#bud'da

Pictures of studio reservations for Aaliyah on her Australia trip to record the "Aaliyah" album.

AALIYAH’S SPIRIT

Aaliyah was portrayed as someone who had a beautiful personality and very down to earth. To those who had a chance to know and be around her, it’s obvious that she was more than a woman.

J-Dub: “She was an angel. She was the most down to earth, sweet spirit, no attitude, no ego, no ‘Yeah I’m Aaliyah.” She was like the home girl. It was surprising how sweet and humble she was. She was the best.”

Digital Black: “She was fun. Me and Static were blessed to go to prom with her, Playa went to her prom. She was family, she was our little sister.”

Tim Barnett: “She always had a glow about herself that made everyone feel comfortable and equal. I think her energy made people like Timbaland and Static to not feel like they were better than anyone else, whether it was me or a friend who was with Black. It was like ‘If Aaliyah is this humble, there’s no way I can’t be that humble.’”

Rapture: “Working with her gave me a whole new outlook to actually see her in the studio and saw that she was very talented. For some singers, if it wasn’t for pro tools, it didn’t really come out right. She didn’t really have that problem. It was refreshing for me to see somebody like that. She was a real artist, she didn’t just look good, she wasn’t just a dancer, she could sing too and she could deliver the songs. She would always take the songs the writers wrote for her and she found a way to make it her own. That’s one thing that was shocking to a lot of people because she didn’t write any songs on the album, but you wouldn’t be able to tell that from how she delivered it because she always delivered the song like it was her own.”

DIRECTION

Aaliyah was never a stranger to trying experimenting with new sounds. On her second album “One In A Million”, she, with assistance from Timbaland, Missy Elliott, was able to revolutionize R&B by creating a new sound. The double stuttering Timbaland beats that everyone loves today were one of the most monumental and innovative moments in R&B history because it was totally different from anything out at that time. Two years later, Aaliyah and Timbaland shocked the music world once again by bringing in the infamous crying baby sample on the song “Are You That Somebody?” So it was pretty much a good assumption that Aaliyah was going to come with something different this time around.

Tank: “She told me specifically what kind of records she wanted, and she kind of wanted a little dangerous, a little sexy, that type of thing. I got to go in the studio and tailor make something for her, that was amazing that she called me from way overseas like ‘Tank, I need these kinds of records, I know you can write them for me.’ And I was happy that I was able to deliver, that they were records that she actually loved them when she recorded them, she did her thing.”

Digital Black: “We were blessed to be able to tailor make songs and basically just knowing the person and being around the person. We know what they’re thinking and what they like. In the studio, she was like a sponge. Whatever we had to do, it was never ‘I don’t like that’ and I’m still there were times she felt like that but she chose to at least try it. It was just like working with a family member.”

Bud’da: “We were trying to do as much as we could and try to put an album together for her to be able to hear and see what she felt. It was amazing. Static and Aaliyah fit like a glove together. They fit like a glove to where once she got on it, it wasn’t exactly the way you remembered it when Static would do it, she would put her own touch on it and it would work. All of the songs came from Static’s writing, but both he and Aaliyah had been talking about direction on where she wanted to go, and she talked with me about direction on vibe and the sound she wanted it to be.”

BACKGROUND

There is no doubt that Aaliyah’s career was on the fast track to super stardom. The release of her “One in a Million” album in 1996 propelled her into the mainstream, caused her to become a household name, and with the help of Missy Elliott and Timbaland ushered in a sound that had never been heard in r&b. Her star rose even higher with a starring role in her first feature film, the critically acclaimed “Romeo Must Die”. This rise to fame was culminated with her first number one single “Try Again”, another Timbaland production and her second consecutive successful single penned by Blackground label mate Static Major.

Craig Kallman: “Static was an incredible talent and really to this day an amazing songwriter and they just had great chemistry, which is why it worked. They were definitely a spark to an engine, terrific creative chemistry together so that’s why it was a successful collaboration.”

Following the release of the film, fans were anxiously awaiting the release of a follow up to the “One in a Million” album. There was one problem though; Timbaland and Missy Elliott, both of whom were major contributors on the previous album, were having disagreements with Blackground at the time and thus were unavailable to work on the project. However, as someone once said: “One man’s problem is another man’s business opportunity”. With Timbaland and Missy seemingly out of the picture, the door was open for some of Blackground’s lesser known writers and producers to shine on the “Aaliyah” album.

J-Dub: “Starting in 1999, I moved out to LA, I hooked up with Barry Hankerson and he signed me to a management deal. And around the same time, Barry got the huge deal with Virgin where Babygirl was at. So basically, I was already at the camp when it came time to work on it because Barry basically assembled like another Bad Boy except on the West Coast. It was me, Bud’da and a few other producers.”

Bud’da: “I got the opportunity to work on the Aaliyah album because at the time, I had a production and label deal with Blackground. And Static had been over there for years prior to me going over there. I had worked on Tank’s record and it allowed me the opportunity to meet Aaliyah and hook up with Static and begin to submit joints for Aaliyah’s record.”

Rapture: “We did a showcase for Playa and some artists on Def Soul. So that’s how I met Playa, so then we did several shows with them and there was one show they had coming up with Timbaland, so we ended up doing that show with them. Then Timbaland asked us to do a TV show for him and Magoo and we did that. Then Playa had another showcase at the House of Blues in LA, but that showcase had the entire Blackground camp. They were all there and they wanted to work with us too, so we ended up doing Aaliyah, Missy, Ginuwine along with Timbaland. Magoo and Playa. That’s how the whole connection came about, and then Static was like ‘I know you guys got some tracks too,’ so I let them hear some of the tracks we did and he mentioned it to Timbaland, and he mentioned it to Missy and we ended up doing work with them. And then through the work with them, Aaliyah was like ‘I would like to get down with you guys too’. From then we did Romeo Must Die. We didn’t do songs with Aaliyah, but we did a song with Chanté Moore, Destiny’s Child and Dave Hollister, but from those songs, she had already told Blackground that she wanted us on the next album. So after Romeo Must Die, that’s what started it and we started working with her.”

Digital Black: “We were being managed by her uncle Barry Hankerson and her cousin Jomo and we were also signed to their publishing company, so the relationship was already made.”

Tim Barnett: “Static came in the picture when Timbaland and Missy were having disagreements with Blackground. If Tim and Missy were there, Static probably wouldn’t have had a chance to work as many records as he did.”