Damon Dash Remembers Aaliyah: “Every Time I Was With Her, I Felt It Was The Place To Be”

Aaliyah & Damon Dash’s relationship was abruptly cut short when the singer died in a plane crash after shooting her “Rock The Boat” video in the Bahamas. The couple met through his accountant in 2000 and were friends first before becoming an inseparable couple in front of the camera.

Today marks the ten year anniversary of Aaliyah’s death and Dash opened up to Billboard about their relationship and her passing:

“My heart was broken. Nothing prepares you for that.’

“She was intelligent and she caught me. I’m the kind of guy who says things sometimes just to make myself laugh, but she would just catch me making jokes for me. I couldn’t get anything past her. She had a very quick mind and a very kind heart.”

“She was always working and shooting movies. She was always gone for like four months at a time, then come back and be gone for another month. She had to rehearse and I was doing my own thing, so it was really hard for us to get long stretches of time together. When you’re with someone like that you buy into a life of being separate, but again, I couldn’t help my feelings.”

“The energy we created together for people to observe was kind of crazy. We’d be in a room full of people talking to each other and it felt like everyone was listening but it would be just us. It would be like we were the only ones in the room. It was like something was going down in history every time I was with her. Every time I was around her I felt it was the place to be.”

“Our time together meant so much that when we got more time, we felt like that [engagement] would be next. She was one of the best people I ever met. Even with the pain I felt, I would do it all over again.”

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