In this week’s episode of VH1’s Family Therapy, Dame Dash touches on how the loss of his mom and former girlfriend Aaliyah affected him as a person. The reality show is based on famous families receiving group therapy to help them in their personal issues. The music mogul is featured on the show with his two estranged brothers, Jeremy and Bobby Dash.
Dame talks about how his grief turned him into an “animal” and that his biggest fear is losing the people he loves. “Everything that scares me is losing people I love and everything that I’ve really loved, as it relates to females, I’ve lost.” He then takes his self-reflection even deeper by saying how hard it is for him to show compassion and open up to people since their passing.
This kind of public vulnerability is unusual for the co-founder of Roc-A-Fella Records, known for his outlandish statements on how to be a boss. Dame started Roc-A-Fella Records with fellow Hip Hop entrepreneur JAY Z and Kareem “Biggs” Burke in 1996. He was dating R&B legend Aaliyah at the time of her death in 2001, when her plane crashed on the way back from shooting her music video for single ‘Rock The Boat’ in the Bahamas.
In previous interviews Dame spoke about how he planned to marry Aaliyah one day and was deeply in love with her: “She was the one, she was definitely the one for me. It wasn’t an official proposal, we had just talked about it, you know?” He also described their relationship as: “It was like being able to be with your homeboy and your girl at the same time. … We just generally had a lot of fun together.”
You can catch the full episode of Family Therapy tomorrow night (April 13) on VH1 at 8/7c.
