Age Ain't Nothing But A Number is Aaliyah's debut studio album that was released on May 24, 1994 by Jive and Blackground Records.
Tracklisting
- Intro 1:30
- Throw Your Hands Up 3:34
- Back & Forth 3:51
- Age Ain't Nothing But A Number 4:14
- Down With The Clique 3:24
- At Your Best (You Are Love) 4:52
- No One Knows How To Love Me Quite Like You Do 4:07
- I'm So Into You 3:26
- Street Thing 4:58
- Young Nation 4:41
- Old School 3:17
- I'm Down 3:16
- Back & Forth (Mr. Lee & R. Kelly's Remix) 3:44
Album Background
Aaliyah's uncle Barry Hankerson, was an entertainment lawyer who had been married to Gladys Knight.
As a child, she traveled with Knight and worked with an agent in New York to audition for commercials and television programs, including "Family Matters". When she was only ten years old she went on to appear on Star Search where she performed the song "My Funny Valentine".
Aaliyah chose to begin auditioning while her mother made the decision to have her surname dropped. She auditioned for several record labels and at the age of 11, she appeared in concerts alongside Gladys Knight.
She performed alongside Gladys Knight for five nights in Las Vegas. During the concerts, she would perform a number in the middle of Knight's set and she would also help close the show by singing a duet with Knight.
When speaking about her experience from performing with Knight, Aaliyah said "it was a great learning experience". She also mentioned, "I learned a lot about being on stage and how audiences react differently to various songs".
When Aaliyah was twelve, Hankerson would take her to Vanguard studios to work on demos with record producer and Vanguard owner Michael J. Powell.
In an interview, Powell stated: “At the time, Barry was trying to get Aaliyah a deal with MCA, and he came to me to make her demos.”
During her time working with Powell, Aaliyah recorded multiple covers such as "The Greatest Love of All", "Over the Rainbow", and "My Funny Valentine" (which she had sung on "Star Search").
Eventually Hankerson started shopping her around to various labels such as Warner Bros and MCA Records, although the executives at both labels liked her voice they didn't sign her according to Hankerson.
After multiple failed attempts to getting Aaliyah signed with other labels Hankerson then shifted his focus to getting her signed to Jive Records (the label that his artist R. Kelly was signed to).
According to former Jive records A&R Jeff Sledge the former owner of Jive records didn't want to sign Aaliyah at first because he felt that a 12-year-old was too young to be signed to the label. Sledge stated in an interview: "The guy who owned Jive at the time, Clive Calder, he’s also an A&R person by trade. He was basically head of the A&R department. Barry kept shopping her to him and he saw something, but he said, ‘She’s not ready, she’s still young, she needs to be developed more.’ Barry would go back and develop her more".
After developing Aaliyah more as an artist, Hankerson finally signed a distribution deal with Jive Records, and he signed her to his Blackground Records label at the age of 12.
When Aaliyah finally got a chance to audition for the record executives at Jive records she sang Mariah Carey's "Vision of Love."
Recording
After Aaliyah was signed to both Blackground records and Jive Records, Hankerson then introduced her to recording artist and producer R. Kelly.
When the pair first met Aaliyah sang an a cappella for Kelly which left him impressed with her voice and after that moment he decided that he wanted to work with her. He then became her mentor, as well as the sole songwriter and producer for her debut album.
Kelly was the only writer and producer credited on the album because the record label didn't want multiple people to share publishing rights.
According to Jeff Sledge: "Clive was a publishing guru, so he and Barry weren’t trying to cut a lot of people in on the album to share the publishing. They said we’re going to do this with one guy and the publishing will be easy to deal with because it’s one person".
Once the issue over publishing was fixed, both Aaliyah and Kelly began recording the album in 1993 when she was 14 years old. According to Aaliyah, it took about eight to nine months to record the album.
R. Kelly and Aaliyah worked on the record in Chicago during the summer while she was off from school for summer vacation. She would fly to Chicago from Detroit and they would work on the album.
While recording the album, they spent a lot of time hanging out together by going to arcades and bowling; this would help with the writing process because Kelly would "write the songs that fit her and what kids her age and her friends were talking about".
According to Aaliyah, "He just spent time with me, trying to see how I thought about things and what people my age think."
