The music of the late R&B singer Aaliyah remains in a tug of war between her estate and her former manager-Blackground Records label head Barry Hankerson. The ongoing rift has kept most of her music off streaming sites but a new website popped up on Wednesday, Aug. 4, called www.aaliyahiscoming.com that may be a sign that her music will be released to the cyber masses.
The site includes a banner running with the hashtag “Aaliyah is coming” and then prompts fans to add information so they can be notified. Links then take you to Blackground Records 2.o. social media sites.
2.o. is a relaunch of the hitmaking label which once also housed Timbaland. While no official statement has been released if this means new music is coming, Aaliyah’s estate issued a statement seeming to state that new music was being released but they weren’t being properly compensated. They called the upcoming attempts to release her music an “unscrupulous endeavor without transparency or full accounting to the estate.”
Aaliyah’s estate responded with a hashtag of its own as well — #IStandWithAaliyah — and a statement explaining its main purpose was preserving her legacy, but also expressed its willingness to forgive the offending parties. Aaliyah collaborator Missy Elliott also shared the family’s statement.
“Protecting Aaliyah’s legacy is, and will always be, our focus. For 20 years we have battled behind the scenes, enduring shadowy tactics of deception with unauthorized projects targeted to tarnish. 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,” the statement reads.
Aaliyah died on Aug. 25, 2001, at the age of 22, in a plane crash. Members of her team were also killed when an overloaded plane went down shortly after taking off on its way back to the United States. They were all in the Bahamas shooting what would eventually be Aaliyah’s last video, “Rock The Boat.”
Check out the full statement below.
