![]() But the authorized Aaliyah channels still only have a limited amount of her music, including videos for singles from Age and a performance of hers from Showtime at the Apollo. Then, in August 2020, Aaliyah’s estate announced on social media that “communication has commenced between the estate and various record labels about the status of Aaliyah’s music catalog, as well as its availability on streaming platforms in the near future.” By the end of the year, the estate claimed it had gained control of the Aaliyah YouTube account. Both were soon taken down, but that same company would later release Ultimate Aaliyah on Apple Music and iTunes in 2017 that one was also quickly taken down. In 2013, a distribution company called Craze Digital put up One in a Million and Aaliyah for sale on iTunes, despite not having the rights for either. Well, the following years saw both fakeouts and potential signs of hope for the discog. Ouch! So, they wanted to put out unreleased music but wouldn’t do anything about her classics? Eventually, Hankerson sold a stake in Blackground’s publishing to Reservoir Media, one of the many companies that in recent years has been buying up historic artists’ catalogs at a fast clip. Various Blackground artists sued the label, and Hankerson’s legal team fought back viciously. ![]() But Hankerson soon went into seclusion, and not only did Blackground stop releasing music, but it didn’t participate in music’s digital transition at all: no mp3s for the iTunes market, no deals for streaming, and the CDs were allowed to lapse out of print. ![]() As How Music Got Free author Stephen Witt reported for Complex in 2016, Aaliyah’s demise sent Hankerson into deep grief: He “made no public statements about her death” and “never really recovered.” Blackground would continue to release music in the early 2000s, with a roster of stars like Static Major and then–12-year-old singer JoJo. Afterward, the only releases of Aaliyah’s music from Blackground were the compilations I Care 4 U and Ultimate Aaliyah.ĭoes her untimely death have anything to do with the digital dearth of her discography?Īlso yes. (Pardon the name-dropping, but all this will be important later.) That connection allowed Hankerson to work out a distribution deal with Jive-which, in turn, had an international distribution process with BMG-for his label.Īnd six weeks later, the plane crash happened. Hankerson decided to manage his talented niece as well, and after unsuccessfully shopping her around to various labels, he decided to launch and sign her to his own, Blackground Enterprises Kelly was already signed to Jive Records, which operated under the parent music company Zomba, which was partially owned by BMG at the time. When Kelly was enjoying his first taste of fame with 1992’s Born Into the 90’s-which was executive produced by Hankerson-the teenage Aaliyah was an aspiring child star, having appeared on Star Search and sang live with Knight onstage. In the early 1990s, Aaliyah’s uncle, Barry Hankerson, was an entertainment industry insider who had been previously married to Gladys Knight and just found a measure of success managing a then-unknown Chicago singer named Robert Kelly. ![]()
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