Aaliyah fans have long noticed that one of their favorite artist's catalogs, aside from Age Ain't Nothing but a Number, has always been unavailable on streaming services. However, that all is about to change in a matter of weeks because Blackground Records, Aaliyah's label home, has announced that it will be redistributing its entire catalog to streaming services as the first major move of its revival.
Aaliyah's estate has already made it known that it disagrees with Blackground Records founder (and Aaliyah's uncle) Barry Hankerson's decision, stating, "We have always been confused as to why there is such a tenacity in causing more pain alongside what we already have to cope with for the rest of our lives. Now, in this 20th year, this unscrupulous endeavor to release Aaliyah’s music without any transparency or full accounting to the estate compels our hearts to express a word - forgiveness."
Regardless of its opinion, however, it appears that Hankerson's decision to rerelease Aaliyah's music, along with Blackground classics from Timbaland & Magoo, JoJo, Tank, and Toni Braxton, is final.
According to Billboard, the full release slate for the newly revived Blackground Records — which the outlet says "[mirrors] the rollout schedule of a record label lining up a lucrative quarter" — is as follows:
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8/20 — Aaliyah (One in a Million)
8/27 — Timbaland & Magoo (Welcome to Our World, Indecent Proposal, and Under Construction Pt. II) and Timbaland (Tim's Bio: Life from da Bassment)
9/3 — Aaliyah ("Are You That Somebody") and Movie Soundtracks (Romeo Must Die & Exit Wounds)
9/10: Aaliyah (Aaliyah and "Miss You" music video)
9/17: Tank (Force Of Nature, One Man, and Sex, Love & Pain)
9/24: JoJo (JoJo and The High Road) and Ashley Parker Angel (Soundtrack to Your Life)
10/1: Toni Braxton (Libra)
10/8 — Aaliyah (I Care 4 U & Ultimate Aaliyah)
"All of these artists have serious fans, and if you do it wrong -- especially in this cancel-culture world of social media -- the attacks will start happening," EMPIRE's Tina Davis told Billboard. "So I think that one of the main things was trying to make sure that we represent them properly, thinking of how long it has been, how we approach it, how we make sure that the fans are OK with how we do approach it and how we do market it, considering them in every aspect. That was the only way for us to put it together."
In roughly two weeks, the rich archived catalog of Blackground Records will finally be hitting streaming services, so which rereleases are you looking forward to the most?
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