The Murder Inc Story

9.7.22

The Murder Inc Story, BET 2022

Last night, Irv Gotti wrapped his series finale to Tales Documentary, Murder Inc Tales, on BET. The series was a five-part interview style documentary, highlighting the ups and downs, and ins and outs of Irv Gotti’s record label, Murder Inc. While it was incredibly insightful and interesting, it left me wanting much, much more.

Irv Gotti himself was a key interviewee throughout the series, and he had a pretty good team with him, as well. Fat Joe, family members, label executives from major music labels, Murder Inc, members such as Ja Rule, Lloyd, Black Child, Vita and Charli Baltimore. Irv got Jay-Z to interview to the extent that he is on all five episodes. Irv got 50 Cent to come interview, peacefully, about one of hip-hop’s most infamous rap beefs, between 50 Cent and Ja Rule. But no, Irv Gotti could not get Ashanti to agreeing to be a part of the series.

I wanted to watch Drink Champs prior to watching the full Tales series, to get kind of get a preview, or an intro, to what I was going to watch in length (to be fair, the Drink Champs full episode is almost as long as the full series, but nonetheless). If the Drink Champs had been filmed prior to Tales being filmed, things may have went differently. There is a lot of talking about how Irv portrayed his relationship with Ashanti, and it was wrong. But, do not let that deter you from watching Tales, because this was not the tone at all, from Irv, throughout the series.

Learning the behind the scenes of music, is my favorite thing. How did you find specific artists, how did these songs and features come about? Irv gave us all of that throughout the series. Something that people tend to forget, is how “not new” everything we hear today is. And even back then. Every time Irv spoke about a song, he mentioned the song they were sampling. Every single time. It was really cool that he gave the recognition to where everything stemmed from, but it also showed his knowledge in music as a whole. He know what was out there, and how he could use it to make something fresh and clean.

Irv also had an eye for talent, clearly. From starting with Jay-Z, then Ja Rule, DMX - and the attempt to almost sign Nas. The man saw greatness. Even after many ups and downs, Irv Gotti signed Lloyd to Murder Inc and got him a number one record, featuring Lil Wayne, during his prime.

When it came to Ashanti, Irv Gotti mentioned her, almost acting as an apprentice at first. Always in the studio, listening, learning, and eager to do so. When it was her time, she crushed it, and was amazing. He mentioned being crushed when she left, and knew it’d be a huge blow to her team. Speaking on her masters was minimal, to the point where you may, possibly, would see both sides.

Most of the time throughout the series seemed to be focused on the court case, that somewhat took down Murder Inc. Irv was associated with a friend from him hometown, a convicted drug dealer. They tried to plot against Irv, and book him for some sort of money scheme in connection to drug dealing. Throughout all of this, Irv wanted people to know he was a family man, and a true friend. I am glad I learned this much about what really happened, but I wish there was this much detail on every aspect of the interview.

After beating the trial, things did not get much easier. Irv was light on money, light on artists due to them fleeing, and therefore, light on Murder Inc. After taking a bit of a break to spend time to focus on family and mental health, Irv Gotti had the idea to begin Tales. A BET series that tells the stories of the behind the scenes creations of how your favorite hip-hop songs came about. Most recently, he sold his catalog and signed a massive, multi-million dollar deal to create.

Would you want more Murder Inc, new artist music? Or perhaps, a film? Are you still an Irv Gotti fan?