abierman said:

Aaliyah was R.Kelly's protege AND underage wife first.

But in both cases, Aaliyah's success was determine by the primary male producer that called the shots.

LiquidGold said:

TBH, if Aaliyah was alive, Timbo might not have had the perfect excuse to be gunning for crossover-pop success like he would producing Nelly Furtado, Justin Timberlake, OR Madonna.

Interesting debate...I think that if Aaliyah could have distinguished herself from Bee in the acting realm then maybe she'd be as big a star as Bee but I think another poster put it perfectly that the Bee phenomenon would've occurred no matter WHO was in the "game".

Between the two, Aaliyah had that chill personality combined with an "it factor" that made her interesting - also she knew when to disappear from the public eye & simply live her life which made me wonder what she was up to while she was away. This contrasts with Bee & co's hitting us over the head with ALL of her projects within such a short time span that the public at large wishes she'd go away.

Prior to her passing, I'd heard that Aaliyah was in consideration for the role of "Sparkle" in the remake. If she could have "knocked the roll out of the park" and created a buzz in crossover media then I think she would be as high profile as Bee is now but wouldn't eclipse her because Bee is the stronger "entertainer" musically (at least). I agree that other artists like Brandy (AFRODISIAC), Amerie (all her albums), Kelis, Joi, etc are more interesting musically than Beyonce, they just don't get the mainstream media attention that Bee has.

Tajeznah said:

And that's what it is all about, mainstream media attention and having the right connections. Someone like Mariah can sing circles around her, but look who's getting all of the attention. I agree that excessiveness of your image makes the public tired of you, therefore damage it. You've got to pull an MJ or Aaliyah, keep the public wondering what you're up to.

Tajeznah said:

I know after her first album, Aaliyah finished school and graduated with a 4.0 GPA average. I think they would both be big in their own separate ways. "One In A Million" alone is better than any song Beyonce has ever made IMO. Beyonce is just the stronger vocalist, has the more curvy figure, and is a very good live performer; but other than that, Aaliyah takes the cake for me. Aaliyah's dance routines were timeless. Her look was sexy, yet classy and mysterious; she was a 100 times better actress than Beyonce; and she was interested in experimenting with different genres of music. I think she was only just beginning to grow as an artist and an actress before her death and who knows how great she could have become.

She may not have had a big voice like Beyonce, but neither does Britney, Madonna, Janet, or Rihanna and they are all just as popular or more so than Bey is. P!nk and Chrisina Aguilera have very powerful voices and better material than Beyonce, but for some reason, the general public likes Beyonce more than them. Sometimes the general public has odd music taste...hell, Lil Wayne sold over a million copies...yep, that about sums it up. Either way, I know that Aaliyah was dating Damon Dash before she died so she would have most likely been around Beyonce if she was still alive because Damon and Jay-Z were (are?) good friends. Beyonce has said really nice things about Aaliyah after she died, so maybe they were friends.

estelle81 said:

I think that's because Beyonce is shoved down the public's throats moreso than them or anyone else right now for that matter. She's everywhere, constantly promoting herself, doing movies, appearances, hawking cosmetics, etc...she's constantly out there...plus Pink, Christina and others dont have Matthew Knowles to do their bidding for them-and having someone like papa Knowles in your camp makes a big difference on a star's exposure level.

The general public at large seems to be like sheep--they will respond favorably to anyone or anything that's hyped up to be the greatest or hottest whatever or what ever is being constantly shoved in our faces. Of course not everybody responds to the hype, but most do.

No because Aaliyah wasn't as competitive or "out there." I think she really enjoyed her breaks and her time out of the limelight.

I think her overall career would have been more impressive because her hits(movies, radio, endorsements) would have been more deserved. I watched only her scenes of Queen Of The Damned on youtube the other night and she was becoming a very talented actress.

dragondayz said:

That's what I think, too. She's more of a cool character, Beyonce is more of an extrovert. Aaliyah is more like Sade, she'd be a star, but not in your face at every turn.

