Atlantic Records’ Craig Kallman Remembers Aaliyah And Talks Discovering Timbaland

Since it’s initial airing on November 15^th, Lifetime’s bio pic, Aaliyah: Princess Of R&B was universally panned by fans, music industry professionals and critics a like. The controversial film has been considered offensive to many since it was produced without the permission of Aaliyah’s family, music producers, or just anyone who was ever actually connected to the singer at all. With that said, the flawed film is full of inaccuracies with a sloppy and disrespectful narrative focused too much on the wrong things, making the problems with the story’s facts evident even to the most passive of viewers.

This is especially true with a lot of the details of her music career. It is very obvious that the film’s producers did not have the rights to any of the music that defined her as an artist. This caused many of her career accomplishments to be mentioned in some very broad strokes. A good example of this is when the film addressed Aaliyah and her uncle’s label, Blackground moving from Jive Records, to Atlantic Records for second album One In A Million.  In that scene Aaliyah was seen meeting with a couple of Atlantic executives and Aaliyah’s frequent collaborators Timbaland and Missy Elliot are also mentioned for the first time. However, many fans may not know that the conversation that played out in that scene went differently in real life. We know this because back in 2011 Atlantic Records Chairman and CEO, Craig Kallman described to Clizebeats how he discovered Timbaland’s sound and introduced it to Aaliyah ,when he was the company’s VP of A&R back in the mid 1990s.. Listen to Craig remember Aaliyah and Timbaland in this uniquely critical Clizbeats exclusive.

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Video Still Of “Atlantic Records Executives” In Lifetime TV’s “Aaliyah: Princess Of R&B”

Atlantic Records’ Craig Kallman Remembers Aaliyah And Talks Discovering Timbaland

Clizbeats Productions 

Audio Feature Credits 

Host: Matt Clizbe

Interview By Craig and Matt Clizbe

Written, Produced, Edited, Mixed, and Engineered By Craig Clizbe

Additional Segment Writing and Production By Matt Clizbe

Special Thanks: Craig Kallman , Ashley Kalmanowitz  Atlantic Records, Anna Marie Azocar and “Hollywoodd Dots”

Related Media 

Aaliyah 

“One In A Million”

From One In A Million

Blackground/Atlantic Records