Irv Gotti says he knew it was good marketing when he starting rambling about Ashanti during his Drink Champs interview.
Irv Gotti and Ja Rule both reacted to the backlash by Ashanti fans who called our Gotti for disrespecting the princess of R&B music and Ja Rule for not defending her as her close friend. On Tuesday, Irv Gotti entertained more interviews where he addressed comments made by Fat Joe.
Although he did not answer Fat Joe, Irv noted that Joe isn’t his friend and gave a story about people coming and going from his life.
“I feel like he fooled me, he’s not my friend. I was fooled but in life you get fooled. Forget Joe, I’m not talking about Joe, they don’t want me to talk about Joe. In life, everyone goes through friends, people who you thought was your friend. I’m not talking about Joe. in life I’ve had countless friends come and go but you know what remains consistent and why I get through all of this? My family, cause I don’t really need friends,” the Murder Inc co-owner said.
In another interview with James Sanders, Irv Gotti said he was honest and truthful noting that he doesn’t want to talk about Ashanti despite spending more than half of his interview trashing Ashanti and sharing tea about them.
“I know what’s clickbait, I know what’s gonna make people activate, I know what’s gonna get the love, I know what’s gonna get the hate. I know it ahead of time,” he said.
Gotti, however, refused to take accountability for his statements about Ashanti, noting that it was the interviewers who led him to speak about her, and he took the bait.
“So one I know it and everything that you said that described me as the marketing genius I am, you’re a 100% accurate, you nailed it right on the head, but the other part is I am also a very honest and truthful person, I don’t want to necessarily talk about Ashanti, I’m fine without talking about her but they always asks the questions, they always lead me to it and me stupidly I take the bait,” he said.
Ja Rule also popped up to defend himself, noting that he did at one point stop Irv Gotti after he called Ashanti a “b*tch.”
“STOP saying I didn’t defend sis and all women when I clearly told Gotti stop calling Ashanti/women the B word same way I told Joe at Verzuz watch the interview before you talk sh*t… NOW LEAVE ME TF OUT THESE GROWN FOLK BUSINESSES.”
On Monday night, Fat Joe called out both Irv Gotti for dragging Ashanti’s name in the mud and Ja Rule for standing by despite being a close friend of hers.
“Y’all can @ IrvGotti, Ja, whatever the f*** you want,” Fat Joe said in an Instagram Live video. “Whatever Irv has with Ashanti is 20 years old, right? I know he was making some points that mean a lot to him, his heart, and soul. But when you keep ranting about somebody 20 years later, it feels like he’s not over the young lady, right?”
Fat Joe admitted that he didn’t know Irv Gotti and Ashanti had an intimate relationship two decades ago and didn’t really care to know now. However, his grouse is that the Murder Inc. label exec is now disrespecting Ashanti, and Ja Rule didn’t do much to defend the R&B singer, whom he calls his sister.
Ashanti has not responded to any of the comments thus far.
