Murder Inc. headhoocho Irv Gotti is making some bold claims against his former signee Ashanti.
The R&B crooner is currently on a press run, and during a recent interview with Power 105’s Angie Martinez, the “Foolish” singer brought up the importance of ownership in the music industry and detailed her journey as she is gearing up to release re-recorded versions of her old music. A similar move recently was pulled by pop star Taylor Swift following soiled business dealings with music executive Scooter Braun.
Ashanti claimed she was doing this as a way to teach people about the business aspect of ownership and why it’s so important. The singer opened up about the thinking behind the idea, telling Angie once she re-records her first album she will now own the rights to it, “and everything purchased from that moment, I own.”
As an artist, owning your master gives you legal rights to do what you please with your music, including licensing the recording to third parties like television shows, films, and other revenue pipelines that make for very lucrative partnerships.
Irv, whose Murder Inc record label released Ashanti’s earlier albums, including her self-titled debut project, chimed in to the comments section of Angie’s page where a snippet of the discussion was uploaded to offer some “clarification” about Ashanti remarks.
The music exec appeared to take offense to the singer re-recording her music, as it comes at a time where Ashanti reportedly is set to receive a star on the Hollywood walk of fame, which would most likely garner her more traction to her re-release work.
“Just for super clarity. I own all those great Ashanti Albums Angie. I own the Masters. And. I Produced all those great Ashanti Albums. So I also own a good portion of the Publishing,” Irv began before seemingly accusing the Grammy-winner of having ulterior motives.
“What she is trying to do is re record all those great records. And put them out on her label. She can do this under the COVER laws. But she is basically trying to f-ck me out of my Masters. And make people decide which album to listen too or stream. Hoping her loyal fans will choose her version,” he continued.
Irv later goes on to seemingly shrug off Ashanti apparent power move, writing, “But hey. I stand on the Magic that was created. And I wanna see her duplicate that Magic. It’s f-cked up really. But such is life.” The business man ends his rant by promoting his show “Tales.”
Fans on social media applauded Ashanti’s move, with many writing they would happily listen to Ashanti’s new version, including one Instagram user who wrote, “That album went so hard I would definitely rock it again!! Sis is very smart!!”
“Genius. And well deserved. Get that bag sis,” another said.
