Twitter was almost too hot to touch last night as the highly anticipated Lifetime original film ‘Aaliyah: Princess of R&B’ made its premiere – much to the chagrin of fans.
Setting the net ablaze, detractors lent many-a-meme ridiculing the film for its casting, acting, and even musical performances. The ‘Rock the Boat’ beauty’s fans took special notice to the criticism of her longtime collaborator/friend Timbaland.
Known for being behind the wheel of some of the singer’s most memorable hits, last night saw him behind the wheel of consistent slamming of the network for bringing to light a film many say “should never have been made.”
Did you watch it? Do you agree? See it all and weigh in below:
Timbaland (source: Instagram):
Hope yall not watching this!!!!!!!! Une photo publiée par Timbo the King (@timbaland) le
The ever outspoken Charlamagne the god of Power 105.1’s ‘The Breakfast Club’ went on a Twitter tirade as well:
*****
Even before viewers were able to lend their disapproval, critics universally panned the film. The feat prompted the movie’s producers (sans Wendy Williams) to go on the defense:
Via Washington Post:
Producers admitted that the fury “was hard to ignore, but you can’t dwell on it,” noting that these fans didn’t really know what was going on with production.
“Biopics are hard,” executive producer Debra Chase admitted. “People have an opinion and social media allows them to voice that opinion. But at the end of the day, our goal was to make the best movie possible.”
Your thoughts?
This was some true bull s***. I didnt watch cause i refused to give ratings and i knew it would have pissed me off even more, but i could tell by the media’s reception that it was beyond a mess. Smh. Casting was all off. I will however be watching wendy on monday to see if she says anything about it.
She won’t on live television, but she will on her aftershow on youtube.
Throwing dirt on the talented and BOOKED actors that did their job is SHADY AND WACK! But throw shade at the Production and who ever gave the GO AHEAD to make the film !
All in all this really puts a bad and soar twist to AALIYAHS hard working career and it isn’t fair to her! NOT HER FAMILY AND FRIEND!! She was the one WORKING HARD AND HER LIFE ENDED !!
Everyone needs to RESPECT HER
I agree. You shouldnt throw shade at the actors for being booked, BUT SONE IF THOSE ACTORS KNEW THEY dame well won’t right for the part. I.e-the person who played missy. Isk why she would even. This is the type of movies that will ruin a career. And then will see her on TV five years from now like Paula Patton talking about how Hollywood will give her roles.
Thank you!!!!…She worked extremely hard and her life was tooken away which is hard enough for her family and friends and fans to accept then you got trash like Wendys production team making half assed movies Against her families wishes
..But they didn’t make the best movie possible. I don’t place blame on Alexandra Shipp, she’s just the actress but she was not a smart choice. She didn’t have the swag that Liyah had…Wendy betta lock her studio doors tomorrow morning.
What are you talking about? Airhead Shipp knew that the family was against it. First things when you’re doing a biopic you should be concerned with how the family feels about it. There’s a reason why the original hirl, Keshia Chanté left and had halt production of the movie from 2009 til now. So everyone involved is to blame.
Buy Aquarious on iTunes.
Last night was monumental on twitter, the slander was out of this world lol. Wendy Williams and co. really messed up… real bad!
I agree with Charlemagne. It was extremely disrespectful for them to go through with this wack movie EVEN when Aaliyah’s own family said NO, they didn’t approve. It’s disgusting how they completely disregarded them and did it anyway in an attempt to show the “real” Aaliyah and what “actually” happened during her career.
Please.
That movie was hot garbage,make the best movie my ass. That was the worst of the worst and lifetime should be ashamed of themselves for airing that b.s. How can you say making biopics are hard when you successfully made two of them about killers not too long ago. Whoever produced this movie is an idot. Vh1 should of got behind this movie because clearly they know how to make a good biopic. Make the best movie possible my ass
They shouldve made reference to the loss of Aaliyah impacting music…. How R&B hasnt had a complete identity or fewer star to linking the past to the present state or R&B without her… The void of her in music… The emulation of her by todays artist…. THE DESPERATE NEED for her grace as a role model for young impressionable girls…. SO MANY roads couldve been explored… It was so sad
That is what should have been done people try to down play her but it is clear to see she was the future for R&B and once she left it slowly deteriorated
As a fan I was completely let down and disrespected. This “biopic” was nothing more than a hot mess. It didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know about Aaliyah. It’s sad that after all of her career accomplishments the biggest part of this movie was the R.Kelly segment. They wanted ratings and sold their soul to the devil to get them… Shame on you Lifetime. Shame on you.
