The Late R&B Superstar Aaliyah's Music Is About To Be Released For Streaming — So What's The Problem?

If Aaliyah's name is popping up in your newsfeed in recent weeks, there are couple of reasons why. The vocalist and actress who died in a plane crash on Aug. 25, 2001, in the Bahamas is now at a maelstrom of controversy.

• The new, unauthorized biography, "Baby Girl: Better Known as Aaliyah," by Kathy Iandoli, has a chapter featuring information from a person on site who claimed Aaliyah may have been drugged before she got on the flight that killed her.
• And, against the wishes of Aaliyah's estate, Blackground Records, owned by her uncle Barry Hankerson, is about to release her music again in print, and for the first time, to be streamed.

A Brief History Of Aaliyah: For those who weren't around or of age in the 1990s, much of her music and career has been a mystery because it has not been readily available since her death.

Aaliyah stood out during the 1990s music renaissance that included Mariah Carey, Nirvana and Nas, to name a few. It was 1994, when the Brooklyn-born, Detroit-raised vocalist was introduced to the world and fame at age 15 with the debut album, "Age Ain't Nothing but a Number," and was crowned the "Princess of R & B" and "Queen of Urban Pop."

Before her death, Aaliyah's career was in full swing — she had two Grammy nominations, her third album, the self-titled "Aaliyah," had just been released in July and she had pivoted into acting with roles in "Romeo Must Die," for which she also contributed four songs; "Queen of the Damned," based on the Anne Rice novel of the same name; and was cast in a role for "The Matrix" sequels.

Aaliyah was born in 1979 as Aaliyah Dana Haughton.

Why Is This Important? Like most musicians, her catalog of songs has increased in value. And like most things in the music world, who owns what can be a bit complicated.

Hankerson, who was once married to Gladys Knight, was a music producer and manager. He signed his niece to Blackground Records after he lined up a distribution deal with Jive Records for "Age Ain't Nothing but a Number." R. Kelly, who also has songwriting credits, produced the album.

It was also during this time there was an alleged illegal marriage between Kelly and Aaliyah, who was 15, with someone in Kelly's camp supposedly getting her an ID that said she was 18.

(At the time, both Aaliyah and Kelly denied this, but it is being submitted as evidence at his federal sex-trafficking trial starting next week.)

"Age Ain't Nothing but a Number" is the only album of Aaliyah's that up until now could be legally distributed — it can be found on streaming services such as Spotify Technology SA SPOT, for example — because Jive Records, currently a subsidiary of Sony Group Corp SONY, holds the copyrights.

It was the allegations of the illegal marriage that caused Aaliyah to move from Jive to Atlantic Records, where she recorded two more albums

It's these subsequent albums — "One in Million," released in 1996 and including Missy Elliott and Timbaland among the producers, and "Aaliyah," for which Blackground Records owns the masters. Since she did not write her own music or lyrics, her estate has no stake in the songs' publishing copyrights.

And that's where the recently announced "Blackground Records 2.0" comes in. On the label's website and on Instagram, there is a list of release dates: "One in a Million," Aug. 20; "Aaliyah," Sept. 10 and two compilation albums, "I Care 4 U" and "Ultimate Aaliyah" on Oct. 8. 

On another site, "Aaliyahiscoming," fans can sign up for reminders.

But her estate isn't too happy about this, even though back in August 2020 a CNN article stated that it had started discussions with various record labels to release the portion of her music catalog that wasn't streaming already.

In an article about the controversy, Pitchfork magazine shared a recent statement from her estate via its attorney Paul LiCasi.

"For almost 20 years, Blackground Records has failed to account to the Estate with any regularity in accordance with her recording contracts. In addition, the Estate was not made aware of the impending release of the catalog until after the deal was completed and plans were in place."

In an interview with Billboard magazine, Blackground Records said it sent a royalty statement to the estate in early 2021.

Billboard magazine also dived into the numbers of what her catalog is worth and came up with some interesting statistics.

"According to MRC Data … 6.38 million are from Aaliyah's works; over the past decade, despite only being available largely through years-old streams of user-generated uploads on YouTube, it has racked up another 1.68 million equivalent album units, 1.01 million of which are from the Aaliyah catalog."

Also according to Billboard, "unopened CD versions of ‘Aaliyah' and ‘One in a Million' go for at least $100 on online resellers like Amazon AMZN, with vinyl either not available or pushing into the several-hundred-dollar range, and even used CDs are rarely below $30, usually hovering around the $50 mark."

How much this is worth is anybody's guess, but with the recent controversies in the news, it has brought attention to the catalog.

But don't forget Aaliyah's enduring legacy, as she is credited with shaking up R&B, bringing a mix of different genres, such as hip hop, into its beats. She has influenced the sound of Rihanna, Beyoncé, Normani and Bebe Rexha, to name a few.

Is the world ready for Aaliyah's music? Yes, and Blackground Records, which is working with EMPIRE to distribute it, seems like it is going ahead whether or not the estate approves.

Photo: Aaliyah in Berlin May 2000, Mika Väisänen, Mika-photography, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wiki Commons)