instant vintage : 02.2010 : …baby girl… (Superfresh)
I still get a little misty-eyed when I hear her music and marvel at the choreography that I tried to learn many times over. I actually learned the first sequence to “Try Again” one summer and flipped “Are You That Somebody” for a cheer routine. Man. Those were good moments. They make me wish that I’d seriously taken up dance.
Aaliyah didn’t need to throw on a leotard and shake her crotch at the camera to be entertaining. Interesting choreography, a bare midriff, baggy pants, and boots were her steez. She came from an era where the industry didn’t put as much pressure on artists to conform to a certain standard the way they do now. When they didn’t need huge boobs and an ass hanging out to sell albums…ugh…
I miss that…I really do.
R.I.P.
6 Responses to “…baby girl…”
Um yes, the latter two plus 4-page letter are probably my 3 favorite videos. I DID know the choreography to the last 2 and wished for a mid-riff top to go with my sweats.
I still jam her last album on my IPOD, it was really different. I would love to see where she would have gone next musically.
Her style had evolved too, no more sweats, she was wearing dresses and just exuded sophistication and sensuousness (made up a word, holla!) She didn’t have to grind her catfish in the cameras like Beyonce (read that somewhere and blacked out). I miss her presence. The plane crash was such a tragedy and my little 17 year old ass shed some tears when they showed the funeral procession.
Gem´s last blog ..Little Known Black History Facts
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You and me both.
Lenya Jones´s last blog ..My Mother – Styled by Me
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Hot Like Fire remix was one of my all-tine favorites. “Everyone” was in that video.
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Hello! First comment for me! I discovered your blog a few days ago.
I loooove Aaliyah. I cried when she died and I often listen to her 2001 eponymous album.
Look, I read your post on Bey with interest. I actually like “Video phone”, even though I couldn’t help thinking it was a little excessive (not vulgar, but excessive). But, I guess kids may not see it as I did.
Anyway, to link that to Aaliyah, when the “Try again” video was released, I was like 14 and I used to watch it on MTV in Senegal (good old days…), but I had the same feeling as when I watched Bey’s: I mean yestersay’s leather pants, sequined bra and little booty-shaking-at-the-end-of-the-video are today’s micro shorts (even in the streets), leotard, and crotch-shaking-from-the-begining-to-the-end. In those days, Bey was actually way pruder than Aaliyah!
So who knows, maybe Aaliyah would have yielded to the pressure too.
But you’re right: there’s a lot of pressure in the music industry, but also out there, in the streets. I am actually shocked by all the over sexiness that has become the rule for teens now and I really think that crotch-shaking is ok if it remains on screen and if it is a simple outlet. Yes! I am a wannabe Beyoncé… I think she is too (hence, her Sasha Fierce alter ego)
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RIP Aaliyah, I love you. I even loved her in Queen of The Damned!
xx
charles´s last blog ..All American Ass
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Damn I miss baby girl. They don’t make ‘em like they used to. She was truly in a league of her own…and the music industry still isn’t the same without her. I can only imagine what she’d be doing right now.
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