Yall are lying if you can’t admit that Alex and the guy playing Timbaland’s mannerisms were ON POINT. Like don’t front and I understand some of yall are upset, but you have to admit that those two did a good job at channeling them. Everyone else should’ve been recasted though especially R Kelly. I do think the mom was a good fit though. I think the main issue was just the music and the storyline. It felt rushed. But I hope the next Aaliyah movie made casts Kylie Bunbury as Aaliyah because she looks just like her and could pass for 14-22 and she can sing act and dance. I do partially blame the family and Timbo and Missy though because if they listened to fans and made a legit movie years ago, this all could’ve been avoided. Even if they didn’t want to include certain stuff, they could’ve made it positive and focused on the music and had people satisfied…
I have to disagree she completely missed the essence of Aaliyah… her performance left more like Jordin Sparks than Aaliyah… Their accents were off and tonality was elementary. The Acting was NOT good at all, but it was secondary to the storyline…
If this movie did anything it was show that NO ONE. Oulu have done what Aaliyah did and she is irreplaceable, her swag, her vocal styling, her presence, creativity all of her was just One In A Million.
*could
Uhh…I wasn’t talking about the performance. The performance/singing sucked. I was talking about the acting during the regular scenes. When she talked and moved I definitely saw Aaliyah in her. And Jordin Sparks actually shouldve sung because she sounds like Aaliyah. Listen to Jordins song “Chocolate Brown Eyes”….Jordin can singer her ass off dont down play her….
Tasha! Biitch shut tf up! You’re a Bey fan so you damn sure don’t know what you’re talkin about!
I agree 110% those 2 actors did a good job and the only issues I had after watching lastnight is the film should have been made years ago and the musuc should have been used. No disrespect to the family but when you refuse to make a movie about someone who is loved as Aaliyah you tend to get the chance ripped from you. Thats just the way the business is. People need to stop being so sensitive. I think the film did a good job of showing how passionate and driven she was. We all know the only reason why the family didnt want this movie to be made anyway was because of the whole r kelly thing but who cares it was apart of aaliyahs life. I give the movie 3/5…the music and casting should have been better
I can’t believe, wait a minute, yea I can. That people that knew the family and everyone she knew was not involved with this mess. Yet still watched it and go on twitter and be like “what is this? This is bad, this isn’t correct, I want my two hours back”, when you KNEW this mess was gonna be just thay, a mess! So why did you watch? Why were you shocked? The book was basically wiki before wiki was a thing and it was about her career aka music. They film couldn’t get her music rights, so that’s a red flag. And no one that came in a 3 yardradius wwere involved to have her personal life info. So you had Wendy Williams. .. Wendy ducki g Williams, who build a career out of telling rumors. And you’re now on Black Twitter and posting reviews on YouTube as if your the Rolling Stones? Bye!
I TOLD YOU CRASHLIYA’S MOVIE WAS GOING TO BE A MASSIVE FLOP!!!!!!!
See how stupid the Pest are? Smh, go play in traffic.
Didn’t watch and knew it was gonna be a mess I think her hard core fans knew better than to watch but it is still upsetting that Aaliyahs name is on this wack movie.
I didn’t even flip through the Lifetime Channel chile lol 😉 Everybody knew it was gonna be hot garbage…much love and respect to Aaliyah’s family and friends….baby girl will eventually get a TRUE movie that she deserves in the movie theater….
