Blackground Records

Barry Hankerson formed Blackground in 1993, as a result of unsuccessful efforts to sign his niece Aaliyah to big record labels. Using his connection with singer R. Kelly, who he managed at the time, Hankerson obtained a contract with Jive to distribute the release of Aaliyah's debut album Age Ain't Nothing but a Number.

After Aaliyah and R. Kelly parted ways, Jive and Blackground agreed to terminate their contract in 1996 and Hankerson signed a lucrative distribution deal with Craig Kallman at Atlantic. Months later Aaliyah released her second studio LP, One in a Million, and Blackground signed two singing groups, Both Ends and Kashmere (their music was never released).[1]

After positive reviews for Aaliyah's album, her producer Timbaland got his own artist deal with Blackground and in 1997 released Welcome to Our World, a collaboration album with rapper Magoo, as well as his solo album Tim's Bio: Life from da Bassment in 1998. Aaliyah's backup singer Tank also got his contract with Blackground in 1998.[2]

After Atlantic contract expiration in 2000, Blackground switched over to Virgin.[3] In 2001, after the death of Aaliyah, her self-titled and final album Aaliyah rose to #1 on the Billboard 200 becoming Blackground's first number one and best-selling album. Aaliyah sold over 13 million albums worldwide.

Aaliyah's plane crash in August 2001 resulted in Blackground and Virgin parting their ways few weeks later. A new distribution deal was signed with Universal Records in December 2001.[4]

Starting in 2003, Blackground's focus shifted towards pop music beginning with the signing of New England artist JoJo Levesque. Her self-titled debut album JoJo was released the following year, entering the Billboard 200 chart at number four and being Platinum certified by the RIAA. In 2006, she released her second album The High Road, which debuted at number three on the album chart and was certified Gold. To date, JoJo sold over 7 million records worldwide. Her single "Leave (Get Out)" was produced by Soulshock & Karlin and "Too Little Too Late" by Billy Steinberg.

In 2006, Blackground discovered California teens Kasey Butler, Brianna Cara, Cristina Ballestero and Jamie Spradley at Hollywood Pop Academy, an extension of LA's Musicians Institute located at the Hollywood & Highland complex. Butler signed as a solo artist while the rest formed L.A.X. Gurlz. Its single "Forget You", written and produced by Alex Cantrall, premiered on MTV's TRL in March 2007 with an introduction by Chris Rock. It made the list of Billboard's 100 Greatest Girl Group Songs of All Time.[5] They went on tour and performed at events such as the 2007 launch of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.[6]

In 2010, Blackground partnered with former Universal Motown Senior Vice President of Promotion Gary Marella to distribute his new label Roma Records. Their first signing was Jordy Towers, formerly known as Optimus and discovered by Charlie Clouser of Nine Inch Nails. He is now in the band SomeKindaWonderful. Later this year, Blackground signed a new artist Crystal Nicole better known as Cri$tyle, who began her career as a songwriter and has written songs for Mariah Carey, Rihanna, Keke Palmer and many more. In June 2011, Crystal released her first single "Pinch Me", which was produced by Jermaine Dupri and Bryan Michael Cox. Other artists who were signed to the label but did not release anything included The Voice Season 4 contestant J. Lewis, Natalie La Rose as part of the group Amsterdam, and Howard Weitzman's daughter Brianna Tatiana Chahine.

In 2012, Blackground lost its distribution deal with Universal's label Interscope Records and in July that year, signed new contract with Reservoir Media Management. After speaking with Reservoir's CEO, Rell Lafargue, Billboard reported that "as part of the deal, Reservoir, (...), will market Aaliyah's music to television and film, as well as release songs to online services like iTunes and Spotify where much of her music cannot be currently found. Additionally, the company will assist with licensing of songs for covers and sampling".[7] These plans were put on hold after another company, Craze Productions claimed the rights to distribution of the late artist's music. On March 20, 2013, Reservoir filled a lawsuit against Craze and in September 2015, the jury agreed that Craze illegally distributed music through online services and that the rightful distributor of Blackground Records' catalog is Reservoir Media Management.[8] Despite the positive ruling, the promised release to streaming services did not happen, and Craze Productions continues today to illegally distribute Aaliyah's music from post-Jive years online (her recordings from Jive years are controlled by Sony Music, current owner of Jive Records). In December 2016, Complex wrote a detailed article on Blackground, Barry Hankerson and his role in the absence of Aaliyah's music.[9] In early 2019, informations about Blackground's catalog were removed from Reservoir's official website.

The latest studio album release from the label was Timbaland's Shock Value II in 2009, with singles: "Morning After Dark", "Say Something", "Carry Out" and "If We Ever Meet Again".

Former Blackground artists JoJo, Toni Braxton and Tank have all released albums on Atlantic Records after leaving the label.

*not released in USA