Irv Gotti Dead at 54

Irv’s battled health problems recently since suffering a stroke last year, and has had to walk with the aid of a cane.

When he suffered his stroke, a rep told us diabetes was a factor … though, we were told Irv was improving his diet as a result.

When Irv was at Def Jam, he signed DMX and served as executive producer on DMX’s first studio album, “It’s Dark and Hell is Hot.” He eventually launched his label, Murder Inc., under the Def Jam umbrella … and its first release was Ja Rule’s debut album, “Venni Vetti Vecci.”

Gotti also signed Vanessa Carlton to a record deal and produced her 2007 album “Heroes & Thieves.”

Irv and his former artist Ashanti had a war of words a couple years ago, when he opened up — on a now legendary “Drink Champs” episode — about what he described as their “relationship.” She fired back, saying it was never that serious to her, and accused Gotti of being salty he no longer had control of her career.

The rise of Irv’s label was the subject of the 2022 BET documentary, “The Murder Inc Story” … and Ashanti felt that was also part of why they beefed, because she chose not to participate in the 3-part series.

Gotti was 54.