Nelly didn’t missed the opportunity to take a dig at Irv Gotti.
The rapper and Ashanti hit the stage to perform their hit single “Body On Me” at the Oakland Arena in California on Friday night, and fans think their appearance together was to send a message to Irv Gotti. Nelly and Ashanti have not been particularly close since their breakup, and even their appearance at Fat Joe and Ja Rule’s Verzuz last year was a bit awkward for the couple.
However, it seems that the former couple is cordial as they performed “Body On Me,” showing off their old chemistry. The song was released in 2008 and features Akon (who was not present for the performance).
While the couple seemed to enjoy performing together, fans think that the couple’s appearance is to troll Irv Gotti, who said this week on Drink Champs that he was “hurt” when he found out that Ashanti was dating Nelly. The Murder Inc boss said he was in love with Ashanti as he insinuated that the two of them were involved in some kind of tryst, although he was married at the time.
Ashanti and Irv Gotti have not been on good terms, especially since she asked for the masters of her music. He has refused to hand them over despite making millions off of her, and he is also unhappy that she is seeking to record over her music so she can have full ownership.
Ashanti and Nelly dated for more than ten years before breaking up in 2014.
On Twitter, fans reacted to the former couple being on stage together.
“I know Irv somewhere fighting air seeing Nelly and Ashanti perform together,” one person wrote.
“Is this and the thing about him seeing Nelly and Ashanti together all from one interview or is this dude obsessed and talking about her all the time? I really need him to move on and seek therapy,” another person said.
“So Nelly and Ashanti performed together at his recent show. country grammar wins again lol somebody check on irv,” another person said.
In the meantime, Irv’s Drink Champs interview appears to be a venting session instead of therapy, as he gets angry when talking about Ashanti’s music and her effort’s to re-record her album.
According to him, Ashanti wants to cheat him out of the monies he earns from royalties from her music. Based on what Gotti says, it’s clear that although he claims to have worked on her music, he and Ashanti do not share the royalties as he has all of the ownership.
“Lucy and Grange weren’t in the studio with you making those records, I made those Ashanti records, oh I made those records,” he tells Nore. “Like She wrote them but she wrote them with the help of me telling her what to write,” he said.
Irv goes on to say that he ‘helped’ to make the records, and he tries to explain why he has 100% ownership of the records, although if he helped, it would be fair business practice to ensure that all the persons who helped earn from the records.
“I don’t lie. I helped make those records so I own them. I never sign my artists to 360 deals, I never said give me some of your show money… I never did that, I feel I was always very good to my artist,” he said.
However, Ja Rule, who was on the show with Irv Gotti, interjects to remind him to be fair as 360 deals never existed at the time, which contradicts Gotti’s statement about being good to artists.
“Let me make this statement, artists have ways of getting money, Rule makes a lot of money from shows, Ashanti makes a lot of money doing shows so what’s left for the guys doing the records, how do I make money? How I make money out of this is the masters so how am I supposed to feel when you remove that aspect, you really saying you don’t want sonny, JJ and Angie, my beautiful kids, you don’t want them to eat,” he says.
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Although Gotti says if Ashanti gets to re-record her label, it would take away money from his children, elsewhere in the interview, he boasts about funding a $250 million documentary on Murder Inc as he again becomes obsessively angry at Ashanti for refusing to be a part of the documentary.
Ashanti is seeking to re-record her album under the cover laws, but Gotti says she would need the stems of the tracks to do that, and he is not going to give them to her.
“Ashanti I’m not falling for the banana in the tailpipe. This is where it’s going. She’s been performing for 20 years and she’s never asked for her stems. This is what happened, she went in the studio and tried to re-do ‘baby, baby, baby.’ She probably went in the studio, tried to and fell drastically short with people saying that don’t stand like what they did. So you want me to give you my stems of your whole album now after 20 years, you say you need it for shows, you want to take my stems and now you will be able to remake your f*****g album,” he says, raising his voice.
“When she’s on the shows and she says she will ‘spritz it up and jazz it up’, Ashanti you cannot spritz it or or jazz it up, the minute you spritzy it up and jazz it up it’s not a cover now it has to come back to me to clear it… If you change anything, it reverts back to the writers to clear it, let me just give you the answer right now, NO!” he shouts.
“NO!” so it’s up to you and whatever bullshit players and musicians you have to recreate the magic…” Gotti says.
Ashanti has not responded to Gotti’s interview. She had previously stated her album was to drop in February of this year, but that time has passed with no explanation, although Irv Gotti’s statements reveal the real reason Ashanti’s album hasn’t been ready.