Irv Gotti Interview

[Semir]

You thought the drama surrounding Irv Gotti ended when he was found not guilty of laundering over a million dollars' worth of drug money? His legal fight was just the beginning. With the government sent back to its corner for now, I.G. is ready to reclaim what was once his: a dominant record label with multiplatinum artists.

While some might say the Inc.'s time has come and gone, Gotti begs to differ. Sure the label hasn't been selling records like it used to, but that's because there's been sabotage, he says. A spokesperson for the Universal Music Group denies that claim, but Gotti tells MTV News' Shaheem Reid that he was shut down by business partners he trusted and that even his good friend Jay-Z couldn't help him out.

MTV: Throughout your legal ordeal, there were questions about your friendship to convicted drug dealer Kenneth "Supreme" McGriff. Even people on the outside were saying, "What is this music mogul doing tied to this nefarious individual?"

Irv Gotti: The Kenneth McGriff thing is like ... I don't know, man, that's my friend — nothing more, nothing less. Certain people are gonna be like, "Well, you should choose better friends" or whatever. You know, where I'm from, a lot of the people that I know, they may not live a certain life that a lot of people approve of. So what am I to do? Just turn my back on them? Since the very first conversation I ever had with Supreme, it was about him wanting to do a movie and him not wanting to be anything like that and him wanting to do right, and I just tried to help him change his life and I just tried to help him do right. There's a clear-cut message that the government has sent: One, if you're a criminal, stay a criminal. Don't try to make no movie or don't try and do anything other than crime. And if you do try, we're gonna stop it because you're a criminal. We don't wanna hear you're changing your life. The second message is if you're someone like me that comes from that environment where people live these crazy lives, if you make it outta there, leave them in there, yo. If you help them, we're gonna mess with you, so don't help them or we're gonna bring you down. That's the thing I have a problem with.

MTV: You guys recently released the Ja Rule greatest-hits LP Exodus. On the song "Exodus," he says being in the Universal Music Group system was like being in jail.

Gotti: "Similar to institutionalism, like I did seven years in prison."

MTV: Yeah.

Gotti: Let's dive into it. Let's talk about it. First off, Ja's Exodus and Ashanti's Collectables, I had to release those albums to leave [Def Jam]. It was part of a contractual thing. ... We called it Exodus because we were exiting Def Jam. Everything I'm about to say has no reflection whatsoever on Jay-Z, L.A. Reid, Steve Bartels, Steve Gawley and all the good people that worked at Def Jam. They were nothing but supportive. They tried to stick by my side as best they could. Let me tell you about the Universal Music Group. I started at the Universal Music Group, I started at Def Jam, everyone knows what I did, with Jay coming in, signing DMX, Ja, Ashanti, working with Foxy Brown, working with their soundtracks and going on an amazing spree and being a part of something that made close to a billion dollars. I was their golden child, they were gonna take this kid under their wing and tell him, "Def Jam will once be yours. Interscope will once be yours. You should be a company man," and they totally started mentoring me, the high powers.

MTV: Which high powers?

Gotti: I won't say their names. They shall remain nameless for the rest of my life. I believed in those two guys. They [said they] wanted me to be the guy for them, and I believed them. Then the government raided my offices. ... I'm not saying I wanted them to stand by my side and say, "The United States government is wrong." It would have been great. I was screaming at them that I'm innocent, and that would have been great. I understood that they didn't want to do that. I understood they didn't want to associate themselves with me, I could swallow that pill. Like, I've got to go through this alone and they've got to walk away from me. The pill I refuse to swallow is when I go to a Grammy party and I see said individuals that shall remain nameless, and I'm [standing] as close to them as I am to you, and I'm looking at them right in their eyes and they're looking at me and don't even acknowledge my presence. They don't even say hello. They don't even say, "Hey, Irv, how you doing? I hope you're doing good." I wish it didn't affect me, but it did. It cut me deep. [Warner Music Group CEO] Edgar Bronfman — one of my soldiers, one of the guys I really love — I called Edgar [that night] and said, "They didn't say hi to me." He said, "Don't worry about it, it's nothing personal." He said to come on over to his party. Edgar had always told me, "I'll take a picture with you, I'll stand by your side." I came to their party and Edgar made me feel great. He made it his business to keep his arm around me and walk through the whole party so everybody could see Irv Gotti is his man. Them Universal dudes, I made them a ton of money and they wouldn't even say hello to me. They know I believed in them.

