Irv Gotti has revealed his opinion on Ashanti’s recent announcement that she will rerecord previously released albums. The Murder Inc. co-founder took to the comments of Angie Martinez’s Instagram account, leaving his side of the story on a video of Ashanti explaining the importance of owning her own music and reissuing her past music instead of dropping a new project.
“The thinking behind that is showing the business side of ownership,” she clarified. “And how important it is to own. And once I re-record the first album… When that goes, everything purchased from that moment, I own.”
The “Foolish” singer continued to share her plans on having her debut album rerecorded and released around April 2022 when she will be honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Irv Gotti’s lengthy comment left among short notes from supportive fans was hard to ignore. He revealed he owns the masters and publishing of Ashanti’s music and challenged the R&B singer to recreate the essence of the original LP.
Tagging the radio show host, the 51-year-old wrote, “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. What she is trying to do is re record all those great records. And put them out on her label.”
He continued, “She can do this under the COVER laws. But she is basically trying to f**k me out of my Masters. And make people decide which album to listen too or stream. Hoping her loyal fans will choose her version. But hey. I stand on the Magic that was created. And I wanna see her duplicate that Magic. It’s fu**ed up really. But such is life. Tales coming top of the year. Supreme Team Movie. In production 2022. And I’m Directing. Writing. Producing. And funding my 1st movie with Paramount distributing. Tales Presents… We Made It In America.”
Back in September, Ashanti officially announced she would be re-recording her 2002 debut record, Ashanti, during an appearance on The Tamron Hall show. She alleged she owns the masters and shared an eagerness to move forward with this stage of her career.
“It’s so surreal. I have an amazing legal team, and I got my first record deal when I was 14 years old, so understanding and seeing how things have changed so much from then to now and conceptually understanding what you’re signing is so imperative, it’s so important nowadays. The fact that I’ll be able to rerecord my first album, and put everything together.”
She continued, “It’s so humbling. It is such an honor. I’m so grateful. It’s such a blessing, you know, the fact that we are still here, we’re living through a pandemic, and these blessings are still coming in—it just makes me so happy again, so humbled, and such a believer. There’s a higher power, and I think that just being a good person and praying and putting your heart into things—you get that energy back, and I think that’s so important. So I’m just really, really happy.”
View a screenshot of Irv Gotti’s comments below: