Why Aaliyah’s Family Is Still Fighting in Court — 5 Years After Her Music Catalog Returned
Categoria: Musica
Billboard traces the various legal disputes that have pitted the late star's family members against one another since her music was re-released in 2021.
Por Billboard | 25/09/2026
In May 2021, three months before Aaliyah ’s music catalog returned to market after a decade of infighting over her estate, the late singer’s family members signed a deal directing how they’d split up royalties once Blackground Records began making money from it again. It wasn’t long before that contract became the topic of lawsuits — and now, five years after a moment that was supposed to end the long-running family drama for good, the court fight is ongoing. Related Legacy Publishing Launches With 800‑Song Catalog Featuring Aaliyah, Missy Elliott, Timbaland Billboard to Add Smart Media Albums As Chart-Eligible Sales Formats Duane 'Keffe D' Davis Gives First Interview After Tupac Shakur Murder Conviction That’s perhaps unsurprising. Aaliyah’s family was well known for feuding during the decade her music was out of circulation — a fact some say is to blame for the catalog’s long dormancy . Historically, the disagreements were between Barry Hankerson , Aaliyah’s uncle and the owner of Blackground Records, and the late singer’s estate, controlled by her mother, Diane Haughton . But the contract in question didn’t involve Diane. This time, Barry is pitted against Aaliyah’s cousin, Jomo Hankerson — his own son. In the May 2021 deal, Barry and Jomo Hankerson signed a written agreement granting Jomo a 20% stake in Blackground. The Blackground catalog encompasses most of Aaliyah’s music, including her albums One in a Million and Aaliyah , as well as early masters for Timbaland & Magoo, Tank, Toni Braxton and JoJo. The contract coincided with Barry finally agreeing, after years of stops and starts, to a distribution deal with EMPIRE that would finally make the music available again. The Bay Area-based music company put out the Blackground catalog as planned — on streaming services for the first time, and re-issued in physical formats after years out of print — via a series of rolling releases between August and October 2021. While the music releases went smoothly and led to commercial success, including top 10 entries on multiple Billboard charts, trouble was already brewing behind the scenes. Jomo sued Barry at the end of the release schedule, claiming in an October 2021 lawsuit that his father had not delivered his 20% of the profits as promised. Related Aaliyah Lands Her First Adult R&B Airplay No. 1 With ‘Gone,’ Featuring Tank In response, Barry leveled a shocking claim: that Jomo had coerced him into signing over an unearned 20% share in Blackground by stealing Aaliyah’s master recordings while his father was recovering from a stroke in early 2021. According to Barry, Jomo threatened to leak the masters online — ruining the then-pending deal with EMPIRE — unless he was given a hefty stake in the catalog. Barry said he had given Jomo the shares under “great duress” while still in fragile health and sought to void the contract entirely. Ultimately, Jomo and Barry resolved the lawsuit in late 2022 with a settlement, in which