MTV: You were interviewed for the book "Queens Reigns Supreme," and in it you said being kicked out of the Universal offices shortly after Murder Inc. was raided was a real low point.

Gotti: Being kicked out of the office wasn't a good feeling. I thought I could get past it, like, "This ain't nothing, it's just an office." But that was the first step the Universal Music Group did to shut me down. Then they put me in another office on 54th Street, but that only lasted a minute, a couple of months. So now they have me keep relocating and moving and you're changing numbers and changing this, changing that. It hurts you. I didn't understand that. Then when they changed me to the next office, they lowered the real boom. They said, "You've got to get out of here, and we're not giving you anything else. We're not paying. Don't come around here no more." That's when it was a termination agreement. "Maybe we'll let you keep your acts, maybe we won't. One thing is for certain: You're gonna get away from us." If you're a young executive and you're in that system, or an artist, if they flipped on me and I earned them close to a billion dollars, they'll flip on you in a heartbeat. The whole time I'm screaming to them, "I'm innocent! I didn't do this! Please, give me a chance. Let the truth come out." They spanked me. Use me as an example if you're in that system. Don't let them say they care about you; they don't care about you. You're nothing to them. The second they can spank you and treat you like the idiot they think you are, they're gonna do it. Just know that. If you're hot, get your money and reverse it on them. Like, "I know you think I'm an idiot, but I'm a hot idiot, so pay me."

MTV: Jay-Z's been in a top position over there at Def Jam for about a year, and he's your friend. Couldn't he have stepped in and done something?

Gotti: Of course Jay is my man. Of course he was trying to ride for me and of course Jay was trying to help his boy out. But Jay couldn't do nothing for me, it was over his head. Truth be told, L.A. Reid may have wanted me to be president along with Jay or something. ... L.A. tried his hardest. L.A. kept going back to them like, "Listen, he's not guilty yet." L.A. was going in there trying. This is the answer I heard every time: "Irv, corporate said we can't do anything for you. I'm gonna try again, though." So Hov gets in there. At this point, they're not issuing me one check, they're not giving a dime. So I tell Hov, "I'm a producer that demanded $250,000 a track. I make great records." I'm like, "Yo, can I produce? Let me do a song deal. You can stick me with whatever artist you want." [Jay says,] "That should work, yeah, I'll try that." A day later, "Gotti, you won't believe this, they said I can't enter in any new agreement with your name on it. I cannot do it, period. It's over my head."

MTV: So how did you survive with no money coming in?

Gotti: I had a lot of money and it slowly went. You've got your monthly bills, I take care of my entire family. It's a true testament to how much money I did have that I'm still in this house. But they took every dime, I don't have it anymore. To go back, when you look at the case, it was a million dollar money-laundering charge. Universal cut Supreme a check for $500,000. That check rightfully made them my co-defendants. I didn't give Supreme that $500,000, the Universal Music Group did. Why weren't they my co-defendants? I'll explain to you. The government went to their attorneys and said, "Either you're gonna join forces with us in his demise, or we're going to bring you in that courtroom and destroy you." The UMG made a decision to destroy me. How they did that: not issuing me any checks, kicking me out of the building and making life hard. They cut their deal with the government, like the snitches up there [on the stand]. Their deal was my demise.

MTV: Some are saying it's over for the Inc. now.

Gotti: People like to talk about Ja and Ashanti and their demise. They were declining. Last album, Ja had "Wonderful" and "New York." "Wonderful" was a top-five record on the Billboard Hot 100. And the coup de grâce was that we had one of the biggest records to come out of New York at the same time. "Neeewwww York!" Those records come out at the same time and dudes can't move them like how he moves them? I smell a rat. I smell a Universal Music Group rat who knew they were letting me go, "So I'm not letting him get hot. Irv, who I know gets busy, is gonna leave here with two acts that are scorching hot? Oh no." Then I come with Ashanti — who's in the record books for selling over 400,000 copies her first week — and I can't get what I normally need with Ashanti. They didn't even [push hard] at top 40 [radio] with "Only U." I smell rats all over the system. Not in the Island Def Jam system, but it's above their heads. I don't smell rats with Jay, L.A. Reid, Steve Bartels — those guys are my friends and I love them. It was corporate heads. "Shut them down, make it look like it's declining."

