Firsts are a beautiful thing to remember most times, and music is no different. We all remember where we were and what we were doing the first time some of our favorite songs hit the radio or we saw the video on MTV or BET.
For me, the first time I heard a 17-year old womanchild come into her own was clear as day. In the fall of 1996, I was working for a youth clean team in Wilmington, Del. as a high school sophomore, basically we were a low-budget garbage crew. I remember the day I heard this ill beat, indescribable then and now. A country baritone gave a former R. Kelly protege the green light to let loose and she began to spin a yarn about a trifling pursuer who was already involved with another girl at that point.
Aaliyah re-emerged from the controversy surrounding her involvement with Kelly, and by request of her management company, was assigned to an up-and-coming beatmaking-songwriting duo, charged with creating her sophomore album. The pair was Timbaland and Missy Elliot. "If your girl only knew" was the first single from the wildly-successful One In A Million album, and it did a pretty good job of setting the tone for a new songbird heroine for teenage girls at that time.
Mary J. Blige was growing up and while still cutting heart-wrenching classics, One In A Million proved to be a pivotal album for that demographic. It gave a certain flippancy, an arrogant strength to the typical angst young girls at the time were feeling in their dealings with boys. If Mary J.'s My Life was the cry-your-eyes-out, I-want-to-punch-this-loser kind of album, then One In A Million was "yeah, whatever, I'm done with him, let me get my girls together and have fun" album.
"If your girl..." just banged from beginning to end, including the break where the drums got harder and the synth became sparse, providing plenty of opportunities for making up your own dances or even following along to routine in the dynamite black and white video.
That song hit me the hardest, not because I was a guy trying to pick up a girl, but musically, it was unlike anything I had ever heard in contemporary R&B to that point. I was raised in an old-school household, so I was late but well-versed in the New Jack Swing sound, created by Teddy Riley. But this? This song right here? This was swinging for the fences R&B. Tim just decided to hit the world with his offbeat brand of sound effects and drum patterns while Missy crafted the lyrics questioning the intentions and scruples a guy clearly trying to cheat on his girlfriend.
"If your girl only knew" was just the start of the album's singles success with "Four Page Letter," the epic title track and two smoldering versions of "Hot Like Fire" that seared the airwaves in the summer of 1997. The song is definitely one of Aaliyah's best known cuts and is the one that gave her a sound all her own.
Monday, June 1, 2009
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