August 25, 2001, right before 9-11 happened, another star LITERALLY fell outta the sky and into heaven; Aaliyah. She was one of the few to open up paths for R&B female artists today. But her presence, karisma, energy, grace, intelligence, style, sexy yet elegant and humbleness was all that Aaliyah was, and very few artist have that now.

Who didn’t wanna be “Baby Girl” and be in the dopest crew [if u do music, you know what I’m talkin bout] in the music industry? She had: Timbaland & Magoo, Missy Elliot, Ginuwine, Nicole Wray and Playa by her side…? Man, I did. I rocked the big Tommy Jacket, baby Tee, baggy jeans with boxers lining em up, long layers with that long swoop bang in the front where u can’t see one eye and hoop earrings. I’d go to ballet class [yes, I took ballet @ San Francisco Ballet School] like that everyday haha. All my classmates went to private school and thought I was crazy coming out of a tomboy out fit into a leotard. But to me, I looked good…

I had the pleasure of meeting her [as well as Ginuwine, Timbaland and Peter Gunz] in Lenox Mall [Atlanta, GA] back in the Summer of 1998. My cousin was working at the Brave’s store at the time and my other cousin and I wanted to tag along. I’ve heard stories that stars would come in and out of Lenox so why not? We knew there this big concert coming up in the next 2 days and “Are You That Somebody” just blew the summer of 98 away [my cousin and I were learning the dance all summer lol].

As we’re walking around the mall and I see 2 tall guys with a petite woman with a wife beater, faded jeans and white Adidas Shell toes. My eyes widened and I hit my cousin and said “OMG…is that…Aaliyah!?!??!” we froze and I slowly walked towards them. No one knew who they were yet so I took a chance. OMG. was it worth it. I thought I was gonna look like a fool, but I ended up being really calm and having this 5 min conversation with her about about music and how she’s changed my life. For those 5 mins I felt like she wasn’t this superstar, she was just a friend that I haven’t seen in a long time and needed to catch up. As I noticed the crowds starting to shift their way I said “Aaliyah thank you for your time, your amazing person and I hope I can inspire ppl thru music like you do for all of us…” she smiled, gave me a hug, smiled and said “Joy, thank you so much! I love your energy. You’ll do great!” as I get gobbled up into a mob of screaming girls, flying pens and flashes…but it didn’t matter, Aaliyah told me that I had great energy and I was gonna do great. I couldn’t believe how amazing she really was in person [we had Ginuwine sing to me and my cousin, which was also amazing].

So here’s to you, Aaliyah. Rest In Peace and your legacy will live on…

January 16, 1979 – August 25, 2001