07 July 2011

I decided to develop my visual aesthetics by balancing space within work.
The illustration is of Aaliyah, with her 10th year death anniversary coming soon next month, I remember back in 2001 I was literally addicted to the self-titled album, with her named Aaliyah meaning "Exalted one, the highest".

Taken from All Music.com

http://www.allmusic.com/album/aaliyah-r539210,

"Aaliyah waited nearly five years to deliver her third album, but considering that she was essentially growing up -- it was the equivalent of spending time in college -- when she came back with an eponymous record in the summer of 2001, she came back strong. Aaliyah isn't just a statement of maturity and a stunning artistic leap forward, it's one of the strongest urban soul records of its time. Where such peers as Macy Gray and Jill Scott work too hard to establish their ties with classic soul, Aaliyah revels in the present, turning out a pan-cultural array of sounds, styles, and emotions. This sound is entirely unfamiliar -- part of the pleasure is how contemporary it sounds -- but she sounds just as comfortable within the sonicscapes of Timbaland as Missy Misdemeanor Elliott and, possibly, less self-conscious. Aaliyah never oversings, never oversells the songs -- this comes on easy and sultry, and there's a lot of substance here, in terms of the songwriting and the songs themselves. Urban albums rarely come any better than this, and there haven't been many records better than this in 2001, period.


On August 25, 2001, Aaliyah and eight others were killed in an airplane crash in The Bahamas after filming the music video for the single "Rock the Boat".
During this time Aaliyah had now developed a career within the film industry, previously having starred in "Romeo Must Die", Aaliyah was completing her filming for "Queen of the Damned" in addition to "The Matrix Sequels" (which her role was replaced by Marvin Gaye's daughter). Aaliyah was also signed to be the star of "Honey" (which was then given to Jessica Alba), in addition to the remake of "Sparkle".

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Today, Aaliyah's music, style and dance routines have been emulated by the likes of Ciara, Cassie, Jojo... to name a few.
With recent music artists like JAMES BLAKE and DRAKE sampling songs such as "Are You That Somebody" and "Let Me Know (At Your Best)", Aaliyah's sound which was ahead of it's time has opened up doors for many musical artists of our time.

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Below is a [listen] preview of Aaliyah's self-titled album in addition to a online link of the Interview with Aaliyah's producers talking about making one of the best Contemporary RnB albums of our time.

Exclusive: The Producers of “Aaliyah” Take Us Behind the Scenes Into Making of This Classic: http://youknowigotsoul.com/?p=11345