NaughtyKitty said:

Anyone who has to largely rely on their manager/management to open all the right doors for them really isn't that much more than a puppet in my eyes. Could Beyonce, Jessica Simpson, or Britney Spears have made it as far as they all did if they had not had such dedicated managers in their corner? Personally, I don't think they would have, because someone has to be making the right demands and smart business and contract decisions and I doubt any of these girls really possess that much business savvy on their own. Lots of great artists throughout history have been taken down because of their manager's bad decisions. I wonder if Beyonce's dad had not been such a strong force in her career, if she would be as big now. I'm not saying that she didn't have to do hard work to get to where she is, but there are lots of extremely talented struggling artists who work just as hard and don't make it because they lack good management. Beyonce is lucky her parents play such a big part in her career, because I just can't see her doing all this on her own. She just doesn't have that 'Jay-Z business sense' IMO.





Agreed. The sheeple are the ones who control the state of music regardless of how many people want to put the blame on record labels and overrated, overexposed artists. Someone has to be buying the crap for it to remain relevant. How can you not pay attention to someone when everytime you turn on the radio AND the TV they come on at some point; and usually more than once. I've seen soo many Beyonce commercials (because she seems to want to endorse almost everything nowadays); and Mariah Carey and Britney Spears perfume commercials in the past few days that it's not even funny. Don't even get me started on Diddy and his starved for attention ass. Seems to me that most artists want to be more of a brand, than actual hardcore musicians nowadays, and I can't really fault them because they get paid pretty good to do endorsements, but it is getting harder and harder for me to take their music seriously when it not the artist's sole focus. Just my

NDRU said:

Aaliyah was always the underdog to me, even when she was out during the Brandy and Monica era; and that's one of the many great things about her. She didn't have to prove anything to anyone but herself and her fansbase, because she wasn't being shoved in the public's face soo much. She was just smooth. I view her in the same way I view indie films...usually just as good or even better than the box-office blockbusters with less production and hyping. She truly was something special.

Though I loved her when she was at her peak in the late 90's and early 00's and loooooved her style, I always preferred Brandy's music, Monica's voice and for the innovative beats and image, Aaliyah.

Maybe she and Beyonce would have been rivals, but Aaliyah never became mainstream at a Beyonce level, she was just there and slipped in and out, very much like Janet, who she was often compared to though she was her own person.

There is a Beyonce song on her first album that sounds so Aaliyah to me, so maybe Beyonce would have copied Aaliyah too, but Ciara is doing that already (and sucks at it)

I remember everyone was so excited when she did Try Again and was in Romeo Must Die. Most people I knew that listened to r&b and hip hop noted Aaliyah as a favourite, but those I knew that were into Britney and BSB didn't know who she was and I was put off by that.

Her album before her death wasn't doing very well and the first single really grew on me, but it eventually became a hit though the circumstance was unfortunate. I think her final album contains some of her most creative work. Maybe if she released an album full of songs like maneater, promiscous, say it right, and some of the justin stuff, she would have become a mainstream hit in a HUGE way.

Watching her movies may have been really nice too, and I could see her experimenting with jazz & blues at some point cause she really has a soothing voice like janet, diana, sade or someone like that. I remember her performing something that sounded jazzy on the Oscars one year.

estelle81 said:

Yes, plus now, and in the end, Sade would be known for her music foremost, then her beauty because she did it with grace. Aaliyah and Sade were similar in that aspect, though Sade's music was more jazz and blues, mixed with R&B. Though Beyonce can sing, she would be known for her beauty and shaking her tailfeather foremost, and not for the quality of her music, which has no depth.

estelle81 said:

Production, music, and the bosses of those record companies change too. Therefore you have younger bosses with younger ideas. They are more focused on image than the quality of music. People who buy Beyonce, Diddy, Britney music are younger generation who has these artists shove down their throats on almost a daily basis, never knowing the quality of music. If it was twenty or more years ago, and you present a crappy demo to them, most of them would laugh you to scorn. If they are going to commercialize you, they want quality. Not to say that looks didn't count back then, but they want MUSIC.
[Edited 12/18/08 10:37am]

naw

She may not have had big Beyonce vocals, but she carried herself well when she performed live. She had pretty nice vocal abilities going on there. She was coolness personified.








