Photo via Jeffery’s Instagram
Jeffery “J-Dub” Walker, the former member of Diddy’s “Hit Men Squad” who produced hits like Diddy’s “Satisfy You,” and orchestrated Diddy and Jimmy Page’s “Come With Me,” said Aaliyah’s relative Jomo Kenyatta Hankerson conspired with his father, Barry Hankerson, to steal his royalty checks for his work with them on Aaliyah’s songs and then left him with a tax bill.
Walker says he signed with the Hankersons’ Blackground Records in 2000 to produce for Aaliyah, and agreed to split royalties for production, writing songs and copyrights. Walker left the now-defunct label in 2001 after Aaliyah was killed in an airplane crash. Walker said in court papers that Blackground Records never sent him royalty statements from 2003 to 2011. But in 2012, the Internal Revenue Service informed him that he owed taxes on $262,580 in royalty income. He sued Hankerson in Georgia federal court, but a judge dismissed the case, because the judge said the court didn’t have jurisdiction. Allegedly Walker plans to re-file the suit in Los Angeles. Jomo and Barry Hankerson’s lawyer, Alan Clarke, said he was not aware of a pending lawsuit, but insisted Walker had been paid. Records show Jomo Hankerson has been sued several times over the years for owing money.