When discussing the writing process for the album, Aaliyah said: "We vibed off of one another, and that’s how the songs was built, He would vibe with me on what the lyrics should be. He’d tell me what to sing, and I’d sing it. That’s how the whole album was done."
The duo recorded the first song, "Old School", at the Chicago Recording Company in Chicago, Illinois and it took at least two days to record.
Aaliyah loved recording old school because that song "had an Isley Brothers flair” to it. When discussing the recording process for old school, she said: "At first, I had to get comfortable, but I had been around Robert, so it was cool. Both Robert and I are perfectionists, and if you listen to the music, there is a lot of passion in it.”
While recording the album, Kelly coached her as they worked several hours in the studio. She often sang the songs multiple times in order to achieve "excellence".
When discussing the hectic hours recording the album Aaliyah said, "We put in a lot of hours; as far as the music, we’d be in there all night making sure it was perfect. There were times when I was tired, but I knew I had to push on if I wanted to come off.”
Kelly claimed that Aaliyah was "one of the best young artists" he had worked with.
During the recording process for the album the record label was out of the loop in regards to the type of songs that was being recorded.
Executives from the label didn't hear the album until it was finished and they were impressed with the finished product. Sledge said: "When we finally heard the album we were blown away because the album was dope. It was basically like listening to an R. Kelly album, but with a little girl singing".
The original release date for "Age Ain't Nothing But A Number" was June 14, 1994, but due to the instant success of the lead single's accompanying video on MTV it prompted the label to release the album earlier on May 24, 1994.
Composition
On the album, Aaliyah sang her songs in a falsetto, she felt that the songs "came at you kind of tough, a bit edgy, hip-hop, but the vocals can be very soothing". According to Aaliyah, "lyrically I want things to be different."
The album is filled with "sunny" pop jams and "sweet" ballads and it opens with the intro track which is an a cappella public service announcement.
The intro song urges its listeners to listen to the album carefull, saying: "Listen to instructions carefully / While bumping this album in your jeeps / Aaliyah’s got a '90s swing / So be careful with the volume, please".
The next track "Throw Your Hands Up" is an anthemic up-tempo, G-funk-inspired song and it has been described as Aaliyah's "statement of purpose".
On the song, Aaliyah tells the listeners that she's "straight from the streets" with a "touch of jazz" in her.
The third track which served as the album's lead single "Back & Forth" has been described as an urban-dance cross-over song with pop and R&B influences.
On the song, Aaliyah sings with a "subtle, laid-back vocal" while she talks about partying on the weekend with her friends.
According to Billboard: "It doesn't matter that Aaliyah is 15. It’s the freakin' weekend, baby, so she's picking up her ladies—presumably in her jeep—and hitting the local party spot".
The fourth track "Age Ain't Nothing But A Number" is the title track for the album and it's about "a young girl pining for the love of an older man, and her telling society that it doesn’t matter the age difference between the two of them".
The song contains an interpolation from the song "What You Won't Do for Love" performed by Bobby Caldwell with the lines: "I got a thing for you, and I won’t let go.”
The fifth track "Down with the Clique" is a hip hop inspired song and on the song Aaliyah displays a "silky cooing" with her vocals.
The sixth track "At At Your Best (You Are Love)" is a cover and it was originally recorded by The Isley Brothers. It was described as a "sweet vintage soul ballad."
The seventh track "No One Knows How to Love Me Quite Like You Do" has been described as a "sensually" uptempo "crush" record and lyrically it is about Aaliyah being satisfied and how she is "made to feel like a goddess".
When discussing the record Aaliyah said, “Every girl looks for that one person who is going to love them right. That song is saying, when it comes down to it, I like how you satisfy me.”
The song features a guest rap appearance from Tia Hawkins who brings a "comic relief" with her raps telling us Kells is "spitting tracks as if it were tobacco." The eighth track "I'm So into You" also features another guest rap from Tia Hawkins.
The ninth track "Street Thing" has been described as a "pretty standard slow jam" and it's about having devotion for another person. During the bridge of the song Aaliyah sings about climbing the "highest mountain," and swimming the "deepest sea" to prove her devotion. The tenth track "Young Nation" is about Aaliyah "aligning herself with an entire movement".
The eleventh track "Old School" is about merging an old school style with a new school style, the opening begins with "Here's the old school / With the new school".
The final track "I'm Down" has been described as a mid-tempo rap-soul ballad and it's about "one person giving themselves fully to another".