Sad day but the backlash does show me that people never slept on Aaliyah and her crew because everyone is checking these people who made this movie. Many of use grew up during this time and we had a expectation because this is representing music of our generation. With it being so bad, I was able to see how much people really cared. With that being said I think it won’t hurt her legacy, thankfully it was so bad that people will probably want to see a great one later.
How do we not get anything about the one in a million album? A performance of “the one I gave my heart to”? Yes that was a great song by Aaliyah but this girl made me want to fall asleep…. And as a fan, I’m like why this? Give me a s*** one in a million performance from MTV spring break! And then nothing about “are you that somebody”???? They should have made a scene of her pretending to be Aaliyah at that video shoot or something… Wait a minute, they can’t because Tim and others that were actually there with Aaliyah who have raw footage were not ready for this film!
I’ll continue…. Show a couple trips of her promoting “we need a resolution” before she died, it was her last album! 106… Trl! What about the “more than a woman” performance on that late night show.
Did we forget “try again”! This needs to be about the music! I kinda was like, okay… When she started singing “at your best” but then it all went bad! “Try again” was like her cross over single right? That was big for her and having the most songs on that soundtrack, ugh.
Preach girl….a true biopic will make you want to go listen to that artist WHOLE discography afterwards…ie Selena …i was on tlc albums a full month reliving that moment this movie ANNOYED ME…and yall couldn’t get the budget to redo that rock the boat interpretation…vh1 did no scrubs!!! I wanted to cry during this movie at the end smh and feel we really lost someone at the end of the day I was glad it was over..and when did Damon dash become a fine yellowbone!
LMAO GOOD. I’m GLAD this mess was an epic fail. Wendell had no business putting his tacky hands on anything pertaining to Aaliyah. Especially without her family’s permission. RIP Baby Girl.
Keyshia Chante would have been a better choice. I now understand why Zendaya turned down the role. The production was cheap, and the fact that none of Aaliyah’s music was used is the worst. I want to hear Aaliyah’s voice not Alexandra’s… but still Kudos to Alexandra she tried her best and shes not the reason why the movie isnt good… she actually did ok…. but the overall script.and production was whack. I wonder how Wendy Willuams is gonna defend this one lol smh
Just glade I didnt watch it.
It was a terrible movie. I cringed throughout the whole thing…well the parts I actually sat through. I wasn’t a big fan of hers growing up, but I remember her having a girly tomboy swag with a really sweet soft spoken speaking voice. The actress did not. It’s not always about the looks, it’s about capturing the essence of a character.
Sherry , gurl you are EVERYTHING!
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This movie was terrible. Uncle Wendell Williams really let me down. HE has alot of explaining to do on this up comings Hot Topics!
Thank you boo KISSES!!!! :-*
In other news… Monica just hit the studio with Timbaland working on her new album.
Didn’t work for Brandy, won’t work for Mo. Those two been lost and directionless since Aug 25th, 2001.
Lies. I am a fan of both and they have their own lanes. Mo was always the sassy R&B girl who was wise beyond her years. Brandy WAS always the all American sweetheart (not anymore) with killer harmonies and runs (that so many try to imitate). All of their albums are good pre and post 8/25/01. As I previously stated, I was not the biggest Aaliyah fan, but I respect her. Her fans do too much IMO.
I don’t care how their sounds were. Their careers were taking pages out of Aaliyah’s blueprint. Aaliyah was always two steps ahead, even her 2ndaalbum came out two years before theirs. For Aaliyah to have lead roles in both of her films and first role, in a movie in theaters says who was the leader. While Brandy was doing kid tv shows and tv movies and non lead in I Know What You Did Last Sumer. Mo has always been a Brandy shadow.
You shouldn’t group all of her fans into one because of the opinions of a few…Most Aaliyah fans I knew respected and like Brandy and Monica like you said they had there own lanes and people were able to enjoy each individually or collectively.
