Look at Aaliyah's sales in 2001. She already hit her peak and was on the downswing of her career. She was struggling to go gold in an era where everyone was selling platinum plus. Her lead single for her album that year peaked at at #59 on Billboard which was horrible for an artist of her caliber. Meanwhile Beyonce was killing it with Destiny's Child. You can make the argument that she was already bigger than Aaliyah at that point.
This is a myth.
1) Aaliyah's album went gold in under a month. That isn't struggling. She sold 180K the first week.

2) This myth that everybody was going platinum in 2001 is laughable. Puff, Foxy, and a bunch of artists who were platinum prior weren't going platinum in 2001.
3) Her having a lead single that peaked at #59 on the charts and her still pulling off 180K the first week compounds the fact that she wasn't struggling.
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