TAKEN TOO SOON
After appearing on TV’s Star Search, 12-year-old Aaliyah Haughton signed her first deal with Blackground Records, owned by her uncle, Barry Hankerson. He introduced her to R Kelly, who produced her first album, Age Ain’t Nothing but a Number. Her second album, One in a Million, was certified double platinum in 1997 and her final record, Aaliyah, sold over 13 million copies worldwide and scored a Grammy nomination for Best R&B Album in 2002. Just as she was hitting peak stardom, Aaliyah was killed in a plane crash along with seven others after shooting the music video for ‘Rock the Boat’ in the Bahamas. The plane, a small Cessna bound for Miami, went down in a swamp shortly after take-off on August 25, 2001.