Aaliyah‘s uncle and the co-founder of Blackground Records, Barry Hankerson, has secured a new deal with the EMPIRE music company, which will release previous albums from the late singer, and well as from Tank, JoJo and other artists.
According to Billboard, a total of 17 albums will be released from Hankerson’s Blackground Records label, which is being revived as Blackground 2.0. Some titles will be available on streaming services for the first time, as well as in physical and digital formats.
Aaliyah released three albums before her 2001 death in a plane crash, but only her 1994 multi-platinum debut, Age Ain’t Nothing but a Number, is available for streaming.
As of Wednesday afternoon, R&B singer Tank archived all the images and videos on his Instagram except for three posts dedicated to his first three studio albums — 2007’s Sex Love & Pain, 2002’s One Man and his 2001 debut, Force of Nature — all of which he recorded for Blackground Records.
“I prayed for this day,” Tank captioned each post, revealing that all three albums will be available on streaming services on September 17.
Meanwhile, JoJo’s self-titled debut and her sophomore album, The High Road, will be released the following week, on September 24, according to Pop Crave. Though fans expressed their enthusiasm over being able to stream the singer’s “original” debut album, JoJo says she’d appreciate it if fans support the 2018 version she re-recorded.
“Thanks for the love babe,” JoJo tweeted in response to a fan. “Never telling you what to do, but just so you know…a stream of the re-recoded 2018 version supports me and helps me continue to do what I love. Streaming the original unfortunately does not.”
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