Shortly before her untimely death, R&B songstress Aaliyah portrayed Akasha in Queen of the Damned, forever tying her to our nu world. In the years since her passing, tribute has been paid, and most recently, Japan's XG have interpolated and name-dropped the fallen icon in a song on their new album The Core.
XG, short for Xtraordinary Genes, put out a song called "Rock The Boat" on said album, and yes, one of Aaliyah's final hits was "Rock The Boat." In fact, it was in a plane crash while coming back from the filming of the song's music video where Aaliyah tragically died on August 25, 2001 at the age of just 22, barely older than some of the members of XG.
The group give their flowers, with rapper and new nonbinary icon Cocona referencing Aaliyah in one of their verses:
"OK we could take it two ways / Liyah worked the middle while singing on top of blue waves"
Ideally this tribute goes over much better than the last one paid to Aaliyah, in which a questionable mix of previously-unreleased song "Gone" topped the Adult R&B Airplay chart in September 2025.
Check out XG's "Rock The Boat" below:
