AALIYAH'S FAMILY WANTS ZOE SALDANA TO PLAY HER IN BIOPIC AND SPEAKS ON HER CAREER BEING SNUBBED CAUSE OF R.KELLY

Aaliyah’s family has been very vocal about not being in favor of the recently-confirmed Lifetime biopic that’s in the works, and now her cousin Jomo Hankerson, who manages Aaliyah’s record label Blackground Records and has been acting as the family spokesperson, is speaking out yet again.

During a recent chat on The Ryan Cameron Morning Show, Jomo touched on Aaliyah being a “legend,” who should play her in the biopic, and even the touchy topic of her marriage to R.Kelly. Check out a few interview excerpts below:

On why the family is against the Lifetime biopic:
We feel like [television's] really not the right platform. Aaliyah was a legend. She was a hugely influential artist on our culture… I think that she deserves the treatment of a ‘Walk The Line’ (about Johnny Cash) or a ‘What’s Love Got To Do With It?’ (about Tina Turner). A big, major movie.

On other problems with Lifetime doing the biopic & Zendaya playing the lead role:
You know, first of all, Aaliyah went through a similar situation after teh R. Kelly thing so, I hate to see a young woman go through that kind of backlash that she’s getting. She’s just trying to get a certain job so, it’s not her. Our problem is with Lifetime and the way that they did the project. I know that there’s gonna be certain things that they don’t cover, simply because they don’t have the knowledge.

My one problem with what Life time is doing musically is that they’re actually having the young lady re-cut Aaliyah’s vocals. So to hear somebody else on top of that….I can’t imagine somebody signing “One In A Million” as if she’s Aaliyah. That’s unfathomable to me.

On who should play Aaliyah in a biopic:
I would love to get Zoe Saldana. I think she could pull off the acting part and she’s obviously gorgeous and beautiful

Hankerson, who also briefly managed R.Kelly, then went on to respond to the million dollar question of whether or not Aaliyah & R.Kelly were actually married and shared some interesting information about how she was treated by the music industry once word of their relationship got out.
On whether or not Aaliyah and R.Kelly were actually married:
Well, umm, I’ll let that come out in the movie.

It won’t be in this movie, but it will come out one day. It’s not my place or the forum for me to really get into that, that’s why I just back off that.

On their relationship being controversial:
It was, at the time, it was….she was huge. He was huge…It was a lot of things going on like that. I think it was just indicative of the times. When you hear that first album [which R.Kelly helped produce] it was obviously a lot of creative chemistry.

On Aaliyah being snubbed by the music industry because of her relationship with R.Kelly:
Aaliyah got villainized — that’s the part that I never understood and that’s what made the transition to the second album difficult…It was hard for us to get producers…

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