Blackground Records

Blackground Records is an American record label owned by entertainment attorney and artist manager Barry Hankerson and his son Jomo Hankerson. In 1993, Hankerson formed the label, and Aaliyah became its first signee. At the time, Hankerson was managing R. Kelly, and was able to get his label Jive Records to distribute Blackground's releases. In 1996, Blackground obtained a lucrative distribution deal with Atlantic Records, just before the release of Aaliyah's second album, One In A Million. Often playing distributor hopscotch, in 2000, Blackground switched over to Virgin Records. One year later, it moved again, this time finding a home at Universal Motown Records Group. In 2003, JoJo was signed on Blackground and she is the youngest...