Ashanti is being called out by the late Irv Gotti‘s brother, who feels the singer has downplayed what Irv and Murder Inc. did for her career.
In recent years, Ashanti looked back at her time on the label (usually in response to public comments from Gotti), and accused the executive of “manipulation” during her early career.
In a new interview on the Let’s Keep it 100 Podcast, Chris Gotti called the singer out for what he says is disparaging what Irv did for her and for denying that she dated him.
“She says they wasn’t in a relationship. They was in a relationship. I was they therapist,” he said. “Like come on now, don’t do that. But at the end of the day that’s what makes what went on with them so real.”
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He then praised Ashanti for always speaking calmly highly of Irv, noting that there aren’t many people who would say nice things about their ex. He also admitted that Irv would go too far when talking about her, but defended the fact he only spoke on the topics because he was asked and he’s a “straight shooter.”
Then he continued: “For her to act like it ain’t Murder Inc. that made her is fucking bullshit or Irv made her. She had three deals before him. Like, something with y’all chemistry worked out! Respect it! That’s all. Not saying you have to talk about the n-gga, but respect the magic that was made. That’s all I said.
“I’m not gonna let no one talk about my brother gonna have a problem, simple and plain. Especially someone who he made their career. Like, I was there. He made you sing records the way you sang them cause you would’ve never sang it that way if it was up to you.”
“Respect the magic that was made.”
Chris Gotti calls it crazy that Ashanti acts like Murder Inc or his brother Irv Gotti didn’t make her.
(🎥 Lets Keep it 100 Podcast/YouTube) pic.twitter.com/qcKYisVmO0
— The Art Of Dialogue (@ArtOfDialogue_) May 7, 2025
Back in 2022, Ashanti opened up about her relationship with Gotti, claiming her former Murder Inc. boss told numerous lies about what he said was their romance.
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In a candid interview with Angie Martinez on her IRL podcast that October, the “Foolish” singer shared her side of the story, setting the record straight on her and Gotti’s relationship.
“Let’s clear this up,” she said around the 34-minute mark. “We’re not gonna say relationship. We dealt with each other, but was Irv my boyfriend? Was I his girlfriend? Never … Irv had several girlfriends, so I’m a little confused by the label and the description.”
Elsewhere, Ashanti accused Irv Gotti of “flat-out” lying about the nature of their relationship and suggested he misconstrued their bond, which produced a number of hit singles and albums during Murder Inc.’s heyday in the early 2000s.
“I think that Irv definitely has his side and his version,” she said. “You know, like, you may think that it’s something and the other person knows that it’s not, and you manifest this thing into something big and it’s really not that. And then when that person finally realizes that it’s not that, it turns them into a completely different person.
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“Irv has flat-out lied about a lot of things. And the crazy thing is, when we were in a good space, a positive space — pillow talk is a dangerous thing, and there are so many things that I know. I don’t have the desire to expose certain things. I’m happy, I’m in a different space … I don’t play in the mud.”
She added: “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 because it’s like, ‘Dawg, we can see [the lies].’”
Although she didn’t flat-out deny that there was no romance between them, Ashanti believes that Irv Gotti “manipulated” her at a time when she was young and naïve.
“I definitely feel like manipulation played a heavy part into me and Irv’s situation,” she reflected. “He would say stuff like, ‘No one wants to record with you, nobody fucks with you like that.’ On one hand, he would make it feel like family-family-family, and on the other hand, he would tell me, ‘Nobody even likes you.’
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“It was hard because that gullible little Suzie [was like], ‘Why? How come? I don’t even know them, why they don’t like me?’ Growing and becoming a woman and more mature, then you start to reflect on certain things and it’s like, ‘Oh, that’s what was going on!’”
