Aaliyah - "Are You That Somebody?"
A celebration of midriffs
It’s my one-year Moves-iversary! 🎉 In celebration of this momentous occasion, I’m talking about one of the best dance videos of all time, brought unto this earth via an incongruous movie soundtrack.
Behold the power and glory of Aaliyah:
There are two weirdsies I need to get off my chest right away with this one:
This song was not released on an Aaliyah album, but as part of the 1998 soundtrack to the Dr. Doolittle movie starring Eddie Murphy. You would never know, except for the fact that Aaliyah is chilling with a hawk.1 This movie and this song is such a bonkers pairing.2
The baby noise. It’s so strange the first time you hear this, but eventually you can’t imagine the song without it because Timbaland, the producer of this song, is a genius. I once wasted half a work day trying to figure out where the original sample came from and who the baby was. Turns out it was part of an “Authentic Sound Effects” album from 1964 that Timbaland got a hold of and no one can track down the actual baby who did the cooing and laughing, but here is more information if you also wish to waste half a work day.3
Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s get to these moves!
The vague plot of this video is “let’s meet up in this secret futuristic cave and dance” and I’m all for it. I would kill for a secret futuristic dance cave.
All the men are late for the dance meetup, even though they rode motorcycles there, and the ladies are pissed:
So they waste no time and jump right into one of the most iconic moves, which is everyone doing bird arms right after Aaliyah says “hawk in the sky.” I love literal choreography!
I once took a 90-minute dance workshop specifically for learning the choreo to this song (and really just 30 seconds of this song) and the hawk arms are one of the few things I remember. And you better believe that I WILL do that move whenever this song comes on at a party.
The outfits in this video are on point. All the women look like cool-palette Sporty Spice, which works really well in this icy future dungeon. I think by this point Aaliyah was contractually required to show off her tiny waist at all times, which must have been an insane amount of pressure. But also she was 19 and maybe riding the high of a great metabolism! Who knows! This was an era of crop tops and tight abs that I sure don’t miss, but I’m glad Aaliyah and her dancers got to thrive in it.
All these women are strong as hell. This video is a like full workout class that includes floor work:
And then we have more perfect literal choreography! Aaliyah asks “won’t you pick me up?” and the men slide in like “how high?”
And then she reminds us what sleepytimes look like (another easy move to do in da club):4
OH YEAH and how could I forget about this sweet move? We also learned this in the dance workshop and I need to practice it:
Between that, hawk arms, and sleep sleep sleep I think I could really kill it on the 90s throwback dance floor.
And then maybe I’ll work my way up to this one:
Whenever we do floor stuff in dance class, the teacher usually offers an alternate standing version, so I like that Aaliyah is demonstrating that option here. Even Aaliyah needed to protect her knees sometimes!
I really love how much this video highlights the women dancers. The men are great, and they get their moment during Timbaland’s verse, but even then they’re mostly in darkness. It makes sense for a song about a woman telling her secret lover what she needs. Even at the very end of the video, after everyone changes into their sexy evening clothes and starts dancing a flamenco, the men slide up all impressively with their chests out, but the ladies just wave their fans like they’ve got some other future cave to go to after this one:
I have trouble listening to Aaliyah without thinking of her tragic death. I confess that she wasn’t fully on my radar in the late 90s/early 00s as I was still in my annoying “I’m too cool for R&B” phase while listening to Reel Big Fish on repeat. A decade or so later, after opening myself up to all kinds of music and getting into dance classes, I finally started to appreciate her music. I once drank too much vodka at my friend Andrea’s house5 and made her and her boyfriend play a bunch of Aaliyah music videos on YouTube while I went on a passionate tirade about how tragic it was that she died right before 9/11 because the nation didn’t properly mourn her. There’s some truth to that, but I think I was really processing my feelings about MYSELF not properly mourning her because I was a 17-year-old listening to ska-punk at the time.
We can still mourn the loss of Aaliyah, but we can also celebrate what she (and Timbaland and choreographer Fatima Robinson) created while she was here. And thanks to her distinctive look and the weird way that fashion moves in 20-year cycles, there are now teenagers in my Queens neighborhood wearing tiny tops with giant cargo pants and chunky sneakers and swoopy hair all in their eyes. Do they know the flying hawk move? I can only hope so.
Thank you for reading, whether you’ve stuck with The Moves since I forcibly sent it to you a year ago or you’ve just joined this month! It is really a joy to write this, and I hope that someday I can post more frequently because I have SO MANY videos I want to talk about. Seriously, my “to write” list just keeps growing and growing.
It’s my goal to reach 100 subscribers by the end of 2024. I know that in the Substack universe that’s a teeny tiny amount of subscribers, but I like small, achievable goals!
So as my Substack anniversary gift, if you follow me here on Substack, why not subscribe? It’s free! And if you already subscribe, why not share this post with someone else who likes dance and gifs and pop culture?
In return, I can promise you more vids, more gifs, and many more deep thoughts about dance and life itself.
See you next month!
Love and jazz hands,
Molly
Another version of this video includes clips from the movie on the cave walls, perhaps to more forcibly remind us of the connection. I’ve embedded the non-Dr.-Doolittle version above because it’s less distracting and the video is better quality.
See also the Batman Forever soundtrack from 1996. Weird Batman movie! Excellent soundtrack!
Bonus learning: the beat was inspired by the Oompa Loompa song in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory!
I don’t know which club. I don’t know any clubs. I hate waiting in line. Is there a club in NYC without lines where I can do my Aaliyah moves? Please let me know in the comments.
Haha, “once”
But what about the lipstick!? I was all about 90s R&B so I had Aaliyah on repeat and was obsessed with the belly chain! I wish I had a dance workshop because I know I looked like an idiot trying those moves, but it didn't matter too much alone in my bedroom with my boombox
I remember injuring my tailbone in that Aaliyah workshop!