In today’s article, How Jay Z Outsmarted Irv Gotti, renowned hip hop music producer Irv Gotti was on Drink Champs and he referenced a story where he responded to a concern of Jay Z’s by stating “It’s good business” and he recalls how the statement backfired on him.
Irv Gotti recalls how he wanted to sign rapper Nas to his Murder Inc. record label. He tells the story of Jay Z questioning him about signing Nas to Murder Inc. Remember, Jay Z and Nas were feuding and Irv Gotti had produced the record “SuperUgly” dissing Nas for Jay Z.
When Jay Z asked Irv Gotti about whether he was going to sign Nas to Muder Inc. Irv Gotti responded to Jay Z with the statement, It’s good business.
With that said, Irv Gotti went ahead and attempted to bring Nas to Murder Inc. However, the deal did not go through and Irv Gotti was unable to bring Nas to join Muerder Inc. And not only so, because of Irv’s attempt to bring Nas to Murder Inc. he and Jay Z were not openly not on speaking terms.
JAY Z JOINS 50 CENT
At some point down the line Jay Z went ahead and did a Reebok deal and did a Reebok commercial with 50 Cent. As most people know, Irv Gotti and 50 Cent are nemesis, to say the least.
Irv Gotti would later question Jay Z about him doing the Reebok commercial with 50 Cent, his nemesis, and Jay Z responded, “It’s good business.”
In the same interview Irv Gotti states that it was a mistake to attempt to bring Nas over to Murder Inc., given his relationship with Jay Z.
However, was it really a mistake on Irv Gotti’s part to attempt to bring Nas to Murder Inc. at the expense of fragilizing his relationship with Jay Z? Some may think so, and others may think not.
The reason is because, as we would eventually see from Jay Z’s future business decisions, it does not seem like he took friendships into consideration when it came to making business decisions. Let’s delve a little deeper into this.
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JAY Z SIGNS NAS
The irony in the whole situation with Irv Gotti attempting to sign Nas to Murder Inc is that Jay Z would down the line sign Nas himself.
During his tenure as president of Def Jam, Jay Z signed Nas to Def Jam. Jay Z signed Nas to a four album deal and collaborated on the song Black Republican with him.
So, was that good business? What was the difference between Irv Gotti attempting to sign Nas to Murer Inc. and Jay Z actually signing Nas to Def Jam? Some would argue that there was no difference other than that Jay Z did not only attempt to sign Nas, but actually did sign Nas.
This situation is unarguably a scenario of how Jay Z outwitted Irv Gotti.
CONCLUSION
And as always we like to close with a saying, quote or adage and today’s is from Jay Z: I WILL NOT LOSE, FOR EVEN IN DEFEAT THERE’S A VALUABLE LESSON LEARNED, SO IT EVENS UP FOR ME.
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