Two public figure deaths happened this month of February. I just paid a tribute to Neely Fuller- a Black thought leader. A jump from Neely Fuller, a Black scholar, to Irv Gotti, a music DJ and producer, may seem like a stretch, but it’s not. Everything is connected. Black politics and Black sociopolitical issues and entertainment and Black popular culture are closely related
KLet’s Two public figure deaths happened this month of February. I just paid a tribute to Neely Fuller- a Black thought leader. A jump from Neely Fuller, a Black scholar, to Irv Gotti, a music DJ and producer, may seem like a stretch, but it’s not. Everything is connected. Black politics and Black sociopolitical issues and entertainment and Black popular culture are closely related.. Neely Fuller spoke on global systematic racism, White supremacy, and how it causes confusion and division among people. Then we have Irv Gotti, a music producer and DJ who happens to be “African-American”- Indigenous American, more less- mixed with Filipino descent.
Everything is connected because Black people have a rich history of running dynasties across the world, inventing a lot of stuff, and civilizing the western world.
Then their came the relatively recent global colonization of Blacks by Europeans, slavery, and Jim Crow legal racism and violence against Blacks. This subjugation produced strong men who became activists during the struggle.
What also came about was Black people creating multiple music genres like gospel, Blues in the 1880s, Jazz in the 1890s, Rock N Roll in the 1950s, Soul Music in the late 1950s, later to be morphed into Neo Soul in the 1990s, Rhythm and Blues, later to morph into Contemporary R&B in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and then there was Hip-Hop invented in 1973. Many artists of all genres came and went. But Irv “Gotti” Lorenzo was right in the mix as a Hip-Hop DJ and music producer and co-founder of Murder Inc. record label.
He had artists such as Ja Rule and Ashanti on the label. Ja Rule had many hit songs from the late 1990s to the early 2000s.
Irv Gotti and Ja Rule had a very public beef with rapper 50 Cent. Many Hip-Hop fans took sides and tend to take sides in general in the competitive and egotistical world of Hip-Hop. For this beef in particular, the support for 50 Cent and G Unit and dismissiveness of Irv, Ja and Murder Inc. was lopsided.
As a fan and spectator of Hip-Hop, I remain neutral sometimes and if I’m a big fan of one artist, group or label movement, I’ll route for one over the other. I was neutral on this one, as entertaining as the back and fourth insults and disses they hurled at each other were. And of course, as Black people, we should all get along and shouldn’t be beefing. And we know the music industry and the media loves to promote negativity and Black people beefing.
Irv Gotti did great things in Hip Hop. The Murder Inc. sound and Ja Rule in particular, was the soundtrack to my college years from 1998 to 2002- even though I didn’t personally listen to them. I just always heard their music on the radio. Now every time I hear their music, it gives me nostalgia for those younger, college years.
Oh. And let’s make sure we mind our health as well. Irv Gotti’s brother, Chris Gotti said Irv was eating Chinese food when he died. And Irv Gottis was diagnosed with diabetes in his late 40s. He was 54 when he passed.
We gen Xers and the older millennial crowd are getting older and are either approaching or is about to approach middle age. Every generation loves to party and turn-up in their younger years. Drinking, smoking, and staying up late will catch up to you after awhile. As we get older, we have to balance out that same fun with conscious, healthy living.
But anyways, rest in peace to Irv Gotti.