Still lovin' her signature belly roll move.

TonyVanDam said:

Aaliyah may have started out as R. Kelly's Protege, but she was actually discovered by Gladys Knight, her auntie...she also originally discovered the Jackson 5, so Gladys knew real talent when she saw it. Plus, Aaliyah was also being produced by Missy, not just Timbaland, so her success was not determined by 'the primary male producer' as you stated. Missy and Timbaland both produced her, not just Timbaland.

She was on her way to blowing up when she died...she had already had a faithful R&B?/ hip hop fanbase...she was about to become a worldwide heavyhitter and she got taken out... I still have angst over her death I loved her!
I believe she woudve been bigger than Beyonce but that wouldnt have stopped Beyonce from trouncing other singers as she continued her relentless path of success and destruction.

I think she would have been as big but for the record she was average
vocally but she was in the making of being a very good actress imo.
She may have overtaken beyonce in that area in terma of just being a
better actress.

estelle81 said:

Missy and Tim were a production team at that time

TonyVanDam said:

I've always liked this picture of Justin and Aaliyah. They may have all ended up working together at some point had she lived.

LiquidGold said:

Exactly! That's why I'm trying to figure out why many people are making it sound like Timbaland was Aaliyah's only producer. Both Missy and Tim produced her; so they both deserve to be given equal credit. Missy and Timbaland always complimented each other, which is probably why he was soo much better back then as opposed to now. I like a lot of his new stuff, but Missy and Timb really fit each other quite nicely.

and let's not forget Static, RIP

purplesweat said:

she is definitely not fading, she has the #1 record in the country and that "If I Were A Boy" was apparently a big radio hit too and went #1 worldwide. i just read an article about it which also said this new cd is her fastest selling one yet.

can't you ask that about any artist? would aaliyah have made if she wasn't fucking her 30 yr. old producer husband at age 15? or if her Uncle wasn't the one to give her a record deal in the first place? aaliyah never even co-wrote or co-produced anything she sung so was she a puppet too? are beyonce, britney spears, and jessica simpson the ONLY people to have managers and teams working for them? or is it because they've been able to attain massive success and exposure that we say its all because of the manager. not because they had popular songs, talent, image that appealed to the public who buys their records, concert tickets, etc etc. All of these artists have TEAMS and they have managers and they have record label execs.




We can ask the same about Mariah's career without Tommy Mottolla, Celine without Rene, Whitney & Alicia Keys without Clive Davis, and the list goes on. One thing though is that Mathew Knowles was 1 of thousands of parents trying to get their kids on. He was not a producer or record executive inside the industry like the aforementioned men. He didn't have "clout", he was as much of a newbie as his daughter and her friends. So to illustrate like he had some magic powers and had some existing say-so with companies, radio stations, retail to launch his daughter's career to heights is a bit much.




Jay Z doesn't even have great business. He was a failure at Def Jam.
[Edited 12/19/08 12:50pm]

I think she definitely would have been still doing well....but not bigger than Beyonce.

mellow1 said:

yeah I agree, I felt like she was mostly popular among the r&b/hip hop crowd, but when she died, everyone was making her out to be huge when Brandy and Monica were more popular with the mainstream crowd.

alphastreet said:

That's because she died JUST AS she was breaking the mainstream. Why don't people get that?

purplesweat said:

I do get it, but her album had already dropped into the top 30 after peaking at number 2 and THEN it went up to number 1. I don't remember we need a resolution doing that well, though rock the boat was huge.

alphastreet said:

So was Try Again.

purplesweat said:

Try Again did phenomenal and was a great track, but it came out a year BEFORE her self titled and final album, so it's not from the same era IMO, even if it was a bonus track on some copies