A Bit to Celebrate
One of the greatest moments of 2020 for me, was finding these two monumental Albums.
One day, i went to a local entertainment store that sells used books, CD’s, movies and things of that nature. Randomly, I decided to thoroughly look through their CD collections. I am talking genre by genre, artist by artists and disk by disk. Then BAM!, right there in my face, was the eternally; Beautiful, talented, graceful and all of the above Aaliyah’s Titled.
I could not believe my eyes, or the price. In my hand was the actual Album of Hip-Hop royalty. In hand, I was holding Aaliyah’s final project, and I felt so indebted to the universe, I swear I could have cried. There was no way that I was leaving that store without that Album, even if i had to take out a personal loan for it to be in my possession.
To my surprise, the project was going for the buyers price of no more than $5. Initially was offended because, why tf would they down-play Aaliyah like that. I don’t think they realized, or the people who sold them the CD realized, how outstanding this project is, even today. But who am I to question the universe, God or anyone in the mystical realm.
I continued looking through the array of music, and BOOM, “One in A Million”, right there. Im like damn is it my birthday ? It took everything in me to conceal my excitement. I was thankful that i was wearing a mask , because yo i was under there like “I cant believe this shit , i’m so turnt up. Do these folks know what this is, exactly?”
Together, I spent about $10 on both CD’s. Again i’m a little offended, particularly for Aaliyahs artistry, because that was cheap as hell. I did however find some solace when i googled the prices for them, and they are either (1) impossible to find a trusted source, or (2) priced for $50+.
I may just have to believe this was a moment meant for me, especially since I have not known peace since her funky-ass uncle put a gorilla grip on her music, and pulled her songs off streaming, and by extension my phone.
The only song I have from this era is “I Care 4 U”, a certified bop. But that’s because I distinctly remember purchasing that song, so it would’ve been big beef if they took THAT from ME.
This was one of my “Up’s” in 2020. Despite the bullshit of this year, I was able to find joy in some of the little moments, and by far, this was my favorite, and most memorable moment of the year!
These Albums, are by the way legit. I checked the CD inserts, and they checked out. The CD’s themselves are ingrained with the BlackGround Enterprise Copyrights and Serial numbers. SO its true, I own Aaliyahs project One in A Million (1996) & AALIYAH (2001)
