Dame Dash is once again setting the record straight about his relationship with Aaliyah, firmly denying the long-standing rumor that he dated her after Jay-Z.
Appearing on the YouTube series POV earlier this week, the Roc-A-Fella co-founder was asked point-blank whether his romance with Aaliyah began after Jigga had already dated her. Dash shut that down immediately.
“He did not [date her]. He was trying her,” Dash said (around the 47:09 mark in the video below). “Everybody put they bid in. I’m going to tell you right now. As a man, I’m never, ever ever wifing a girl that any of my friends smashed. It’s not happening.”
Dash insisted that years of media reports and speculation twisted the truth. According to him, neither he nor Jay-Z was in a relationship with Aaliyah at the time they were both pursuing her.
“I just told you that, now you’re reading the papers wrong,” Dash said after a host questioned why he supposedly dated the “Rock the Boat” singer after his former business partner. “We were both putting in our bid. None of us had scored. That’s how it went.”
He stressed that Aaliyah was one of the most sought-after women in the industry at the time — and plenty of men, not just him or Jay-Z, were interested.
“We were all trying to get at Aaliyah. Everybody,” Dash said. “Just ’cause he tried and gave flowers and got denied don’t mean I can’t try, and win.”
Dash added that his relationship with Aaliyah wasn’t rooted in any competition between him and Jay-Z, insisting she gravitated toward him on her own.
“There must be something attractive of what I’m doing,” he said.
His latest comments come months after he cleared up other resurfaced moments involving Aaliyah.
Back in October 2024, Dash addressed why he appeared in R. Kelly’s “Fiesta” music video, explaining it was tied to Jay-Z’s business dealings with Kelly at the time. Dash said he told Aaliyah about the situation and made sure she knew he didn’t want to be closely associated.
