Aaliyah’s ‘One In A Million’ Is Finally Streaming And Fans Are Expressing Their Relief And Gratitude

For nearly the entire decade or so that music streaming platforms have been a thing, there’s been one artist’s catalog more elusive than any other — that of late R&B singer Aaliyah Houghton, known mononymously as Aaliyah. Known for breaking boundaries and elevating the style in the late ’90s and early-2000s, as well as pioneering the first big breakthrough to Hollywood for hip-hop-generation R&B singers with hit films like Romeo Must Die and Queen Of The Damned, Aaliyah’s catalog has been subject to a legal dispute sparked by her death in 2001 that prevented her music from ever being provided to streamers.

That is, until recently. Today, for the first time, Aaliyah’s music became available on streaming via a partnership between her original label Blackground and Empire, the independent distributor, as One In A Million, her second album and first produced by Timbaland, hit streaming services. Technically, the label is now called Blackground Records 2.0 but it’s still under the ownership of Aaliyah’s uncle and former manager Barry Hankerson. Within hours, it had reached the top spots on nearly every service, to the joy of fans. Meanwhile, Aaliyah’s estate recently released a statement condemning the release, calling it an “unscrupulous endeavor to release Aaliyah’s music without any transparency or full accounting to the estate.”

That hasn’t stopped fans from rejoicing in the music’s availability, as multiple generations informed and influenced by such hits as “One In A Million,” “Try Again,” “Are You That Somebody?” and “Rock The Boat” re-discover her groundbreaking oeuvre. Blackground 2.0 intends to continue rolling out the remainder of Aaliyah’s catalog in the comings weeks, so don’t be surprised to see more of the same for a while. Check out the responses below.