I wouldn’t say Brandy took a page out Aaliyahs book since like you mentioned she did do movies and TV shows first but I think Aaliyah did the right thing in establishing herself in music 1st before she went into acting so that she gained a loyal following in music, Brandy did too much too soon and it burned her out to the point where she took a long hiatus without putting anything out their so once she he came back with no tv show, not doing movies, her fans missing her growing into a young adult because of her hiatus which made it hard to see the new Brandy image for that album and then got pregnant right at the start of her promotion for Full Moon it was all she wrote her. The personal stuff that came out afterwards(all the lies) was icing on the cake…As for Monica she was never destined to be a actress but musically people expected her to take that MJB route with her 3rd album also with a sprinkle of pop crossover ballads but when she didn’t deliver what people expected they turned their backs on her.
And I agree with that, but come on, clearly they used her career pasth, so did all the one name, young r&b singers in the 90s and late. Britney Spears and ChristianWho were very different, but you can’t say that Xtina and the rest of those blond, t*** pop stars didn’t use Britney strategy. Maybe not the artist, but the people behind them 100%
bg was more diverse/experimental she was ahead musically and they wasn’t on her level with fashion/music videos
I would say Aaliyah was ahead of the pack from a sonic stand point and visually which I believe is the reason why her career was primed to outlast Brandy and Monica, and why she wouldn’t have succumbed to the Beyoncé hurricane that plagued so many female artist, I don’t think the Brit and Xtina comparison is the same as this one because what killed Christina was her arrogance and mean antics off stage as well as her sudden jump from pop to urban with stripped unlike Britney who eased her way into urban…Xtina was too experimental for her own good she has never been able to establish a solid fanbase
either and Gaga is recycling the same mistakes that Xtina did while Taylor is pulling a Britney right before our eyes. But all in all had Brandys team done better with managing her she would still be a commercial force today because she had an IT factor and was experimental with her music and of course the talent is there.
It looked like an awful movie with terrible actors… I will drag like hell if the ratings were low…
Speaking of low ratings, 888k Oh The Flop Tour HByeO special comes to mind?
Oh I’m sorry I don’t remember Aaliyah going on a sold out stadium tour grossing $100 mill… And anyway Bey has the highest watched documentary on HBeyO… *sips tea*
888k ma’am. Two of the so called biggest stars and the GP chose to watch Bing Bang Theory and SpongBob reruns instead. #PoorDat
And no one put any effort into a film about someone that died 13 years ago that no one cared about… *sips tea
Must be why there’s an uproar, rwitter trending and so on. Stay mad and buy one of many flopping Beyoncé singles. Oh that’s right, you’re not American, wont count. #oops
Uproar??? B**** please… Maybe you should consider buying a Rihanna album since you know… Only ONE is x2 Platinum… Oh but wait! Her microwave singles make up for it so won’t count… How many Grammy nods did Rated R get???
Stay on subject hooker. You brought up ratings and I reminded you that Oh Yhe Flop special flopped. Get over it. When Gags has higher rating thN the so called Queen and Camel, Rihanna should be the last thing the Pest should be worrying about. #out.
Flopped??? How could it have flopped when the show got critical acclaim and made $100 mill??? Stay pressed…
You stupid pest are dumb. HBO TV SPECIAL FLOPPED. 888K = FLOP = NOT EVEN A MILLION VIEWERS = PEOPLE WATCHED RERUNS INSTEAD = CAUSE NO INE CARED. lol
Stop taking it out on Beyonce because your fave got a flop biopic. Typical bitter Aaliyah stans smh
Biopic or Nah, Filmakers have the responsibility to provide a premise for their work… If you werent making aint argument about something, sharing a lesson, or just accurately reliving her contributions, THERE IS NO REASON to make this film. I have hope for the Whitney project cause its about her music mostly and not the explicit events of her life… Aaliyah movie went wrong at creating a plot off of headlines and hearsay… They seemed to use wikipedia and told a story out of the context of a 3rd cousin, noisy neighbor, or church member who knew the family and friends but were never present at the actual moments depicted. The whole movie felt like a guess or inference of what really happened.
Basically this whole movie is based on gossip and alleged stories, nothing on her success or accomplishments. How disrespectful Wendy, this is not HOTTOPICS. I feel sorry for the girl who portray Aaliyah, there goes your career, make sure u hold on to those coins real tight, its all ur gonna get from acting. LOOOL!
