Aaliyah: Ballads to Bullets © Details Magazine April 2000

By: Josh Dean "Kung Fu can be a turn-on," says Aaliyah. "Watching an attractive sexy guy who can fight..." Her voice trails off at the clearly suggestive thought. Don't misunderstand: The 21-year-old singer doesn't have some bizarre jones for David Carradine. In March, she makes her acting debut in Romeo Must Die, an adrenaline-stoked hip-hop action flick featuring the balletic fight moves of Hong Kong import Jet Li. "Watching Jet is absolutely mesmerizing," she gushed. "He's got an appeal like Bruce Lee." Unfortunately, you won't hear her wax any more lascivious on the subject. Though the soulful siren can sing about being "Hot Like Fire" with the aplomb of a one-woman En Vogue, in reality, she's as Clorox-clean as they come. "I'm a nice girl," says the singer, who became an instant sensation at the age of 15 when her debut album, Age Ain't Nothing But A Number, burst into the MTV set in '94. "And very family oriented." Those familial ties include veteran record executive Barry Hankerson, an uncle of Aaliyah's who got her started in the biz then she was a kid growing up in suburban Detroit. It wasn't long before an 11-year-old Aaliyah Haughton was backing Hankerson's ex-wife-Gladys Knight-in Vegas. "It was intimidating," recalls Aaliyah. "But she was sweet. She taught me alot about working an audience." With a new album die in the next year, and a slew of movie projects to consider, Aaliyah has proven that not all child stars end up on E!'s True Hollywood Story. "I'm a simple girl," she says, "who works hard at her craft." And who has a thing for men in black belts.