@Lyric_Lee

First let me say I am a big fan of Aaliyah pre & post death. But to say Aaliyah was bigger than Brandy that just isn't true. For us that came up in the 90's we know very well, Brandy was the "Beyonce" of our time. She had every endorsement on lock, on every award show, sold countless albums and singles, tv shows, movies, she was her own brand. As far as Monica, while Aaliyah was alive I believe commerically they were on the same level. But I agree w/ u totally, had she live she definately would have risen to a whole nother level, cuz unlike every other singer who crosses into acting she actually could act and her music was so ahead of her time (her one in a million album could go up against current day records and still win!!!! IMO)

@SXSW
Now as far as Aaliyah not being popular until her death, I disagree with that. I can say she didn't have all these "stans" prior to her death, but Aaliyah was extremely popular and no stranger to the charts. With all due respect to Aaliyah, she was more so a singles' artist, cuz the girl churned out more singles than any from her 'One in a Million' album and was the go-to girl for soundtracks.

And one last thing, I don't see how ppl are so taken aback by Timbaland comparing Ciara to Aaliyah. While I don't think the two are as similar as some say, there are definitley some similarties there. As far as the dancing, I'm pretty sure if Aaliyah was still alive her dances would've been more complex then what we see in her videos. But what she was doing for that time was on point and shuting plenty of folks down...Now hands down Aaliyah had a more fuller and controlled voice then Ciara but that definately came with time, cus honestly Aaliyah was not on top of her live vocals when she first began (which is expected cuz singing and live singing are totally two different monsters to tackle). Just my opinion.

As far as GaGa idk whose style she got, she's just a lil too extra to me; but talented nonetheless.