97 Words: ‘Aaliyah’ defined an artist and a summer

Vincent Anthony
1 Min Read

July 7, 2001.

Snakes. That’s my first memory of Aaliyah’s self-titled third album, lead off by “We Need a Resolution” with its sensual, snake-filled video. Next, is summer: released in the heat of July 2001, on the 7th, Aaliyah featured slinky jams (“Loose Rap,” “Rock the Boat,”), summertime fineness (“It’s Whatever,” “Those Were the Days”), gorgeous ballads (“I Care 4 U,” “Never No More,” “I Refuse”), genre straddling rock-tinged cuts (“”I Can Be,” “What If”) and her R&B/hip-hop crossovers (“Resolution,” “More Than A Woman”). It was a futuristic, ahead-of-its-time summertime soundtrack that also, unfortunately, became synonymous with summertime sadness just over a month later.

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Vincent is the founder of the magazine and has had a strong passion for popular music since, well, 1997! If it's not obvious, his favorite artists include Destiny's Child, Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson, Michael Jackson, P!nk, and many more. Vincent lives in New York, where he is a high school English teacher, and currently he is pursuing a Master's in Journalism at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY.