Ashanti is breaking her silence for the first time since Murder Inc. founder Irv Gotti started doing interviews about her and released a BET docuseries where he shared “his truth” about an alleged relationship with the R&B songstress. Find out what she had to say about it all inside…
Ashanti is speaking out…on her own terms.
Over the past few months, Murder Inc. founder and producer Irv Gotti has been in the headlines for speaking about an alleged relationship he was involved in with his former artist, Ashanti.
The 52-year-old music exec, who signed Ashanti to his Murder, Inc. label in 2002, appeared on several platforms and slandered the “Baby” songstress. During his BET docuseries “The Murder Inc Story” and an interview on the “Drink Champs” podcast, the producer alleged he was involved in a romantic relationship with Ashanti…while he was still very much married to his then-wife Debbie Lorenzo.
Setting the record straight, the 42-year-old songstress sat down with Angie Martinez for an episode of the radio personality’s “IRL” podcast – while in Canada shooting a movie – to share her truth about what happened between herself and Irv back in the day. First, she wanted to make it crystal clear that she and Irv were never involved in a relationship.
”Let’s clear this up,” Ashanti said. “We’re not going to say relationship. We dealt with each other, but was Irv my boyfriend? Was I his girlfriend? Never. Never. Irv had several girlfriends, so I’m a little confused by, the thought, and the label, and the description.”
The way Irv described his “relationship” with Ashanti, it seemed as if they were in a full-blown relationship. According to Ashanti, she feels Irv manifested their relationship “into something big and it’s really not that” in his head, which caused him to turn into a different person.
”Irv has flat-out lied about a lot of things,” Ashanti continued. “It’s weird. It’s very weird when you know you’re lying and you just keep lying. That’s where it becomes a little scary and a little mental.”
Peep the clip below:
Ashanti says she was ‘never’ Irv Gotti’s girlfriend: ‘Manipulation played a heavy part’ pic.twitter.com/OsIadC1VXl
— Wuts The Tea Today (@wutstheteatoday) October 26, 2022
The “Foolish” singer shared she wished he had focused more on the good times they shared building Murder Inc in the BET docuseries.
“It’s a little sad to see a grown man conduct himself in that manner,” Ashanti said. “I feel like the Murder, Inc. legacy is so much bigger and we accomplished so much and made amazing history. And I feel like the way he handled it tarnished and cheapened the brand. We all worked so hard and for you to be that selfish to throw mud on the name because you might have got a check — that’s so selfish and degrading.”
Peep the clip below:
Ashanti says it’s unfortunate & sad how Irv decided to handle the Murder Inc documentary and feels like the legacy was so much bigger than what he decided to portray
: https://t.co/v1OWXLzfO9 pic.twitter.com/oUnzO1mi5k— Glock Topickz (@Glock_Topickz) October 26, 2022
The “Rain On Me” singer said men like Gotti tend to bash people when their egos are hurt.
“It wasn’t surprising to me because I accepted a long time ago that that’s the person he is. But now the world is seeing it,” she said. “I feel Irv is mentally not in a good place. You see people that [have] narcissistic ways. You see people that are selfish. You see people that are hurt and in pain. And, as a grown woman, I feel like there is a difference between when men are hurt and when women are hurt.”
“When a man loses control and can’t manipulate, can’t dictate, and can’t tell you what to do with your finances — can’t control where you go or who you’re with, I think that gets to a man’s ego,” Ashanti said. “So he turns to bashing, turns to intimidation, turns to trying to make you look bad to boost his own ego. It’s really sad.”
“The Murder Inc Story” five-part docuseries premiered on BET in August. Throughout the series, it was shared that Ashanti declined to be featured – and clearly she had a good reason. While she declined to participate, the Grammy-winning artist admitted that she had seen parts of the documentary.
“We’ve accomplished so much. It doesn’t make sense for you to have this much hate for me,” she said. “I genuinely in my heart believe that Irv wishes death on me. One million percent.”
Watch the clip below:
Ashanti says she genuinely believes that Irv Gotti wishes death on her
: https://t.co/v1OWXLzfO9 pic.twitter.com/UmmI9e1RrI— Glock Topickz (@Glock_Topickz) October 26, 2022
Sad.
Ashanti said Irv is a narcissist and would constantly degrade her and tell her he “made” her “f*ckable.”
”I definitely feel like manipulation played a heavy part into me and Irv’s situation,” Ashanti shared. “He would say stuff like, ‘No one wants to record with you, nobody f*cks with you like that.’ On one hand, he would make it feel like family, and on the other hand, he would tell me, ‘Nobody even likes you.'”
Peep the clip below:
Audacity!
In the doc, Irv said Ashanti wrote her hit “Happy” after they had sex. Ashanti said that is a LIE.
“I’m trying to figure out what made him even say that. Was I there? I’m confused. I don’t remember this at all,” she said. The singer revealed she wrote “Happy” in the “car parking lot of … C.W. Post College” right before she was about to see ‘The Nutcracker’ with her aunt and cousins.
In the documentary, Irv (who was 30 at the time) talked about how he lusted after Ashanti (who was 19 at the time) when they would work together in the studio.
“She used to wear these Juicy [Couture] sweats and her a** was looking fat. Her a** was looking great.”
Gotti continued to talk about his inappropriate behavior with Ashanti and how he violated her when he dropped her off one night.
“Walked her to her front door of her crib, she turns to say goodbye and I just kiss her and grab her a**,” he said. “It was like ‘What took you so long?’”
In August, Irv appeared on “Drink Champs” alongside former Murder Inc. artist Ja Rule where he shared how he was “hurt” when he learned Ashanti was dating rapper Nelly, despite the fact he was STILL married at the time. Ashanti said when Irv learned about her relationship with Nelly, he told her to get the f*** out of his face and that she should sign to Derrty Entertainment (Nelly’s record label). She also said Irv was so “bitter” over her relationship with Nelly that he told everyone in Murder Inc. to stop dealing with her.
“Irv was salty. Irv would not let me come to the studio to record. Irv was telling everyone not to record with me. … You know what he said to me? He said, ‘Nah, you want to be with Nelly? Go sign to Derrty Entertainment. We don’t want you,’” she said.
In the interview, Ashanti also shared that she talked to Jah about the interview before it aired. She said it had been edited “16 times,” so what we all saw was likely heavily edited based on what was actually said during the interview. She said she and Jah chopped it up about the interview, and he said he didn’t jump in because they are both like a brother and sister to him, so he didn’t want to get involved. Ashanti called him out on it, saying, “If your brother blows your sister’s head off, you’re not going to do anything about it?,” she asked.
Hmph.
You can watch Ashanti’s full interview – where she talks about dropping new music and more – below:
Thoughts?
Photo: IG
