Irving Lorenzo

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Irving Domingo Lorenzo Jr. aka Irv Gotti (born June 26, 1970 in Hollis, Queens, New York City, New York, United States) is a prominent hip hop and R&B record producer and is the head of The Inc. (Formerly Murder Inc.) record label.

1 Career
2 Trivia
3 Notes and references
4 External links

[edit] Career

He has signed and/or produced such prominent acts as Ja Rule, Ashanti, Vita, Caddillac Tah, Black Child, Charli Baltimore, Bobby Brown, and Lloyd. He has appeared in videos for Ashanti's "Foolish" and Ja Rule's "Down 4 U." He also produced various tracks on DMX's first two albums.

Irv Gotti is well known for producing records for such artists like Mic Geronimo, DMX, Nas, Jay-Z and especially Ja Rule.

In 2004, The Inc came under investigation for allegedly laundering money through the label for New York City drug kingpin and childhood friend "Supreme" McGriff. On January 25, 2005, Gotti and his brother Chris turned themselves in, alleging their innocence. They were released on $1 million bail, and will not be tried alongside McGriff for the charges against them [1].

On November 16, 2005, the federal prosecutor Sean Haran said in his opening statement at U.S. District Court that Irving Lorenzo and his brother Christopher "used their corporate bank accounts to clean drug money". According to Haran, convicted drug dealer Kenneth "Supreme" McGriff, had shopping bags and shoe boxes full of cash delivered to the label's Manhattan office in 2000. The company then cut McGriff $280,000 in checks. Authorities alleged that McGriff was permitted to funnel more than $1 million in drug money through Murder Inc. in return for serving as the label's protector and enforcer. Prosecutors additionally claim that the Lorenzos knew about an assassination plot against platinum-selling rapper 50 Cent [2].

On December 2, 2005, Irving Lorenzo and his brother Christopher were acquitted of all money laundering charges. The courtroom erupted in cheers and a few jurors congratulated them. The brothers could have faced up to 20 years in prison. The defense countered all along that the brothers were victims of guilt by association with Kenneth "Supreme" McGriff. [3]

Gotti co-produced Vanessa Carlton's third album, Heroes and Thieves, with 7 Aurelius, Rick Rubin and Stephan Jenkins; it is slated for a 2007 release.^[1]

Irv is rumored to replace Tommy Mottola as CEO off Casablanca Records.

[edit] Trivia

In 2003, Gotti changed the name of his label from "Murder Inc." to "The Inc."
Is the second person to have a Record Label Company under Def Jam Recordings.
Very successful behinds multi-platinum acts Jay-Z, Ashanti, Ja Rule, DMX, and helped contributed to other rap acts as well.
Irv Gotti's zodiac sign is Cancer.
Irv Gotti and Ja Rule recently made peace with rapper The Game and it is rumoured that there will be a collaboration between the two artists.
Irv Gotti is rumoured to be working on other artists on Def Jam such as Fabolous and Ghostface Killah after the artists came into his studio on 26th October 2006 and 27th October 2006.
Irv Gotti and Ja Rule also made peace with former rival DMX.
Irv Gotti recently signed former enemy Kurupt as first non Eastcoast rapper to The Inc.