Timbaland Reveals He Fell In Love With 16-Year-Old Aaliyah First Time Meeting Her, Says She Was Just A Baby In Resurfaced Video

It’ll be the 20th anniversary of Aaliyah’s death in 2021 and it’s clear that the love for the singer hasn’t waned significantly over the years. Those who were around at the time of her success know of the path the young singer took to get there and the pain it seemed to cause her. Even in death, however, people are still sharing how her loss has affected them in the present day.

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Unfortunately, Aaliyah’s catalog is still largely unavailable to the public, and her legacy continues on in some ways due to the legal troubles R. Kelly’s finally having, and the way their legacies are irrevocably linked. Recently, a number of folks have invoked Aaliyah’s name and spirit while discussing their own memories that involved the singer and her once producer.

Damon Dash and his partner claimed that they converse with the spirit of Aaliyah, also saying that she guides them and even his partner, on their relationship together.

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Dash has been with partner Raquel M. Horn since approximately 2015. The producer and the music executive are not married but previously, Dash has referred to Horn as his “fiancée.” Damon, who appears on the show Growing Up Hip-Hop alongside his son Damon “Boogie” Dash II, broached the subject of Aaliyah and the couple shared their spiritual connection.

“It’s funny. I would be talking to [Raquel] and her record would come on,” he said. “It would always be like validation.” Dash also claimed that when Horn is trying to “figure” him out, “she talks to Aaliyah.”

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Dash said that when they would talk and the singer’s name would come up, lightening would go off or a butterfly would appear. But the most interesting way in which Aaliyah, or her spirit, has presented herself in their relationship, is through Horn’s alleged conversations with the star.

“I noticed when she’s trying to figure me out,” he said, “she talks to Aaliyah.” Horn concurred, stating that she asks Aaliyah’s spirit for advice and “it usually answers.”

“The death of Aaliyah was really hard on Damon,” she said in a confessional. “I feel like she guides me a lot and tells me how to react and how to be the best lover. She is definitely a daily part of our lives together.”

It’s a contrast to a recently resurfaced clip, in which Timbaland also professed his love for the singer, but in a much more seemingly inappropriate way. In a 2011 sit down with E! True Hollywood Story, Timbaland talked about the time that he first met Aaliyah during the creation of her One in a Million album, when she was 16 and he was 23.

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“When I first met Aaliyah—it’s time for the world to hear this, I’m gonna give a little secret—I was in love with her,” Timbaland said. “I said, ‘She [is] just a baby, I’m old. I’m just gonna be her brother. Oh man, I was fightin’, I was fightin’ a lot—a big war. But I loved Aaliyah.”

Doubling down on the inappropriateness of the comment, Timbaland then shared that his marriage is also due in part to the deceased singer.

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“When I first met my wife, I knew I was going to marry her because she looked like Aaliyah,” he said.

See the clip below.