...This would have been a particularly hard role for anyone to play much less a very shy and kind person like Aaliyah. The role called for her to play some kind of a supernatural, Egyptian ruler of the world and Queen. Akasha was a very dark and manipulative creature and it required Aaliyah to really work hard at portraying the role in a believable way, because it was so far away from her normal behavior. Aaliyah knew a lot about the business world and she never wanted to be too far detached from one aspect of her work. She just simply wanted things to be done right. Aaliyah explains herself and her work ethic in this way: I'm 22; I've been in this since 15. I'm basically a veteran and yet I still have many places to go. I'm still young. I have no regrets. My parents made sure that I was involved not just in the show side of it, the business side. I know about my contracts. I know about every little detail as far as the business side is involved. So one day I can sit back and enjoy the fruits of my labor. (Farley 163) Aaliyah was very specific about how involved she was and how little she depended on other people. This in itself set her so far apart from all other musician of her kind. One of the reasons she was so different from her colleagues was that she never stopped growing, she allowed herself to stretch beyond her normal limits, in order to create new sounds. When asked what the most important aspect of her work was she responded without any hesitation, "Being true to myself." No body else ever sounded like Aaliyah. Even in her early years she was careful not to fall into the footprints of the artists that showed her the way through the music world. She also once said to The Chicago Sun-Times, "If you know your own style and you're sure of yourself, you can definitely overcome the whole protйgй thing." And that is exactly what she did. To the day of her death she never once copied another artists style, others may have inspired her but she never imitated their ways. Aaliyah died at the age of 22 in a plane crash on August 25, 2001. She was on her way back from the island of Abaco in the Bahamas where she had been shooting her newest music video (Teen People). ...
