An overly-eager artist being welcomed into the industry is taken on a bumpy ride as she learns life does not have as many sunny days as she thought. Within the process, she comes to learn that her tour guide is a lot more important to her than she e...
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April 22, 1984 Chicago, Illinois
All was quiet in my apartment. I was sleep and so was Aaliyah, at least that was what I thought...
The streak of my two hour slumber was cut in half at the hands of my excited sister. "It's official!" Her screams echoed throughout our apartment. I was still sleep. Nothing she said was coherent just yet and I was trying my best to ignore her until I fell back asleep. "It's midnight! Today your album is released!" Aaliyah yelled as her voice grew bigger in volume. My eyes opened just as she was preparing to jump on my bed. The springs boing fit in perfectly with her inaudible squeals.
Rolling over, I put the covers over my head. "Get your ass off of my bed!" Aaliyah ignored me. High on pure excitement, Aaliyah kept jumping as a bright idea hit her. She started singing the songs on the album... In order... Instrumentation included... One by one. Oh, I was in hell and it was apparent as I grumpily screamed up at her. "Don't you have work in the morning?"
She jumped off of the bed, landing on her feet, and said "No, I took off this fine Thursday just for you!" Her smile was so bright, so genuine. I couldn't deny her happiness. I have to admit, during this time, we were going through a rough patch and though my sister has always been one of my biggest supporters, this particular day was one of the times I recall her truly being purely ecstatic for me and my accomplishments.
The smile became mutual between us, my tone gaining a sense of brightness. "Well can I at least go back to sleep?"
"No, you need to stay awake! Stay awake! Woo!" She chanted loudly and consistently until we heard a heavy banging on the wall we shared with our neighbor, Mr. Jeffrey. I threw a pillow at her and rolled over. Aaliyah giggled as she crawled into my bed and layed next to me. "Fine, we sleep now... But in the morning, we party!"
Aaliyah only says what she means and does what she says. When we woke up, she made me breakfast. It was so big that we ate it as leftovers for the next two days. We dressed to the nine's and went to our local record store, both of us buying copies of the album for good luck. My record company wasn't throwing me any legitimate album release soirees due to the tight grip on their budget so my friends took it upon themselves to do it for them. Atlantic sponsored the venue and my executives and a label mate or two showed up but there was very little press and my tribe paid for all of the food and decorations, which truly took a village. It was a surprise that I had no knowledge of until Aaliyah and I met up with Alexis.
"Oh, God. Don't bump me into the wall, Lexis!" I shouted as she guided me through the empty black mass. I was blind folded and they were taking me to what is suppose to be my special surprise. Alexis picked me up from my house and drove for what felt like hours with me blind.
"I've got you!" She laughed as she guided me with one hand on my shoulder and another on my back.
I reached around and waved my arms but felt nothing. "Are we there yet?"