MTV: So where do you go now?

Gotti: They're all calling. I've got an open mind, and I'm listening to everybody. The most important thing to me is after being through everything I've been through, I want somebody that I feel genuinely cares about me and if I went through hard times won't necessarily ride with me but they'll still say, "Hello, Irv." Then I want some cash. I'm looking for good people that want to win and I'll blend in with them and be a monster, monster force.

MTV: With everything you went through, did you ever think about calling it quits and moving on to something besides music?

Gotti: This is in me. I'm DJ Irv. When I say I'm DJ Irv, I was a 12-year-old kid on the turntables and would literally cut [Run-DMC's] "Sucker M.C.'s" for four hours. What I'm explaining to you is a love of music. If you can cut one record for four hours, you have genuine love of music. I don't think you can stop that person, because he would do it for free. That person would go in the studio and loves genuinely being a part of the magical chemistry of making a record. You can only stop a person who's in it for reasons other than the genuine love.

MTV: Do you ever see the label rising back to the level it once was?

Gotti: I definitely see us taking it back to a high level. I see coming back and delivering records, and if Ja was to come back and sell another 5, 6 million records, that would be immortality. It would be like I survived everything. It would be a crazy thing. Ashanti and all the stuff people say, she comes back and smashes them. Yeah, I think it's gonna happen. Lloyd is the next thing in R&B. I've got some new people. I wanna mix my stable and blend it all together. Hip-hop is a funny thing. What hip-hop does is take said individual and build them up and put them on a pedestal. While they're on the pedestal, "Yeah! Yeah!" Then they shoot you right up off of that pedestal. When you're off that pedestal is when they're looking at you to see what you're gonna do. If you come out of that, you get the "Quan," a royalness they put on you like, "He's unstoppable and that's our guy." A few people have gotten that — Dr. Dre, easily the best producer in the game. I know he's with the other side, but I can't lie. Every word is the truth, and the truth is he gets busy. Pac knocked him off that pedestal. When Pac was riding on him, he went through a little tough time when he left Death Row. He came back, "Been there, done that." ... He came back with that Chronic [2001] album. If you say something bad about that dude, it's like ...

MTV: Blasphemy.

Gotti: Nas came with "F--- Jay-Z" and they rode with him. I remember Jay having a conversation with me like, "When I'm on the street, people are like, 'F Jay-Z!' " He had the thing with [record executive Lance] "Un" [Rivera], it was a shaky time for him. A lot of people said he lost that battle [to Nas], they said Nas knocked the coolness off him. Then [Jay] came back, dropped them records. You say something bad about Jay now, people gonna look at you like, "What's wrong with you? Blasphemy!" What I told my whole crew is we're chasing immortality now. Our enemy [50 Cent] rising to fame and being the number one rapper, riding on us and smashing us — we're down in the dumps but still swinging. If we come up out of that in 2006 and we still sell records, if somebody says something bad about the Inc., "Blasphemy!" You can put me through whatever, I want that. More than money, I want people to remember my name and what I've done. I want hip-hop to embrace me and remember me. I'mma go all out trying to get it.

mtv.com

[GangstaBoogy]

Gotti got a lot of weight on his shoulders, but he sounds like he's ready to leave the past behind him and focus all his energy on bringing the Inc back. I wish homie the best.

[The Watcher]

it would be nice if they could get Ja to come out with some VVV style raps, instead of that love song singin cookie monster shit they put on, an album like "New York" wouldnt be bad at all

[jeromechickenbone]

As far as the Inc. falling off - it's reasonable to conclude that UMG maybe didn't push their albums as much, but then why release them at all?  That video for "Wonderfull" was shot god knows where, and R. Kelly was on there - they had to have a nice budget for all of that.  You still saw the videos on BET and MTV - Murder Inc. absolutely ruled 106 and park and TRL back in the day.  I think the real problem is two fold.  One, they went OVERLY pop with Ja. That "Mesmerize" song and video began the end of his career, and then of course 50 all but ended it.  He's trying to spin it like the record label fucked him over, but he has himself and 50 to blame.  I don't see Ja doing anything close to what he was doin from 2000-2002. 

[GangstaBoogy]

That "Mesmerize" song and video began the end of his career

exactly what i said! "Mesmerize" = career suicide. people stopped like Ja around that time (and no one had even heard of 50)