Ghazi who goes by his mononym founded EMPIRE in , after years as a musician and producer himself, as an independent, digital-first distributor that emphasized speed and flexibility, nonexclusive deals and deep roots in the hip-hop world. That has allowed the company to grow rapidly in the streaming era, putting out early albums by Kendrick Lamar , Anderson.
By the time the opportunity with Blackground came along, the company had grown enough to merit a seat at the table in negotiations. It was during the pandemic that Ghazi began speaking to Hankerson in earnest about the Blackground catalog, and the idea of EMPIRE being the one to rerelease it became a reality.
So he was just a match for me, and when we sat down and talked in San Francisco it was a no-brainer to give him the opportunity of working our music. That was the only way for us to put it together. Along the way, Hankerson will also be rolling out a new streaming app called Music, which will have licensing deals with a wide swath of record companies as well as video features, a vinyl-scratching tool and new Blackground remixes and releases that will initially only be available through the app.
And, should anyone think this is all a swan song to his career, Hankerson will also be relaunching Blackground as a new front-line label, with distribution through EMPIRE, to which he has already signed one artist, Autumn Marini, from Atlanta. There are plans to release a posthumous album of new Aaliyah music, though a release date has not been announced, and Hankerson has been hard at work on new songs -- staying late at sessions and keeping himself away from other distractions, like interviews, for example.
Hankerson says that he has new music that includes features from Drake, Future , Ne-Yo , Chris Brown and Snoop Dogg , while Timbaland has remixed and produced some of the sessions and Hankerson says Tank has indicated his willingness to lend his services, too.
Tank, along with several other former Blackground artists, declined to speak for this story. But I learned to live with that.
On Jan. In addition, the estate was not made aware of the impending release of the catalog until after the deal was complete and plans were in place.
Instead, Blackground and the estate have communicated through representatives. I wish we had the same relationship that we had years ago. I love my sister. But when it made the statement last August that it had begun speaking to labels, the estate reached out to Blackground and expressed a desire to be involved in the process of finding a distributor, conversations it says went on for an extended period of time.
Ultimately, the estate says it was informed that the EMPIRE deal was happening only after it was final, without having any input. During the course of the reporting for this story, the Aaliyah estate hired a public relations firm and made clear that it would not be supporting the deal between Hankerson and EMPIRE. This time, however, it appears that the final outcome will be different: Blackground and EMPIRE are moving ahead with the plans to roll out the catalog.
As of now, there are no plans to take legal action to stop it, sources say. 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. In the meantime, the rollout remains on track to begin Aug. A version of this article originally appeared in the Aug.
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Born Aaliyah Haughton, the singer died in a plane crash in the Bahamas in at the age of This month marks the 20th anniversary of her death. Aaliyah's estate responded to the deal in a statement through attorney Paul LiCalsi and said it was "not made aware" of the streaming release of the late singer's catalog. In addition, the Estate was not made aware of the impending release of the catalog until after the deal was complete and plans were in place.
In a separate statement released on Twitter, the Estate condemned actions to "leech off Aaliyah's life work.
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