The groundbreaking project was the last album she'd release before her death in 2001.
Singer Aaliyah attends the world premiere of the film "Planet of the Apes" July 23, 2001, at the Ziefield Theatre in New York City.
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“I think that she knew that she was not the girl to be blended in with the herd,” producer Eric Seats recalled to Vibe in 2016 about the making of the record that would permanently confirm Aaliyah as a singular talent.
Building on the sonic adventurousness of 1996’s One in a Million sophomore set and a pair of soundtrack smashes (1998’s “Are You That Somebody?” from Dr. Doolittle and 2000’s “Try Again” from Romeo Must Die), Aaliyah’s eponymous third studio effort arrived in 2001 to push R&B into places it had rarely been before. In turn, it inspired a generation to break free from the boundaries which, in the genreless Spotify age, now seem archaic.
