*Twenty-five years after Aaliyah‘s death in a plane crash, her uncle and longtime manager Barry Hankerson is making an extraordinary allegation against his own son, claiming Jomo Hankerson failed to carry out a paid responsibility to coordinate the singer’s travel before the fatal flight.
The accusation has not emerged from a new investigation into the Aug. 25, 2001 crash. Instead, it surfaced amid a bitter father-son court battle involving money, recording masters and publishing rights connected to some of Blackground Records’ biggest artists.
TMZ, which obtained the lawsuit Jomo filed against Barry and Blackground Records, reports that Barry claims his son had been paid to coordinate travel for Aaliyah’s music-video shoot in the Bahamas.
According to Barry’s allegation, Jomo “failed in his responsibility” and Aaliyah instead boarded the private aircraft that crashed shortly after takeoff, killing the 22-year-old singer and all eight others aboard.
Barry alleges the crash “may have been avoided had [Jomo] followed through on his compensated task of travel coordination.”
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That is a claim in contested litigation — not a finding that Jomo caused the crash.
Barry Hankerson Points the Finger at His Son
The family relationships make the allegation particularly striking. Barry was Aaliyah’s uncle and longtime manager. Jomo is Barry’s son, making him Aaliyah’s cousin.
Barry reportedly says his relationship with Jomo was never the same following Aaliyah’s death.
The new accusation comes just days after the 25th anniversary of the tragedy. Aaliyah died after filming the music video for “Rock the Boat” in the Bahamas. The Cessna 402B crashed shortly after departing Marsh Harbour Airport for Florida.
The National Transportation Safety Board assisted Bahamian authorities in the investigation, confirming that the pilot and eight passengers were killed. Barry’s current claim concerns whether different travel coordination might have kept Aaliyah off that particular flight; it does not establish a new official cause of the crash.
The Family Fight Is Really About Music and Money
Behind the devastating accusation is a business dispute involving valuable music assets.
Jomo alleges that his father breached a settlement covering recording masters and music-publishing copyrights associated with Aaliyah, Toni Braxton, DMX and Timbaland.
According to TMZ’s review of the lawsuit, Jomo says the agreement entitled him to 12% of the money Barry received from those assets. He accuses Barry of using Blackground Records to conceal money and “manufacture expenses that have nothing to do with the music assets” in an effort to pressure him into accepting less.
Jomo is seeking more than $1.2 million in damages.
Barry denies wrongdoing and contends that the settlement at the center of the dispute is invalid because it was executed through fraud.
The accusations don’t stop there. Barry also claims Jomo once threatened to release unreleased Aaliyah recordings unless his financial demands were met. Jomo has denied allegations of wrongdoing, and the case remains unresolved.
Attachment Details/Credit: Depositphotos
Aaliyah’s Music Has Long Been at the Center of Disputes
The latest litigation adds another chapter to the complicated history surrounding Aaliyah’s catalog.
EURweb has previously reported on disputes surrounding control and releases of the singer’s music, including concerns raised by her estate over projects it said were moving forward without sufficient transparency or accounting.
For years after Aaliyah’s death, much of her post-debut catalog was unavailable on major streaming services before Blackground Records struck a distribution deal that brought key recordings back to the marketplace.
Now, a fight over music assets has exposed something far more personal: an allegation from Aaliyah’s former manager that his own son failed in a travel responsibility before the singer boarded the aircraft on which she died.
A Family Accusation 25 Years Later
The distinction matters.
Nothing in the newly reported lawsuit establishes that Jomo Hankerson caused the aircraft to crash. Barry’s argument, as reported by TMZ, is narrower but still stunning: had Jomo completed the travel-coordination job Barry says he was paid to perform, Aaliyah might not have been on that flight.
A quarter-century after her death, there is no new crash investigation rewriting what happened in the Bahamas. Instead, a family battle over money and music has brought a previously unreported accusation about the events leading up to Aaliyah’s final flight into public view.
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