Damon Dash Opens Up About Aaliyah’s Death on ‘The Real’: ‘If I Was There, It Probably Would Have Been Different’ (Exclusive)

Colin Stutz
·2 min read
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It’s been nearly 15 years since Aaliyah died from an airplane crashed in the Bahamas, but her passing is still affecting those who were close to her.

Speaking with The Real (in an episode airing Tuesday, April 19), the iconic R&B singer’s ex-boyfriend Roc-A-Fella Records co-founder Damon Dash reflected on the scenario that led to Aaliyah’s untimely passing, saying if he had been there things probably would have been different.

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Host Jeannie Mai asked Dash about a comment he had made on a recent episode of the VH1 reality show Family Therapy With Dr. Jenn, where he said that Aaliyah’s death — as well as that of his mother — had turned him into a monster, wondering whether there as any chance he could have been on the doomed plane.

“There is no chance that, if I was there, we would have been on that plane.” he said. “So it would have never happened that way.”

Dash explained that he had been against her going to the Bahamas to shoot the “Rock the Boat” video in the first place, but she felt like she had to go. And when she told him that she didn’t like the plane that they were supposed to fly out on, again he warned her against it.

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“She told me she was going to the Bahamas and I was against it, like, ‘Yo, don’t go.’ And then down to the last — we had the Blackberry — down to the last Blackberry that we had, before she went there, she was like, ‘Yo, I don’t like that plane.’ And I was like, ‘Don’t get on it.’ And she was just like, ‘You know, I gotta do it.’ You know, it was a complicated situation, but she had to go do that video.”

On returning to the States from the video shoot, Aaliyah and her entourage decided to leave the Abaco Islands a day early. In so doing, they took another, smaller plane than had been originally planned, and wound up crashing shortly after takeoff.

“If I was there, I would have made sure that that jet that was supposed to be for her … she would have been on that,” Dash continued. “I wouldn’t have got on that plane, you know what I’m saying? So it probably would have been different. But you know um, everything happens for a reason. You know, and what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger and you just gotta deal with the cards that life deals you.”

Watch the exclusive clip below.

 

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