Photo Credit: Mika Väisänen
Aaliyah’s music is slowly starting to make its way onto streaming platforms after all of these years of legal battles. Her softmore album One in a Million that came out in 1996 has broke a new record of cracking the Top 10 of the Billboard 200 chart thanks to its August 20th digital release. It previously had a high of 18 on the Hot 100 chart.
When the announcement of her music to hit streaming platforms, well all except for her debut album that’s been out for years, her uncle Barry Hankerson, owner of Blackground Records wrote on Instgaram, “Thank you to all of her many fans for keeping her music alive. I’m sorry it took so long, but when you lose a family member so unexpectedly, it takes time to deal with that type of grief. I decided to release Aaliyah’s music in order to keep her legacy alive.”
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And all of this isn’t just a win for Aaliyah fans, Hankerson has signed a distribution deal that will see 17 albums released including projects from Timbaland & Magoo and Toni Braxton. He partnered with Empire toproduce this digital catalogue. This is a big day for music.
Another person this is a big day for is R Kelly who has had actions of his around the time of his marriage to Aaliyah be brought up in court as of late to include the fake ID obtained on her behalf to get it done. It’s also been revealed that a woman testified against him in court that he raped her at 17 days after marrying Aaliyah. So while Aaliyah’s name is on the tongues of fans excited to have better access to her music, we’re sure R Kelly is regretting just what he did with her and in his life at the time.
In a new interview with Rickey Smiley, Hankerson spoke about what it was like finding out what Kelly was doing with Aaliyah saying, “I found out, I wasn’t a hardcore criminal. I couldn’t kill nobody,” he explained. “So, I took it, I’m a Muslim, and I went to Minster Farrakhan and we just prayed about it, resolved ourselves to let God handle him. I think that’s what’s going on. Ain’t no sense in two lives getting destroyed.” Hankerson went on to say he has been actively avoiding coverage of Kelly’s ongoing trial in New York on racketeering charges. “It’s just too emotional for me. It just brings back too many bad thoughts for my whole family,” Hankerson said. “He impacted my whole family, you know. It’s just a bad thing.”
But back to her music… we’d like to wish happy streaming to her fans.
