For one, the suggestive nature of the song didn’t sit right with the label as Aaliyah’s first single, coming back out after a lengthy hiatus. Granted, she was grown, but starting right out of the gate with very vivid wordplay about sex through lines like “work the middle” just didn’t seem like the best course of action for her triumphant return. Second, Barry was adamant that the first single be Timbaland’s, regardless of their current situation. Third, this would be the third time in a row that Aaliyah had a total team switch on her project if Timbaland was nowhere to be found. That wasn’t a part of Aaliyah’s brand, where she would purposely use an entirely different team with every album, since they publicly preached about their sense of community. Moving into the second project, it was obvious why she needed a new environment, but for the third project it would look suspicious, indicative either of problems at Blackground (which was true) or that Aaliyah was difficult to work with (which wasn’t true). Timbaland had to be a part of it somehow, to save face, for Aaliyah’s sake.
While Timbaland was still reluctant to get involved with the third album, Aaliyah was the one to convince him to do it. Out of love for her (and not allegiance to her uncle) he finally agreed to have a part in the project. “Right after the New Year, we flew to New York and we did ‘We Need a Resolution’ with Timbaland,” Barnett says. “We did ‘More than a Woman’ with Timbaland, and we did ‘Don’t Know What to Tell Ya.’ We did those three joints because Barry and them wanted Tim to have the single. You know how it goes in the industry.” They reconvened at the beginning of 2001 at the studio in New York City’s Manhattan Center to bring Timbaland back into the fold. However, things had drastically changed. All of her trust was now placed in Static Major. “We’d be in the studio, me and Aaliyah, and she would listen to me,” Jimmy Douglass remembers. “Like, you know, it’s kind of producing the vocals that are already down, but I’m producing how it should work, right? And how it should sound, doing whatever we need to do.” Things changed this last go-round. “When we get to this last moment, she suddenly doesn’t have the confidence in me to want to do that anymore,” he says. “And I felt it. And I felt a little bit, not slighted, but I was like, ‘Whoa, what’s going on here? Like it’s just me and you.’ No. Static had to come. And he had to sit there and do what I normally do with her, which is direct her.” Timbaland only produced his own tracks and wrote his rap on “We Need a Resolution”; Static wrote Aaliyah’s part. The last Timbaland contribution also included Missy by proxy. It was “I Care 4 U,” a song that wasn’t new but reworked for the project. At first it was in consideration for One in a Million, but then they decided against it.
“That song we actually had about two years before with some young kids that Barry Hankerson had signed to his label Blackground, and it never happened,” Douglass adds. “They never got released or whatever, but that track Missy had written.” The song was a perfect ballad for the Aaliyah project, since it needed one. So the beat was flipped and parts resung to be retrofitted for the album, becoming one of its strongest ballads, where Aaliyah is professing her love to someone emphatically, yet impressively still maintains her swagger.
Before Timbaland agreed to come on board, “Loose Rap” was going to be released as the first single, but then the decision was finalized for “We Need a Resolution” to be the official single.
I’m tired of arguin’, girl.
Timbaland repeats that line over and over in the opening of “We Need a Resolution.” The production uses a woozy Middle Eastern–style sample borrowed from John Ottman’s “Tricks o
f the Trade.” Art imitates life in the song, as the lyrics from both Timbaland and Aaliyah reflect a very obvious argument—which, like Timbaland says, they’re tired of. It becomes a volleying of bars: Aaliyah coyly asks if he slept on the wrong side of the bed, because she’s catching a bad vibe from him and is urging him to speak up. Meanwhile, Timbaland has had enough of the back-and-forth. Sure, the song was packaged as a lovers’ quarrel, but really it was them saying to each other “we need a resolution.” It was money; it was egos; it was fame. It was also Blackground, and Aaliyah was caught in the cross hairs of that war, as both an artist, part-owner, and family member.
But even through the storm, they worked together for one more go-round and made some hits.
