Like many of us, music mogul Dame Dash watched as much of Lifetime’s Surviving R. Kelly as he could stomach. In an interview, the Harlem native shared his thoughts on the documentary, saying his former girlfriend, late singer Aaliyah, had trouble coping with the emotional trauma she suffered at the hands of the Pied Piper.
“I watched some of it yesterday, as much as I could tolerate,” Dash says at the 10:11 mark to Hip-Hop Motivation. “I’m not gonna lie, as a human, I was tight. I was tight about a couple things. Number one: There was a girl when she was even trying to talk about it and she couldn’t, and I remember Aaliyah trying to talk about it and she couldn’t. She would just leave it at, ‘That dude was a bad man.'”
Dash went on to break down how frustrating it was that he couldn’t help, saying, “It was so much hurt for her to revisit it. I wouldn’t want to revisit it without a professional. Whatever got done was terrible.”
The Roc-a-Fella co-founder dated the One in a Million singer until her 2001 passing. Soon after, Kelly and JAY-Z began recording their joint album, The Best of Both Worlds, followed by 2004’s Unfinished Business. Dame now claims he did not support the collaborations. He also questioned Hov’s morals for working with Kelly while being fully aware of the accusations against him.
“If you remember The Best of Both Worlds, you don’t see my name on that. I never wanted no part of that. I know I’m not f*ckin’ with that… I knew, morally, we weren’t the same,” Dash said referring to JAY. “So, to me, Roc-a-Fella was defunct. It was over. I couldn’t f*ck with it. It was something that, to me—I don’t wanna say unforgivable— but I couldn’t understand it.”
Dame refused to be credited on the album, donating his share of the profits to a breast cancer awareness organization that Aaliyah supported. He did, however, appear in the music video for R. Kelly’s “Fiesta (Remix)” featuring the Brooklyn MC.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyrcaHoKcS0
