Key Lime Cupcake ⏤ Vol 26
Key Lime Cupcake ⏤ Vol 26
Monday Lunch turns ONE! 🎉 Let's celebrate by chit-chatting about my favorite artist of the 90s. She was One in a Million.
Hi Friend!
Can you believe that Monday Lunch turns ONE tomorrow? August 17, 2020, I sent out my first newsletter, and here we are one year later on Volume 26.
For the past 25 volumes, I shared some of my favorite moments from the 90s and now. The newsletter has evolved into one of my utmost passions and favorite hobby.
I get lost in details from one of the most icon eras that will never ever be duplicated. Whether I am learning or remember moments about my favorite entertainers and artist of the 90s or remembering moments from my early childhood, I’m totally obsessed.
While I like to say all of my volumes are my favorite, I have to be honest and say I have a few that stand out. If you’ve been rocking with me from day one, revisit some of my favorite stories.
If you are new here, you might have missed some really good ones. Check these out.
Vol. 4: Story behind my wedding date. A heartfelt story ❤️
Vol 10: Birthday stories from over the years. What was your favorite birthday?
Vol 14: The amount of 90s nostalgia in this volume is 🔥. The time you will spend clicking through the links might take up your day, but you will thank me later.
Vol 20: The 90s had some really hot gossip, but we were too young to ki-ki about it. The time has come.
This volume will absolutely be added to my favorite list because it is all about baby girl, aka Aaliyah.
Nine days from now, Aaliyah left this world 20 years ago. And since this is the last volume for August, I am dedicating all of today’s topics to her.
Get ready for a little gossip, gasping and great memories.
Here we go:
Age Ain’t Nothing But A Number
Jay-Z vs. Dame Dash
Timbaland
Videos
Movies
Age Ain’t Nothing But A Number
The Back & Forth video was filmed on Aaliyah’s 15th birthday. This means that Aaliyah was much younger when she was recording her freshman album.
Her musical auditions started at the age of 12 when her trifling ass Uncle (and manager of Robert) had her sing for Robert in 1990 who claimed that “he found Aaliyah” in media interviews when she finally got the green light from Jive when she turned 14. But the one condition A&R gave is that Robert had to produce the entire album. Makes no sense.
I never understood until later in life why this is the only album on streaming platforms from Aaliyah. But after understanding the backstory behind the record labels and her hogging-ass uncle, it’s clear to me.
I’ve always had a hard time listening to her first album. Not because it wasn’t good, but because once I found out what was really going on behind the scenes, the sight of the album cover alone pissed me off.
Like this man is creeping ALL in her shit. Not letting her breathe. This isn’t his album, it’s hers. Yet he all up on the cover. Boy bye.
Puffy was notorious for being all up in his artist videos, but you never caught him on an album cover, hovering.
Back & Forth was Aaliyah’s highest Billboard Hot 100 single, coming in at #5. Then Try Again hit the airwaves in 2000, which hit the #1 spot and is her only #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. I’m sure she is #1 in so many other places.
She is always number one in my eyes.
Jay-Z vs. Dame Dash
Aaliyah was so young when she left us, 22, that she didn’t have time to date a bunch of people and fall in love more than once. So the one person we can tie Aaliyah to is Dame Dash. They were effortless. The major record producer with the beautiful and talented soulstress. Match made in heaven, right?
Well, apparently there was some drama between the former label mates and probably BFFs, Jay-Z and Dame Dash.
The story goes that Hov had his eye on baby girl for a while like most probably did. He knew she was going to attend a BBQ in East Hampton 4th of July in 2000. He was planning to make his move there.
When they crossed paths at the party, he began to do what he does to bag Aaliyah. A witness told DailyMail that you could tell there was some sort of chemistry between them. Photos from this party surfaced many years later of them all hugged up and dancing.
Dame ended up going behind Jay’s back and hollered at Aaliyah. This was a well-known snake move because DJ Funkmaster Flex got on social on what would have been her 40th birthday “Rest in peace to the beautiful Aaliyah—that was a Jay-Z’s lady first, Dame pulled a snake move. That’s why ROC crumbled—you was touching Jay-Z’s chick (Remember the house in the Hamptons).”
Of course, 50cent had to hop in the comments.
Jay obviously backs off pursing her once he finds out that her and Dame are rocking, and he began dating Beyoncé in 2001. Jay says it didn’t fracture their friendship cause you know he moved on. I guess Flex never moved on, lol.
According to Dame, he fell out with Hov because he decided to collaborate with Robert on the 2002 album, Best of Both Worlds, and a 2004 album. Dame approached Jay, like, “bruh you just going do this when he violated my girl,” and told Jay to put his part (profit, they were still label mates) towards Aaliyahs’s breast cancer charity organization.
Now Dame told this story in 2019 to some hip-hop media company. Of course, they going to go and do their research. They find out that this hypocritical fool was all up in Robert’s 2001 Fiesta Remix video. He backtrack and say, “he did it because Aaliayh said she wanted me to do it that way.”
