Irv Gotti, cofounder of Murder Inc. Records who worked with artists including Ashanti and Ja Rule, is dead at age 54.
Multiple outlets confirmed the news on Wednesday, February 5. The cause of death is not yet known, but hip-hop record executive and manager Wack 100 told TMZ last year that Gotti had recently suffered a stoke and was diabetic.
“Irv has been struggling with diabetes for years, which caused him to have a minor stroke over six months ago,” Gotti’s representative told the outlet in August 2024. “He has since changed his diet to eating more healthy. He’s been successful in making a full recovery. Irv is not in a rehab facility. He is at home with his family, enjoying life.”
The Hollwyood Reporter was first to report the news of Gotti’s death.
An icon in the music industry, he was a producer and record executive who founded Murder Inc. Records in 1998. At that label, an imprint of Def Jam Recordings, he signed such artists as Ja Rule, Ashanti, Jennifer Lopez, Kanye West, Fat Joe and Eve.
“Def Jam has lost one of its most creative soldiers who was hip-hop,” Gotti’s former colleague, executive Lyor Cohen, told THR in a statement. “When we were on bended knee, he brought the heat and saved our asses. He comes from a very tight beautiful family from Queens and it’s an honor and a privilege to have known him. Irv, you will be missed.”
This story is developing.