She is on the new drum line movie so I don’t think she will suffer too much.
Wendy Williams producing it – Strike 1.
The Casting – Strike 2.
No permission from the family – Strike 3.
Being on lifetime – Strike 4.
Now all I can think about is we have 2 month left for the Whitney Lifetime Move… I hope Angela Bassett watching and paying attention cause…..????
And the RKelly thing didn’t even follow Aaliyah career. By the next year, it was all about One in a Million. Only thing we know is a marriage license that could’ve been photoshopped for all we know. Her and her team passed that, what brought it to life was her death for a bit and whay Kelly did on that tape. Wendy Production, I hope they go bankrupt. Lol
This movie was whack. Where can I begin? No one had swag. Everyone came off corny and boring. And in real life Tim, Missy, Aaliyah, and even R. Kelly p******** ass had swag. How you maks an Aaliyah movie and put Tim and Missy in one scene and a montage and relegate Fatima ( the woman behind Aaliyah’s smooth choreography) to a montage. She was stiff when Aaliyah was smooth. She didn’t even try to mimic Aaliyah’s voice when singing or talking. The wardrobe person must work at Citi Trends because nobody had on name brand clothing. They couldn’t even find a short wig to put on the Missy character or a decent bald cap to put on R. Kell or Dame Dash. The Behind the Headlines stuff contradicted some of the stuff in the movie. I can go on and on about the things that they got wrong….
lol the backlash is on a whole new level lol verified accounts are joining in on the dragging lmaoooo they really thought they was going to disrespect babygirl and just get away it lifetime fuckkked up
Lol what people don’t understand is she still has a loyal following and if she is done wrong by we will wake up out of our slumber and cause hell.
You all don’t even realize what’s going on here, a few things. If the family and friends would’ve just stopped being so stubborn and just did the movie in the first place then this wouldn’t be an issue. Why would you watch it if you knew you weren’t going to like it for whatever reason(s) just so that you could talk about it on social media, and that goes for everyone from the family to Timberland to the so called “fan base”. That’s just stupid and doesn’t make any sense, especially since they showed sneek peeks and previews and you all saw the casting, you knew what the movie was about and what is wad based off of but still watched and made yourselves look stupid on social media by talking about something that you knew you wouldn’t like but watched anyway. You blame the actors and actresses for portraying someone that’s not their fault, anyone would jump at an opportunity to play someone iconic in the music industry and people can’t be mad at that. Last of all this is a clear wake up call to the family to get the hell up and stop being so stubborn about it not being in theaters (which biopics rarely are anyway) and do it themselves the right way.
bittttttch shut the f*** up her family doesn’t owe us a motherfucccccking thing if they didn’t want a movie they don’t want a movie simple as that and you clearly is out of touch
You can never tell a mother who has lost her child to stop being stubborn and just release this movie because people wanna hear her story f**k your feelings…that’s cruel…I’ve been saying for the longest something in that trial about her death isn’t sitting right with Diane and Rashad (mother and brother) because they want nothing to do with the industry now…compared to earlier when they were cool with some footage of her being included in the Matrix movie as well as posthumous albums being released but once that trial ended they have been on this stance against the industry, they know something we don’t.
As a huge fan I didn’t watch the movie. I knew it would be bad. I thoroughly enjoyed the twitter dragging last night. What makes me upset is that the ratings will probably be very good for lifetime because so many people did watch. I wish no one had and then the movie would have really flopped. There would have been egg on producers face. The reality is Wendy and all them will get paid but at what cost. Now Wendy always talks about calling it the way it is. She better address this on Monday. And keep it real. No one was feeling this and I’m praying people in the audience call her out on it since it’s a live show.
Obviously they didn’t have the same budget as a big screen movie but just because it’s on television doesnt mean it should be crap.