In addition to “We Need a Resolution,” Timbaland produced bonus track “Don’t Know What to Tell Ya,” where he also utilizes a Middle Eastern–style sample (this time from “Batwanness Beek” from Algerian singer Warda Al-Jazairia). The song talks of Aaliyah refusing to be tied down by a controlling relationship, as she compares it to incarceration. The final Timbaland offering is the potent “More than a Woman,” which became Aaliyah’s battle cry even after her passing. Again, he uses a Middle Eastern sample, from Syrian artist Mayada El Hennawy’s song titled “Alouli Ansa.” That Middle Eastern sampling continued to appear in Timbaland’s catalog. He added a heavy Punjabi bhangra sound for Missy’s “Get Ur Freak On” in 2001 and collaborated with Indian hip-hop artist Rajé Shwari for his Under Construction II track “Indian Flute” with Magoo in 2003. Other artists followed suit with that new avenue for sampling. Even with their final collaborations, Timbaland and Aaliyah changed the game one last time.
Timbaland’s contributions to the Aaliyah project were important, and when placed alongside the rest of the work it made a well-rounded album. The crux of the project was changing Aaliyah’s narrative. For so much of her album work, there was a younger, flirtier vibe to her songs. The love songs were more about longing (and sometimes secrecy) than actually having a real relationship. With Aaliyah it was different. She was discussing themes that can happen in actual relationships outside the fantasy of it all, and working with a team who bonded so tightly after their trip to Australia made it all the more personal for everyone involved.
The aforementioned “Loose Rap” was futuristic meets melodic, as Aaliyah pushes back on her man offering lip service. Some even took it as a diss track against her haters. The same fluid style of Key Beats’ production also appears on the erotic “Rock the Boat,” “It’s Whatever,” and “Those Were the Days.” They adapted to a Timbaland style of production on tracks like “Extra Smooth,” “U Got Nerve,” and the hidden track “Messed Up.” Bud’da gave her the ballad “Never No More” and “Read between the Lines,” while pushing her to her creative limits on the electro-rock-inspired “I Can Be,” where she’s accepting the position of being the other woman. J. Dub brought a similar vibe on “What If,” while bringing another mid-tempo ballad on “I Refuse.” Aaliyah was like a chameleon; she became every track on the album. As a huge Nine Inch Nails fan, she wanted to show she had a rock edge. She and Trent Reznor even talked about working together. Aaliyah would have been the perfect kickoff for that new sound.
The album was a combination of romantic and explorative, where the lyrics noticeably matured, yet Aaliyah sang them like they were autobiographical. The music was equally a part of her. It felt like, for perhaps the first time, this was a project specifically made for her. Yes, on her first and second works she did what it was that she’s the best at doing: interpretation. Aaliyah could take a piece of music and immediately make it her own. Here it felt like the music was her own from the start, and in turn she made it ours.
The packaging of the album—from the liner notes to the physical CD—was red, so it became known as “The Red Album.” The ultimate goal with the Red Album was to bring Aaliyah to the next level of her life. It was a coming-of-age project, as she was now an adult experiencing adult things at an adult’s pace.
Reviews for the album recognized that there was a shift in Aaliyah’s sound. “Aaliyah provides a missing link between hip-hop and electronica,” journalist Sal Cinquemani writes in his review for Slant Magazine. “Following in the footsteps of some of today’s biggest icons, Aaliyah has learned how to align herself with A-list producers without losing her individuality and, instead, makes the sound her own.” BBC writer Daryl Easlea wrote: “Aaliyah is a fascinating work; it shows a 22-year-old artist truly finding her direction, delivering well-tailored material with élan.” The review from The A.V. Club recognized that she was escaping the shadow of her mentors, finally. “A show-business veteran at 22, Aaliyah has often been overshadowed by her collaborators,” writes Nathan Rabin, “but her strikingly assured third album establishes the young overachiever as a major artist in her own right.” The project was widely regarded as experimental, showing how Aaliyah was tinkering with new sounds and styles and formulating a whole new blueprint for herself. In the wake of her passing, it became more of an unfortunate example of unrealized potential, where Aaliyah was just warming up for a bright future ahead of her.
But there was something far greater to glean from the Aaliyah project. Through every album, Aaliyah’s songwriters and producers were regarded as the geniuses who helped define her sound, yet through three projects she worked with predominantly three different teams. The only true constant was Aaliyah, and her eponymous project solidified that reality for everyone.
