Blackground Records

Blackground Records is an American record label, owned by entertainment attorney and artist manager Barry Hankerson and his son Jomo Hankerson. The label has been home to Aaliyah, JoJo, Timbaland & Magoo, Tank, and Toni Braxton.

Company History

Formerly management firm The Midwest Group, which Barry Hankerson used to launch the career of then up and comer R. Kelly after he left the incarcerated David Hyatt's Tavdash Records, became Blackground Enterprises. Barry Hankerson formed the record label in 1992 to "develop, promote and capitalize" on his teenaged niece Aaliyah's "musical talents" after she was turned down by every other label in the business. Hankerson's sister, Diane Haughton, who previously wanted to have a singing career, urged him to help push her daughter to stardom, and they were willing to do whatever it took. He was able to secure a distribution deal with Jive Records, through his relationship with R. Kelly whose 12 Play already went double platinum. R. Kelly owed Hankerson a favor for his work and in 1994 he wrote and produced Aaliyah's entire debut album scoring 2 gold singles, before the "marriage controversy" hit later that fall. After which the family ordered the girl to keep her distance from Kelly, though Hankerson continued managing the r&b star until 1998. Yet, by then Blackground's deal with Jive expired and in 1996 Hankerson struck a lucrative deal with Craig Kallman at Atlantic Records, just before the release of Aaliyah's second album, One in a Million. However, things soured and they split in 2000 under bad terms. An executive was noted for his quote that he "felt sorry for Hankerson's future labelmates who will now have to deal with him". Often playing distributor hopscotch, in 2000, Blackground switched over to EMI's Virgin Records. Two years later, it moved again after Virgin failed to pay Aaliyah's funeral expenses. In 2002 Blackground found an apparently more permanent home at Universal Motown Records Group.

The Aaliyah Ordeal

In 2004 Blackground was granted rights to hold Instinct Productions accountable for the loss of Aaliyah after her ill fated "Rock The Boat" video shoot, as ruled by Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Carol Edmead. She noted during the hearing that there was never any conclusive evidence that Aaliyah was ever treated like an employee of Blackground Records but that she (or her parents, because of age when she signed her contract) had a 10% stake in the record label, therefore making the third party liable for any future losses Blackground would sustain due to losing their only true star. As stated in Edmead's judgement the lawsuit was "not an improper attempt by an employer to recover damages incurred as a result of the wrongful death of an employee but is an ordinary negligence claim seeking recovery for damages allegedly arising out of the negligent destruction of a valuable property asset." However, In 2005 the ruling was overturned by a Manhattan appeals judge who deemed the lawsuit "frivolous" and stated "The concept that a person is a property asset of another is, of course, abhorrent to modern-day thinking. Courts almost universally reject the antiquated proprietary view of the master/servant relationship." The judge sited that only Aaliyah's mother and father could sue, which they already did and reached an out of court settement.

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Blackground's Future

Blackground prefers signing multi-talented artists/entrepreneurs who are good at CEO and managerial work ,including joint ventures with Static and Tim Barnett's SWATT Music (formerly Southernaire Entertainment), Cliff Jones' Big Dog Entertainment, Lil Flip's Kingpin Entertainment, and the recent aquisition Trak Starz, who helped to launch the careers of Chingy and Houston. In 2003 Blackground signed Toni Braxton to a three album deal, although she had already been a client of Barry Hankerson. Also in 2003 Hankerson signed JoJo whom he saw potential in and a year later she made the first album on the label to go platinum without having an obvious link to Aaliyah (Timbaland & Magoo's "Welcome To Our World" and the soundtrack to Romeo Must Die and Dr. Dolittle" were sucessess but that could be attributed to Aaliyah's presense on all of them). Blackground are committed towards preserving their legacy in an Aaliyah-less future, as they evolve in an ever changing music industry.

Blackground Records

Company History

The Aaliyah Ordeal

Blackground's Future

The following artists are or have been signed to Blackground

See also