5 Things To Know About Aaliyah's Uncle And Former Manager Barry Hankerson

According to Complex, the 74-year-old met legendary musician Gladys Knight in the early 1970s while working at then-Detroit mayor Coleman Young's office. Twenty-seven years old at the time, Hankerson was fairly unknown while Knight was celebrating the chart-topping success of her now-iconic single "Midnight Train to Georgia."

The duo tied the knot in October 1974 and from there, Hankerson began managing Knight's career. Because of him, Knight abandoned her backing band the Pips.

After four years, the couple divorced. By then, the temptation of fame had all but consumed Hankerson and he left Motor City for a fresh start out west in Los Angeles. 

In 1991, Hankerson reportedly introduced his then-12-year-old niece Aaliyah to Robert Kelly, whom he was managing. Kelly already had a reputation for being a sexual predator, but that didn't deter Hankerson from connecting the two.

Ironically titled Age Ain't Nothing But a Number, a 27-year-old Kelly produced Aaliyah's debut album. A 2019 NPR piece writes the two married on August 31, 1994. The marriage certificate read she was 18, but in reality, Aaliyah was only 15 at the time. In a January 2019 interview with Good Morning America, Kelly's lawyer Steve Greenberg asserted his client did not to know Aaliyah's real age when they wed.

The marriage was annulled after several months.

In addition to handling the career of Aaliyah and Kelly, Hankerson had ties with Toni Braxton, serving as manager to the R&B superstar. Braxton sued Hankerson for $10 million in 2007, claiming he coaxed the "Un-Break My Heart" songstress to abandon an advantageous contract with Arista Records in favor of his boutique label Blackground Records.

Hankerson refuted those accusations, instead arguing Blackground was Braxton's only choice after she "was dropped from Arista because of record sales."

Both parties eventually settled out of court, and Billboard writes that upon the return of a $375,000 advance to Hankerson, Braxton was permitted to negotiate new offers. Braxton would also be liable for paying royalties from her next project to Hankerson.

In a candid interview with Uproxx, singer JoJo opened up about her own struggles dealing with the businessman.

Famous for becoming the youngest solo artist to earn a No. 1 hit with "Leave (Get Out)," JoJo says she was enticed to sign with Blackground because she was impressed at how Hankerson was able to radidly transform Aaliyah into a household name. 

"My label got my mom a car, got us an apartment and I had my own room for the first time," JoJo continued. "They felt like family to us, and I think that's what both my mom and I were really longing for deep down. Both of us come from very unstable family situations and they really appealed to that within us — that we were creating something that was going to last forever."

Those jovial days quickly turned gloomy, with the now 30-year-old saying label execs pressured her to radically change her physique under the guise of looking as healthy as possible.

"When I was 18 I remember being sat down in the Blackground office and the president of the label being like, ‘We just want you to look as healthy as possible.' And I was like, ‘I'm actually the picture of health. I look like a healthy girl who eats and is active. I don't think this is about my health. I think that you want me to be really skinny.' He's like, ‘No, I wouldn't say that.'"

"I ended up working with a nutritionist who had me on a 500-calorie diet a day. I was taking these injections that make you have no appetite. I was like, 'Let me see how thin I could become because maybe then they will put out an album. Maybe I'm so disgusting that nobody wants to see me in the video and they can't even look at me.' That's really what I thought."

Since severing ties with Blackground, JoJo has gone on to form her own record label in partnership with Warner Brothers, re-record her first two albums and corresponding singles owned by Blackground and release new music on her terms.

Despite the aforementioned accusations, legal troubles and personal disputes, Uncle Barry remains hellbent on still occupying space in the music industry. Speaking to The Shade Room, Hankerson revealed Blackground Records is back as Blackground Records 2.0 and caters to young, up-and-coming artists. 

They've even already signed talent, one of them being Autumn Marini, who's covered Aaliyah and Tank's "Come Over." Hankerson says she is the complete package and incomparable to any artist past or present. 

"She is beautiful, she writes her own songs," he boasted. "I couldn’t resist working with her. I couldn’t resist working for her. She is completely her own artist. She is very original."

Let's hope Marini also has a strong legal team.