Ok now, this is where the shit gets GOODT! Pay attention.
The Jay-Z-Aaliyah-Dame love triangle isn’t the only time these former friends collided on the relationship front.
Dame apparently tried to get at Beyoncé. It got to the point where he wasn’t even allowed around her, according to a few credible sources.
And it gets deeper.
So Becky with the good hair? Allegedly this was Dame Dash ex-wife. I knew the name so-called woman was Rachel Roy, I just never knew she was Dame’s ex-wife. So when I googled Rachel Roy I then find out that her bestie is none other than…
Kim Kardashian.
I had other reasons why Beyoncé did not want to be friends with Kim, but this might just be the reason right here.
Not only did her husband step out on her, but he stepped out with a known enemy’s best friend. Whew chile.
The world is small!
Now if you already knew this, hopefully you enjoyed my storytelling, and if not. You welcome!
Timbaland
So we all know Aailyah was the hottest lady on the R&B scene and everyone was trying to get at her. But when I learned of this one I was rather shocked.
I thought this relationship was strickly platonic. It was on Aaliyah’s front, but Timbaland had feelings he never really shared.
He was 24 and she was 16 and he realized he had feelings for her, in love are his exact words. He said he fought his feelings a lot, but knew that they would never be because she was still a child.
So this fool admits that he married his wife because she looked like Aaliyah. His words were, “I knew I was going to marry her because she looked like Aaliyah.”
I wish my husband would tell me he wanted to marry me because I reminded him of this teenager he was in love with when he was 24. *hard eye roll*
The answer is NO.
Videos
We might not be able to stream Aaliyah’s full catalog, yet, but we have her videos available on YouTube.
What was your favorite music video by baby girl?
Here are my top 5. It was hard choosing these five, and it’s in no particular order.
Are You That Somebody — I must have stayed in my room for hours learning how to do all the dances in this music video. I was totally obsessed with that black crop top and long skirt with the split. I was just waiting for the day I could be grown enough to wear something like this.
4 Page Letter — The look and mystique of this video is everything. What made me love this song so much is because I used to write love letter to all my crushes (even celebrities), but never give them the letters. So the lyrics were always talking to me.
If Your Girl Only Knew — Again, another iconic look. The all black leather fit, bandana, and dark lipstick. Aaliyah in color and the rest of the room is in black and white. This entire video is a staple Aaliyah look.
We Need A Resolution — I was finishing up my sophomore year of high school, ready for summer with my friends. When I saw this video come on BET, I was in awe. I didn’t think she could be any more beautiful than she already was. She was moving away from the two piece baggy outfits into a wardrobe that made me gag with desire. Ugh I love every single look in this video. More than anything, this video makes me so sad.
One In A Million — Even this is Aaliyah’s favorite video. She said it during her final interview days before she passed. If this isn’t in your top 5 for baby girl, you need to be in timeout.
Here are some other memorable Aaliyah moments to watch:
Her last interview. She was on 106 & Park on August 21st. She left to go shoot Rock the Boat the next day.
The Aaliyah Story — This video has been uploaded and removed so many times on YouTube that it had to be shared via Google Drive to get the full documentary.
Movies
We loved Aaliyah in Romeo Must Die and true fans saw Queen of the Damned regardless of the reviews. But there were two movies she didn’t get to complete that she was casted for.
The Matrix Reloaded & The Matrix Revolutions
She was perfect for this film. Her icon looks are black and leather which would have fit in perfectly. While she did film some scenes, her life was cut too short for her to complete her role as Trinity. The daughter of Marvin Gaye, Nona Gaye, ended up getting the role. She even received the family’s blessing.
Sparkle
Can you imagine Aaliyah co-starting Whitney Houston? That would have been a great sight to see. But yet again another role that had to be re-casted. Jordin Sparks was up next and in a weird unsettling twist, Robert ended up contributing music to this soundtrack. Gross.
Whitney didn’t make it to see this film get its debut, as she died months before the film was released.
I could go on and on about my love for Aaliyah. Talking about her icon outfit choices or infamous swoop bang, but I’ll end it here.
While Aaliyah’s catalog is supposed to be officially released starting August 20 in a statement made by Blackground Records, I don’t know how I truly feel about it. Her family is not getting any royalties from the sale of CDs, Vinyls, or the streaming platforms. They are pissed, and released their own statement after they found out what her uncle and Blackground were up to.
It’s a mess. I am excited I will be able to add her music to playlist again, but also I wish her family was getting their rightful share.
I guess for now, I will play all my Aaliayh music from my Dropbox files. I have all her music on individual music files. Not an ideal way to listen, but hey, its always been better than nothing.
I hope you are resting easy baby girl. We miss you down here. Until we can hear you beautiful voice again.
See you next month friends!
xo, Jemia