Atria Books Baby Girl: Better Known as Aaliyah

I just finished the book and I’ll give it 2 stars…. I wanted to enjoy it. Honestly, I was looking forward to it. I’m a huge Aaliyah fan.More and more towards the release date of the book, the writer just gave me a bad vibe. Snakey, desperate, untrustworthy, annoying. This seems like such a cash grab because she knows Aaliyah fans are so starved for content and product. The book is full of information fans already know. And as for the general public, I don’t think they’ll really care about most of it.As much as Aaliyah is an inspiration to us all and an icon, she was private and reserved. She didn’t let us in and that’s how she liked it. That’s why she was so attracting. She was elusive and mysterious. So, we can only really go by what let us know about. Which wasn’t much at all. Because of this, the book relies heavily on telling the stories of others. R Kelly, Barry Hankerson, Timbaland etc. It seems like a desperate attempt to fill pages. Not to mention the pages and pages of letters from fans. I don’t need 15 year olds telling me how much they miss someone when they weren’t even alive to actually know who she was. It’s dumb. I know many find Aaliyah at different times and she touches people to this day, but it just seemed like a bunch of kids heard they could be in a book so they wrote something really quick in the hopes of seeing their names in print..Then three chapters talking about photographs. Photographs that aren’t in the effing book Kath! More page filling. The hardcore fans will know the photos she’s referencing but the general public don’t have a clue and you haven’t given them a reference because you obviously can’t afford the rights to the photos. In fact there is only one page in the entire book with pictures. A contact sheet.Then there’s the long mention of online fan accounts and websites. Obviously a great source for someone who is writing a book, I get it. A quick shout out would have been nice but more page filling occurs with the writer feeling the need to list about ten accounts with information of who runs them, why they started the account/site, and where they come from. Why not give us their hair and eye colour while you’re at it.I give two stars because I did like reading about the making of the last album(Even though she referenced songs that were only added as bonus tracks three years later so not actual songs from the album).I liked reading about the politics of it all and the tension with the label and production.I liked reading about her relationship with static.I also liked being reminded of the fan forums and Aaliyahs online interaction with her fans via her website. Those were times I cherish.That’s about it.It seems obvious that her editors were pushing her, or maybe she was just desperate herself, to find something scandalous about the plane crash. Saying she was drugged. Funnily enough this excerpt leaked to the press two weeks before the books release.. feels very “if you can’t give them something new, make something up”. When there was backlash to this from fans, she posted that there would actually be several viewpoints on what could have happened and that this wasn’t the only version of events she went with. But that was a lie. She’s taken the story as fact and gave no alternative.Like I said, I was looking forward to this. It was plugged as something that was “from a fan, to the fans” but honestly it doesn’t really seem like she was that big of a fan. The story was told without any heart or real affection.Now I just wonder what she’s going to do with the money she makes from the book. She’s profiting off of someone’s death. And the book is obviously going to be moderately successful if pre-orders are much to go by. It just doesn’t sit right with me. A portion of the proceeds should go to the memorial fund. If she is that big of a fan. But judging by her Instagram posts, she’s only a big fan of herself.

Perfect and undamaged will buy from again

Nach all den Jahren liebe ich immer noch Aaliyahs Musik und den Mythos rund um ihre Persönlichkeit.Dieses Buch war für mich, auch wenn man ja schon sehr viel wusste, trotzdem sehr informativ.Als lebenslanger Fan und Bewunderer ist das eine schöne Zusammenfassung und ein Sammlerstück.

Garbage-no direct participation from any of the people who really knew her (only references-extractions from previous articles/features and interviews from “other journalists.” No Damon Dash, no one from her family, no Timbaland, Missy or even her bestie Kidada Jones. Save your money and read old articles on the internet instead.

Armed with a passion for her subject, publishing pedigree and an extensive bibliography, long-time journalist Kathy Iandoli attempts to tackle the enigma that is Aaliyah. Almost 20 years ago to the day, the 22-year-old ingénue left us with more questions than answers, as much potential as aura, and just as well, more than anything, timeless music. If you were to play Try Again or Are You That Somebody, your head will surely bop. If you wanted to slow it down, I Don’t Wanna would certainly put you in the mood. As I read Iandoli’s love letter to Aaliyah, I remembered, jarred from a slumber only our fallen idols can awaken. But Baby Girl: Better Known as Aaliyah, is not just for those who were there. It bridges the prickly musical path that often does not allow growth and has crushed many a dream, and at the very least, stalled careers. Here, Iandoli keeps Aaliyah forever young, forever aspirational, forever growing and forever relevant. With a style unmatched, a sweet, yet alluring personality and charisma, I’m almost certain Aaliyah would’ve continued to transcend the entertainment business for years to come.Already an accomplished singer, model, pop star, and actress, Iandoli shows us Aaliyah was becoming all things to all people. Interestingly enough Iandoli doesn’t shy away from a fight, and faces head-on, the dark spectre that is R. Kelly; while also acknowledging his importance to Aaliyah’s success.In Baby Girl, we also find the usual suspects: Missy, Timbaland, Static Major, Dame Dash but each is treated fairly and with respect for their shortcomings as well as their strengths and impact. Iandoli has given us something to hold onto; something tangible, as if all the magazine articles written about Aaliyah, were captured in one book; however, this work is helmed by someone immersed in the culture, and if anything, Aaliyah represented everything that was beautiful about the culture. Then one day, she flew away and became an angel.