Aaliyah Talks 'Legacy' When She's 'Long Gone' in Old Clip on 44th Birthday

Aaliyah talked about what she wanted her legacy to be just before she tragically died at the age of 22.

The R&B and hip-hop artist said she wanted to be remembered as a good person after she was "long gone." Aaliyah, who would have turned 44 on Monday, died in a plane crash on August 25, 2001. The "Try Again" singer had been in the Bahamas filming a music video for her song "Rock the Boat."

A resurfaced MTV interview was shared on Twitter by a fan. In it, Aaliyah said she wanted to be known as a rounded entertainer who could "do it all."

"You know, right now it's hard to say what I want my legacy to be, what I want people to say when I'm long gone," she replied after being asked about how she wanted to be remembered after her passing.

"At this point right now, I want people to see me as an entertainer, someone who can do it all. That's how I was trained. My parents grew up loving the people of the classic movies, your Sammy Davis Jr., Frank Sinatra, those people who could do it all."

She went on: "I want people to look at me as a full-on entertainer and a good person. So, you know, we'll talk a few years down the line, and we'll see where my head is at then."

The Twitter user who posted the video Monday wrote that "even though we didn't have her for long, she accomplished so much in such a short amount of time and left an impact on music forever. happy birthday babygirl."

Online fans agreed with the original poster, saying that the world lost the singer too soon, although she did leave the legacy she had hoped for.

"This makes me so emotional because i just know she would have gone on to do even more phenomenal things. wish we could have caught up a few years down the line," wrote one person on Twitter.

Another added: "Mission accomplished." And a third wrote: "Beautiful girl we miss you dearly 💕 hbday 🎂 rest on.

The multiplatinum artist had five Billboard top 10 singles from her second and third albums, One in a Million and Aaliyah.

One in a Million, which was produced by Timbaland and Missy Elliott, peaked at No. 2 on Billboard's Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart in 1997.

Her controversial first album, 1994's Age Ain't Nothing but a Number, was recorded when she was a protégée of now-convicted sex offender R. Kelly, who married her when she was just 15.

Besides her successful music career, Aaliyah tried her hand at acting, starring in the feature films Romeo Must Die and Queen of the Damned.