The 54-year-old music producer Irv Gotti, who produced songs for DMX, Jennifer Lopez, Ja Rule, and Ashanti, has away.
His distinctive style of fusing hip-hop beats with soft R&B melodies influenced the sound of the charts in the late 1990s and early 2000s. He is best recognized for being the creator of the record label Murder Inc.
The J-Lo and Ja Rule duets Ain’t It Funny and I’m Real, the Ashanti songs Foolish and Always on Time, and Fat Joe’s What’s Luv? were among his multi-platinum singles as a writer and producer.
“People get confused because it sells like pop music,” he made clear in a 2002 interview with the Guardian. “But we make black music first and foremost, and all our records is ‘hood first’.”
Although the cause of death has not been disclosed, the music magnate had suffered a “minor stroke” in early 2024 and struggled with diabetes-related complications.
According to Gotti’s representatives at the time, he had been “successful in making a full recovery” after altering his diet.
Under the alias DJ Irv, he started his career as a producer for New York MC Mic Geronimo after being born Irving Lorenzo in Hollis, Queens, in 1971.
Contributing to Jay-Z’s 1996 debut album Reasonable Doubt was his big break. Taking his name from mafia lord John Gotti, the rapper dubbed him the “don of hip-hop” and changed it to Irv Gotti.
His next step was to sign DMX, a rapper with a gravel voice, to the renowned Def Jam Records label.
The label was going through a difficult time and was falling behind Sean Combs’ flamboyant, ambitious Bad Boy Inc. label. The antithesis of Combs’ style was DMX, who was raw, unpolished, and streetwise.
His first album, It’s Dark and Hell is Hot, which had Gotti as executive producer, produced the hip-hop classic Ruff Ryders’ Anthem and sold four million copies in the United States.
Additionally, it preserved Def Jam’s image.
Lyor Cohen, the label’s CEO from 1998 to 2004 and currently the head of music at YouTube, remarked, “When we were on bended knee, [Irv] brought the heat and saved our asses.”
Gotti and his brother Chris operated their own label when Cohen recognized his accomplishment.
After viewing a documentary about the same-named organized crime gang in New York in the 20th century, they decided to call themselves Murder Inc. They reasoned that they could release hit albums in the same manner that their crime syndicate had released murder hits.
Ja Rule, their first hire, achieved enormous commercial success with songs including “Holla Holla,” “Livin’ It Up,” “Always On Time,” and “Wonderful,” which peaked at number one in the UK.
As a teenager, Gotti also came across the singer Ashanti, who he teamed up with his rap artists to provide some musical magic.
She also had a string of top 10 singles as a solo artist in the early 2000s, including Foolish, Rock Wit U, and Only U.
For co-producing Ashanti’s 2002 self-titled debut, which took home the Grammy for best current R&B album, Gotti received a Grammy.
Murder Inc. also gave Jennifer Lopez’s music career legitimacy by giving her bubbly pop successes an urban edge through well-known remixes of I’m Real and Love Don’t Cost A Thing.
In total, Gotti was listed as a producer on 28 US chart singles, including songs by Kanye West, Fat Joe, and Mary J. Blige.
In the middle of the 2000s, his career took a hit when the FBI searched the headquarters of Murder Inc. as part of an investigation into suspected connections to drug lord Kenneth “Supreme” McGriff.
Gotti and his brother were cleared of all charges after being charged with money laundering.
Fight with 50 Cent
Gotti and the rap artist 50 Cent had a long-running feud that included the charges.
Federal investigators claimed in their search warrant that McGriff and Murder Inc. staff members had planned to kill the rapper in retaliation for the 2000 song Ghetto Qu’ran, which exposed McGriff’s criminal history.
Before that, 50 Cent was stabbed during a recording studio scuffle when one of his men allegedly robbed Ja Rule in New York, starting a string of diss recordings and fights between the two.
Black Child, a rapper from Murder Inc., claimed self-defense and claimed credit for the incident on record.
Although 50 Cent eventually played down the incident’s seriousness, he kept making pot jokes about Gotti and Murder Inc. throughout his career.
“Creative soldier”
Gotti changed the name of Murder Inc. to The Inc. following the scandals. Although he continued to release Ashanti albums and added singer-songwriter Vanessa Carlton, the company was unable to replicate its previous success.
An unidentified woman filed a sexual assault and rape lawsuit against Gotti last July, claiming that she had dated the music mogul from 2020 to 2022.
Gotti flatly refuted the accusations through his attorney, claiming that they “represent an affront to women who have truly suffered abuse.”
Angie, Sonny, and Jonathan Wilson, his mother Nee Nee Lorenzo, his sisters Tina and Angie, and his brother Chris Lorenzo, who co-founded Murder Inc., are among Gotti’s surviving family members.
“Def Jam has lost one of its most creative soldiers who was hip-hop,” Lyor Cohen said in a statement.
He is from a really close-knit, lovely family in Queens, and it is a delight and an honor to have known him. You will be missed, Irv.
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