source: The Juice

Thursday marks ten years since we were struck with the devastating news that one of music’s most talented artists, Aaliyah, had died in a small plane crash in The Bahamas.

One of Aaliyah’s close friends was her boyfriend, music mogul, Damon Dash. “My heart was broken. Nothing prepares you for that,” Dash tells Billboard.com’s The Juice.

Dame and Aaliyah’s relationship grew from a friendship that had sprung when they met through his accountant close to 2000. Soon thereafter the couple was inseparable, smooching in snapshopts and roaming from movie premieres, softball games to the Hamptons.

At the time of her passing the 22-year old Aaliyah’s acting and singing careers were skyrocketing. And Dame Dash was still running Roc-A-Fella Records, so the couple spent a lot of time apart. But Dame says that when they were together everything was perfect.

“The energy we created together for people to observe was kind of crazy. We’d be in a room full of people talking to each other and it felt like everyone was listening but it would be just us. It would be like we were the only ones in the room,” Dash says. “It was like something was going down in history every time I was with her. Every time I was around her I felt it was the place to be. Our time together meant so much that when we got more time, we felt like that [engagement] would be next. She was one of the best people I ever met. Even with the pain I felt, I would do it all over again.”