Blackground Records

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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

Blackground Records was formerly known as The Midwest Group, a management firm owned by Barry Hankerson. Hankerson had used that company to launch the career of R&B singer R. Kelly. The name change came about after Kelly's manager David Hyatt, owner of Tavdash Records had been sentenced to life in prison.

After Kelly's career took off in 1992 Hankerson transformed the company into an actual record label proposing to "develop, promote and capitalize" on the musical talents of his teenaged niece Aaliyah. Up to that point Aaliyah had been turned down by every other label in the recording industry. Hankerson's sister and mother of Aaliyah, 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 own record, 12 Play, had already gone platinum.

Kelly owed Hankerson a favor for his work in getting his own career started and in 1994 he produced and wrote the bulk of Aaliyah's entire debut album. This album, Age Ain't Nothing but a Number scored 2 gold singles, one of which was "At Your Best (You Are Love)," a cover of the 1976 Isley Brothers single.

In the fall of 1994 controversy struck when it was discovered that the 27 year old Kelly had married the 15 year old Aaliyah. Aaliyah never admitted to the union, but Vibe magazine published a copy of the marriage certificate and the marriage was later annulled. Nonetheless, Hankerson and Blackground continued to manage Kelly until 1998.

The distribution deal with Jive expired in 1996, but by then Hankerson was able to strike another deal with Craig Kallman at Atlantic Records, just before the release of Aaliyah's second album, One in a Million. By 2000 though the relationship between Aaliyah and Hankerson had soured and they split on bad terms. One industry executive has been quoted as saying that he "felt sorry for Hankerson's future labelmates who will now have to deal with him."

In 1998 Blackground attempted to buy out Haqq Islam's imprint University Music which was at the time home to acts such as Dru Hill, Pure Soul, and Mya. The deal collapsed.

In 2000 Blackground again switched distributor's, this time to EMI's Virgin Records. Two years later, and one year after the death of Aaliyah in a Bahamas plane crash, the Bahamas, Blackground switched once again after Virgin failed to pay for the funeral expenses. The switch was announced in a press statement from Universal Motown Records Group's Monte Lipman. Blackground product manager Gina Smith also perished in the August 25, 2001 crash. She was an employee whose "contribution was invaluable" to the success of Blackground.

Hankerson and Blackground also managed the career of Ginuwine. Additionally Blackground employs an in-house camp of producers and songwriters to write songs for the artists that it manages. These have included Missy Elliot, Timbaland, Static from Playa, Key Beats, and Bud'da, who were responsible for crafting smash hits for Aaliyah after her break with R. Kelly.

Remanufacturing Aaliyah

In 1996 Blackground intentionally went in search of "innovative" young producers who were willing to think outside the box. Barry Hankerson was in a predicament. It had been suspected in industry circles that Aaliyah's career had peaked, and that she had very little talent. Her light was fading, and she was in need of a drastic image and sonic overhaul. The label soon realized they would need underground authenticity to ride on for sucess. Before, Aaliyah was more notable for the headlines she stirred up. The next record had to be a musical endeavor which would earn critical acclaim along with high sales.

Surely enough, after receiving a demo from Timbaland and Missy Elliot they found what they were looking for as they set out to create a looser, more unique sound base for Aaliyah than the one heard on "Age Ain't Nothing But a Number" a few years ago. Tim and Missy's sonic achievments incorporated space-age funk riffs, spooky sound effects, advanced polyrhythms, and other avant-garde hip hop flourishes that would disguise Aaliyah's voice, diverting the listener's attention away from the singer and more towards the producers. This approach allowed Aaliyah to be more relaxed while serving as a launching pad for the duo who would become stars in their own right, and was demonstrated on the surprise hits "One In a Million", "Are You That Somebody", "Try Again". Aaliyah would always be barred from writing songs and having substantial creative input.

Blackground apparently gave Aaliyah some leniency on the next album, not pressuring her collaborators to follow traditional hit-making formulas. Yet, what they came out with may have been offensive. During the summer of 2001, prior to the release of Aaliyah's eponymous third album, there was mild speculation that Aaliyah went on a temporary strike. The new album signified a shift in musical direction towards alternative metal, which Blackground were opposed to. Her latest single "We Need a Resolution" premiered on TRL on April 26, and in between then and the album release on July 17 she was nowhere to be found, having not performed the song live and making few promotional appearances and interviews. Due to equally poor marketing on Blackground's behalf, the single and eventually the album were a commercial flop.

The Aaliyah Ordeal

On June 7, 2004 Blackground was granted the right 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, on January 7, 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 cited that only Aaliyah's mother and father could sue, which they already had. In that case they settled out of court in Los Angeles. Blackground's attorney Frank Penski stated that the lawsuit was meant to recover the value of lost contracts, which were not included in the Haughton's compensation, and that that he found the decision disapointing. An appeal has yet to be filed.

Sources: [[1]] [[2]]

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. Her album Libra hit stores on September 27, 2005 Also in 2003 Hankerson signed JoJo in whom he saw potential. On June 22, 2004 she released the first album on the label to go platinum without being linked 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 is committed towards preserving its legacy and looks forward to an Aaliyah-less future, as it evolves in an ever changing music industry.

Artists who are or have been signed to Blackground

See also

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