This movie sucked! It was so bland I fell asleep on it twice. It’s like they didn’t know what to focus on after the R. Kelly segment. Any biopic of a singer that doesn’t include the music is a fail! No “Back and Forth”, “If Your Girl Only Knew”, “One in a Million”, “Are You that Somebody” or “Try Again”??? The most important part of the film was left out (the music). I’ll say this about the lead actress though, she wasn’t so bad. Let’s cut people some slack sometimes, nobody can be Aaliyah better than Aaliyah! I just wish Alexandra had better material to work with. The drama and rumors alone, isn’t enough to carry a film.
As honest at Wendy Williams claims to be.. They should have stop trying to be nice to Aaliyahs family.. Aaliyahs is a great person.. But if they would have told that story right. It would have been a very ugly and sad story. I KNOW FOR A FACT WHAT WENT ON. Thank you WENDY WILLIAMS for not telling the real story.. It is sad and awful. Next time get a choreographer who understands Aaliyah’s style. Too bad it didn’t have the music and choreography right.. The best thing and most accurate thing was the make-up artist in the film Eric… WENDY if you gonna go down that road as a producer, you must tell the good and the bad..
The whole thing is pathetic. It’s like no one wants to respect her legacy and let her rest in peace. I’m glad that social media did a huge backlash. They deserved it. I couldn’t even make it past the first 4 minutes.
I refused to watch. Alex and the others involved were only interested in a paycheck. All of them are responsible, not just Wendy.
The movie was a huge disappointment from the door.First of all it was on Lifetime not in theaters,huge fail.What where they thinking making an Aaliyah movie with all these unknown names??? That chick was soft as cotton and too bubbly.Aaliyah was beautiful but she had that hardcore badass edge.I didn’t see any of it in the actress.
Listen I didn’t watch the movie. I knew from jump that this “movie” wouldn’t tell me anything about Aaliyah that I didn’t already know. As far as the actress, I’m tired of people saying it’s not her fault. Like girl, TW0 people dropped out of this movie before you even got the role for poor production and because of disdain from the family. How can anyone have sympathy for you? ol’ girl didn’t even do her research. She had no Aaliyah mannerisms idc what any of you say. She pronounced her name wrong in all of her interviews. Did you all see the interview when she said ‘Try Again’ was her favorite song on the ‘one in a million’ album? like GIRLLLL that song wasn’t even thought of when one in a million dropped. This movie wasn’t made to do her legacy any justice, or to inform the new generation about her, it was to make money. They knew that millions would be tuning in to this movie so they used the lowest budget in order to make the biggest profit. It’s clear as day. So no, I don’t feel bad for the actress because she knew that this was a train wreck just like EVERYone else who was involved and dropped out. No I don’t feel like wendy actually cared to capture Aaliyah’s essence, she just wanted to make a film on a love story that never was. Like when were Aaliyah and R. Kelly in love? where did you get that information from? ugh just terrible. I think the saddest part is in life Aaliyah never got her just due and now even in death she still hasn’t gotten her just do. It’s heartbreaking. R.I.P. Baby girl.
Let’s be honest here… Aaliyah was never a huge artist. She’s gotten more attention in death than she ever did while still alive. Both Brandy and Monica owned the young female pop/R&B demographic in the 90’s and all one has to do is look at their record sales to confirm this. Aaliyah had a lot of potential and her music was definitely edgy but she was far from the “legend” or “princess of r&b” we’re pretending she was. No shade…just speaking the truth.
lies brandy has only outsold Aaliyah on one album which is never say never and monica albums were over shipped/over certified
Are u on drugs? Brandy by far has sold more albums and singles than Aaliyah and Monica combined.
*waits for the receipts from your truth* Chile Monica hasn’t even sold half of Aaliyah’s entire discography and that’s just domestically. Let’s not talk about worldwide. As far as Brandy goes she sold more than Aaliyah with one album. 1988 came, went, and so did she. No shade but once 2000 hit nobody was really checking for her like ya’ll claim they were. Aaliyah start rose once the turn of the millennium hit while Monica and Brandy hit a plateau.
I encourage u to do your research. Aaliyah was on Mya’s level at best! Brandy was the princess of r&b with Monica right behind her. Aaliyah started to get some shine when Brandy and Monica took a break. Aaliyah never even won one major award while she was still alive.