For years, the music of Aaliyah Haughton has been kept off streaming sites for the most part. The late singer’s estate has long been battling her uncle and former manager, Barry Hankerson, over rights to her catalogue. On Wednesday, a website popped up with a singular message: “Aaliyah is coming.†Fans hoped that this cryptic announcement meant that the Haughton estate and Hankerson’s label Blackground Records 2.0 had come to some sort of agreement. That no longer appears to be the case. The Estate of Aaliyah Haughton released a statement on Instagram and Twitter, which calls this new attempt to release her music an “unscrupulous endeavor.â€
The statement claims that this latest attempt at releasing the Aaliyah catalogue is “without transparency or full accounting to the estate.†The estate expressed a desire to forgive the offending parties, but also intends to “defend ourselves and her legacy legally and justly.†The statement was retweeted by Aaliyah’s frequent collaborator, Missy Elliott. Last year, it seemed as though Haughton’s music was on the verge of streaming, as the Estate tweeted that talks had begun in that direction.