Last night, Timbaland sat down to watch Lifetime’s Aaliyah biopic starring Alexandra Shipp as the late singer. Unlike viewers, Timbaland wasn’t just curious about the film. He had a personal attachment to it because he had a very important role in Aaliyah’s life as a musician and friend.
When Aaliyah passed in 2001 from a tragic plane accident, Timbaland and Missy Elliott did as much as they could to take care of Aaliyah’s legacy with the late singer’s family. Thirteen years later, and a Lifetime movie, Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B , is out. The unauthorized biopic uncovers Aaliyah’s illegal marriage with R. Kelly and other dramatic elements about the singer’s life before her tragic passing. That said, both stars were portrayed in the film, but weren’t asked to give their opinion about casting or the storyline that daytime talk show host Wendy Williams produced.
Timbaland hosted an impromptu viewing party on his Facebook and Instagram pages by posting popular memes that reflected how he felt about the movie. As you could probably guess, Timbaland was not having it. His last Instagram post about the Lifetime production was captioned, “Lifetime Disrespects Aaliyah.”
As the Inquisitr reported , critics also went in on the Lifetime film based on its lack of quality, which is what we expect from Lifetime these days.
Timbaland’s fans seemed to agree with Timbaland and the critics. One fan wrote directly on Timbaland’s post . “I watched it and I found myself not paying attention to it.. I was like wow it so disrespectful of me not to pay attention… But that is not how I remember #Aaliyah. She was so iconic, a movie is not needed. Legends live on in people’s hearts.”
Another meme featured a collage of four disturbed photos with the caption, “Everybody Gonna Be Watching Wendy On Monday Like.”
At one point, the beat maker took shots at the horrible casting Lifetime did for the film by posting a collage of fake Lifetime spin-offs featuring fabricated casting announcements.
The film’s star, Alexandra Shipp, hasn’t said much about the backlash that she’s received, but she did take to her Twitter to retweet some of the positive responses, which were few and far between.
@AlexShipppp did phenomenal! She portrayed Aaliyah incredibly and sang her heart out like an angel. Very pleased with the movie
— lexii ? |-/ (@ablexxive) November 16, 2014
Well we all complained about #AaliyahMovie but yet we still watched it. @AlexShipppp is a very pretty girl I’m sure she worked hard 4 this — Armando Williams (@AtelzItLikeItIz) November 16, 2014
@AlexShipppp I feel you did really well & portrayed Aaliyah better than anyone else really could have. Stay positive beautiful
— C.L. Smooth (@chelslaurice) November 16, 2014
[Image via Lifetime]