It was Aaliyah who was the genius all along. She was the thread, woven through the projects, bringing the fabric of the work to life. It was more than just having the right people in her corner, writing her songs and producing her beats. The magic of her touching that music was what captivated the audience. These weren’t songs that could have been handed off to just anyone. No, it was Aaliyah’s ability to take a song and run with it. She accomplished that with her first project and her second, and it was finally understood that she was the true star of the show with her last.
The positioning of the album alongside its peers was something to behold, mainly through the progression of Aaliyah’s influence over other artists. In 2001, we witnessed an influx of R&B and hip-hop-leaning albums from both new and established acts. Mary J. Blige delivered No More Drama, as Jennifer Lopez was on her second album, the more rap-infused J.Lo. Alicia Keys made her big debut with Songs in A Minor, as well. There were countless “comeback” albums in the mix too, yet where Aaliyah was positioned marked both a cause and an effect of sorts. So many artists by 2001 had borrowed notes from the Aaliyah playbook over the course of her career—either by incorporating dancier more electronic blips into their interpretations of R&B or through female artists fully embracing a tomboy-chic style as they sang their songs. There was also a fusion with hip-hop that Aaliyah perfected through her work with Timbaland and Missy, where you didn’t necessarily need a rap feature, but you could immediately tell the essence of the song had strong hip-hop roots.
The Red Album posthumously took home several awards. In 2002, Aaliyah won Favorite Soul/R&B Female Artist and Favorite Soul/R&B Album at the American Music Awards. A year later, she won Favorite Soul/R&B Female Artist again. In 2003, she also won Top R&B/Hip-Hop Artist, Female at the Billboard-AURN R&B/Hip-Hop Awards. She also won a MOBO Award, an NAACP Image Award, an NME Award, a Soul Train Award, and two Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards. She was also nominated for three Grammys.
Most of the album’s visuals were unfortunately rolled out posthumously save for the first single. “We Need a Resolution” is sectioned off into parts, where in some scenes Aaliyah is spacey and futuristic and in some parts she’s even levitating. In others she’s keeping it street, and of course there are the unforgettable scenes where she is wrapped in a python, a testament to her love of snakes. “We wanted an exclusive peek into her life, so the idea there was to create a sense that every room, every scenario, that you’re looking at something that only certain people can see,” director Paul Hunter
told Vibe in 2016. “It’s almost like if you’ve ever seen a celebrity in the airport, they’re going into a first-class lounge, or they’re going into a private hallway; they sort of slip past you. The idea was to have this experience where we create these rooms that felt like they were exclusive.” Timbaland is in the scenes where he’s rhyming and ad-libbing, though he and Aaliyah never share any camera time. Her makeup was dark and commanding, like she was already winning the argument with her face. “The whole look we did for the ‘We Need a Resolution’ video came from stuff that I saw on the runway from Alexander McQueen and John Galliano,” Eric Ferrell told Vibe in 2016. “Every idea I brought to [Aaliyah], she was like, ‘Well, why don’t we do this too?’ ”
The remaining videos were spaced in their rollout following Aaliyah’s passing. The first that came was “More than a Woman.” Director Dave Meyers was introduced to Aaliyah through Damon Dash. “I just remember Damon telling me I better make his girlfriend look good,” Meyers expressed to Vibe. Meyers directed videos for Dash’s Roc-A-Fella Records, primarily Jay-Z—most prominently “Izzo (H.O.V.A.).” In working with Aaliyah, Meyers explained how she approached him with almost a vision board for the video’s concept. “She was pulling tears out of magazines and sharing those with me,” Meyers says. “It was a little bit more of how she wanted to present herself and I built the world around her with the motorcycle and the lights and the dance.” In the video for “More than a Woman,” Aaliyah is dancing inside of a motorcycle, proudly donning her boyfriend’s Roc-A-Fella chain throughout. The scenery is like the inside of an engine, complete with gears and coils, that doubles as a dance floor where Mark Ronson is deejaying. Other cameos include Kidada Jones and her sister, actor Rashida Jones (who was dating Mark Ronson at the time).
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