Aaliyah’s legacy has spent decades tangled in questions over who controls her music, but a new family court battle has now reached back to the darkest day in the singer’s story.
Aaliyah’s family lawsuit involves her uncle Barry Hankerson, his son Jomo Hankerson, and Blackground Records, the label closely connected to the late singer’s career and catalog. According to a lawsuit obtained and reported by TMZ, Jomo is suing his father and Blackground in a dispute involving money tied to music assets. Barry has denied wrongdoing and responded with allegations of his own, including a deeply personal claim involving Aaliyah’s fatal 2001 plane crash.
Jomo claims Barry breached a previous settlement involving recording masters and music publishing copyrights connected to artists including Aaliyah, Toni Braxton, DMX and Timbaland. According to TMZ’s report on the court filings, Jomo says the agreement entitled him to 12 percent of the money Barry earned from those music assets.
Jomo alleges Barry instead used Blackground Records to conceal money and “manufacture expenses that have nothing to do with the music assets, all for the purpose of pressuring [him] into accepting less than what he is owed.”
He is seeking more than .2 million in damages.
Barry disputes those allegations. According to TMZ, he argues that the settlement Jomo is attempting to enforce is invalid because it was executed under fraud. Barry has also alleged that Jomo previously threatened to release unreleased Aaliyah recordings unless his financial demands were satisfied.
Jomo denies wrongdoing, and the litigation remains ongoing.
But the financial dispute took an especially painful turn when Barry raised Aaliyah’s death.
According to TMZ’s account of the filings, Barry alleges Jomo had been paid to coordinate travel connected to Aaliyah’s “Rock the Boat” music video shoot in the Bahamas in August 2001.
Barry claims his son “failed in his responsibility” regarding those arrangements. He further alleges the fatal crash “may have been avoided had [Jomo] followed through on his compensated task of travel coordination.”
That is Barry’s allegation in the family’s current legal fight, not an official finding about what caused the crash.
Aaliyah died on August 25, 2001, at just 22 years old after filming the “Rock the Boat” video in the Bahamas. She and members of her entourage boarded a Cessna 402B departing Marsh Harbour Airport for Florida. The aircraft crashed shortly after takeoff. Aaliyah and the other eight people aboard were killed. The National Transportation Safety Board assisted Bahamian authorities with the investigation and confirmed the aircraft was headed to Opa-locka, Florida.
Subsequent reporting on the investigation found the aircraft was significantly overloaded and improperly balanced. The pilot was also not properly qualified to operate that aircraft, and toxicology testing found cocaine and alcohol in his system.
Those documented circumstances surrounding the crash are separate from Barry’s new allegation that Jomo’s handling of travel arrangements contributed to the chain of events that put Aaliyah aboard the plane.
Barry reportedly says his relationship with his son was never the same following Aaliyah’s death.
The current fight also lands on top of years of complicated business history surrounding Aaliyah’s recordings.
Barry founded Blackground Records, the label responsible for major portions of Aaliyah’s catalog. For years after her death, much of her most celebrated work remained unavailable on major streaming platforms, creating frustration among fans who could easily stream music from her contemporaries but struggled to legally access albums including “One in a Million” and her self-titled final studio album.
That changed in 2021 when Blackground Records 2.0 partnered with EMPIRE to bring portions of its catalog to streaming services. The rollout included Aaliyah’s music along with recordings associated with other Blackground artists.
However, Aaliyah’s estate publicly objected to how the releases were being handled. At the time, attorney Paul LiCalsi said the estate had encountered “contention and a gross lack of transparency” while attempting to address her musical legacy. The estate also raised concerns about accounting and its involvement in decisions surrounding her catalog.
Despite those disputes, “One in a Million” and “Aaliyah” ultimately reached streaming platforms, introducing her catalog to another generation while reigniting questions about ownership, control, and who gets to make decisions involving an artist who can no longer speak for herself.
Twenty-five years after Aaliyah’s death, those questions have clearly not disappeared.
What started as Jomo’s lawsuit seeking money he claims he is owed has now pulled music rights, family relationships, unreleased recordings, and the circumstances surrounding Aaliyah’s final trip into the same courtroom fight.
Barry denies Jomo’s financial allegations. Jomo denies Barry’s claims of wrongdoing. And Barry’s accusation connecting his son to decisions surrounding Aaliyah’s travel remains an allegation in an active family dispute.
For fans who have watched Aaliyah’s music become the subject of ownership battles for years, the latest case adds another painful layer. This time, the fight is not only about who gets paid from the music she left behind. It has reopened a family fracture connected to the night one of R&B’s brightest stars never made it home.
