Aaliyah's Estate Comes out Swinging in Battle Over Potential New Music Release

 

Photo by Mika Väisänen

Nearly twenty years after Aaliyah’s tragic death in a plane crash at 22 a mysterious website appeared Wednesday. Its cryptic message has fans of the late singer excited and her estate up in arms. 

“Aaliyah is coming,” the stark black and white site proclaims, and after filling out a contact form it becomes apparent that it is her uncle and former manager, Barry Hankerson, who plans on bringing her back.

Links to social media sites from Blackground Records 2.0 are revealed once you enter your info. Hankerson’s original label Blackground Records was founded in 1993 to help his niece get major distribution, with an assist from R. Kelly, whom he managed at the time. 

Fans and pundits have extrapolated from the message that the popular R&B singer’s music will finally become available to stream. Feuding between Hankerson and Aaliyah’s estate have kept all but her debut LP, 1994’s “Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number” off streaming services. Hankerson controls the master recordings of the rest of her music catalog. 

The estate cemented that assumption, quickly releasing a statement in defiance of the moves made by Hankerson and his label. 

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,” the statement read. “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.

The passionate plea divided Aaliyah fans on social media, with many calling for her music to be made available and others echoing the #IStandWithAaliyah hashtag the estate signs off with and vowing to not stream the music if it is released. 

What will happen remains to be seen, but what is clear is the momentous impact she had on music, film, and urban culture in her short career. Mentored by and briefly married to R. Kelly at age 15, her first album sold over three million copies in the United States. She would go on to earn 12 top 40 singles in the U.S. and 17 top 40 singles in the U.K., was nominated for five Grammy Awards and sold over 30 million records worldwide.

#IStandWithAaliyah pic.twitter.com/Q2zgAvRAgX

— Aaliyah (@AaliyahHaughton) August 5, 2021

Beauty Brands Make Bad Girl Ri Ri a Billionaire

It’s official. Music is a side hustle for Rihanna.

RiRi may have sold 60 million albums and 215 million digital tracks worldwide, according to her label Roc Nation, to make her the top-selling digital artist of all time — but when it comes to total earnings those from her 18-year music career aren’t even an umbrella-worthy drop in the bucket compared to those from her fashion and beauty lines which bare her last name. 

Fenty Beauty (makeup) and Savage x Fenty (lingerie) are largely responsible for making the Barbadian, better known as Bad Girl in some parts, a billionaire. According to Forbes the 33-year-old’s net worth is an estimated $1.7 billion dollars. It’s a breathtaking sum that makes the eight-time Grammy Award winner the wealthiest female musician and puts her only behind Oprah ($2.7) when it comes to female high-earners in entertainment.

Her 50% stake in Fenty Beauty accounts for the bulk of her fortune. Savage x Fenty, which she owns 30% of received a $1 billion valuation in February, is worth about $270 million, and the rest of her earnings come from her heralded music career and stints as an actress. 

What’s the secret to her business success? According to Shannon Coyne, cofounder of Bluestock Advisors, a consumer products consultancy, it is catering to the needs of women who up-till-now were ignored by the larger fashion and beauty industries. 

She was one of the first brands that came out and said, ‘I want to speak to all of those different people,’” Coyne told Forbes. “A lot of women felt there were no lines out there that catered to their skin tone. It was light, medium, medium dark, dark. We all know that’s not reality.

Reaching billionaire status is something worth celebrating, but many fans are surely hoping that she will take a break from her many business ventures in the near-future and make a return to recording. 

Her eighth album “Anti” was released in 2016. It spent 63 weeks on the Billboard charts, peaking at No. 1, sold 11 million copies, and was named No. 7 on the list of 100 Best Albums of the 2010s by Billboard's staff which described it as Rihanna at her most confident.

Biles Earns Bronze to Boost GOAT Case

The Olympics may have started out in tragedy for Simone Biles, but they ended in a historic triumph for the greatest of all time. 

A week after an emotional Biles withdrew from the team gymnastics final for her mental health, the 24-year-old returned to action on the balance beam Tuesday in Tokyo. Performing a simplified version of the routine she had unveiled during the qualifying round, Biles earned a 14.000,  good enough for a third-place finish behind China's Chenchen Guan (14.633) and Xijing Tang (14.233).

The bronze medal, her second of these Olympics along with the team silver, tied Biles with Shannon Miller at seven earned making them the most decorated gymnasts to ever compete for Team USA. The former's four golds (compared to just two for Miller), five all-around, five floor exercise, and seven US national all-around championships leave little doubt that she has lived up to her legacy as her sports greatest.

Following the feat the superstar told ESPN that it wasn't easy pulling out of all those competitions.

"People just thought it was easy, but I physically and mentally was not in the right head space and I didn't want to jeopardize my health and my safety because, at the end of the day, it's not worth it. My mental and physical health is above all medals that I could ever win," Biles said. "To do beam, which I didn't think I was going to be, just meant the world to be back out there. And I wasn't expecting to walk away with the medal. I was just going out there doing this for me."