(AllHipHop News) At the time of her tragic death in 2001, R&B star Aaliyah was in a serious relationship with music executive Damon Dash. For years, there have been rumors the “One In A Million” singer was also once romantically connected to Dame’s Roc-A-Fella Records partner Jay Z.

[ALSO READ: Timbaland Says He Has More Unreleased Music From Aaliyah On The Way]

Dash sat down with Hip Hop Motivation to discuss the vocalist/actress also known as Baby Girl. The Poppington Academy founder revealed both he and Jay were pursuing Aaliyah.

“I was going at her, but Jay was going at her. He knew her before I did,” stated Dame.

He added, “It was a situation where Aaliyah was the type of girl that would give you a shot. She didn’t care what people thought. So she’ll date you and be your friend. But you might end up in the friend zone… You wasn’t gonna just hit that. At least that was my experience.”

Jay has expressed he was very close to Aaliyah before her passing. The Brooklyn emcee recorded the tribute track “Miss You (Remix)” not long after the 22-year-old died in a plane crash. The song included Hov declaring Baby Girl was “part of the Roc.”

According to Dash, he and Aaliyah started off as just friends and then later grew closer. Dame even compared his relationship with the platinum-selling performer to the relationship of Dipset member Cam’ron and his girlfriend JuJu.