Irv Gotti back in business with Universal Music Group deal sign next week

After three years in the wilderness with a federal inquiry Irv Gotti is set to sign a deal with Universal next week - Murder Inc is no more.

A jury acquitted Mr. Irving ‘Irv Gotti’ Lorenzo of charges that he laundered money for a convicted drug kingpin Kenneth McGriff, whose gang dominated the crack trade in Jamaica, Queens, in the 1980’s.

“It’s like a rebirth,” said Irv Gotti 36 who is now was free to produce hits for any company in the business.

Universal Music Group the company that originally financed Murder Inc. and distributed its recordings, then dumped him when the trial came along are again set to finance him again by making Irv Gotti the chief of a new profit-sharing venture with the company’s Universal/Motown label.

“It feels exhilarating,” Mr. Lorenzo said in an interview. “It’s like a rebirth. It feels like God put me through hell, showed me a lot of things, showed me who the good people and bad people are around me, and lined me up to do what I’m put here to do.”

Obviously Gotti felt betrayed after Universal dumped him when the trial came up but some of Universals top executives maintained contact over the course of the trial. They maintained it was nothing personal but their hand was forced.

Gotti put his beef aside after Universal put some money on the table during a private meeting with the Universal President Zach Horowitz and the Universal Chairman Doug Morris.

Initially he explored other options with Lyor Cohen and Warner but Lorenzo found their deal to be an insult, “I made that man a lot of money”.

Also, Irv Gotti’s team had been looking for outside investors to help him start a new label and things looked promising when Larry Goldfarb, a hedge fund investor from the San Francisco was set to finance Lorenzo with $30 Million but then Goldfarb got cold feet and bailed.

So Gotti was forced to go back to Universal to seek out a new deal.

In the three-year deal Universal will provide around $10 million to Mr. Lorenzo as an advance against future profits and payments to cover overhead.

The deal also includes a clause that could allow Irv Gotti to buy ownership of Murder Inc.’s master recordings according to people in the know.

Irv Gotti will have Murder Inc. mainstays back in his stable including Ja Rule and Ashanti.

He is working to resolve a contract dispute with R&B vocalist, Lloyd and has been eyeing artists in other genres like pop-oriented singer-songwriter Vanessa Carlton, who had a hit in 2002 with one of Universals other labels.

Times are tough now for record labels with sales down which Irving Lorenzo acknowledges. Ja Rule and Ashanti have had poor sales compared to when Murder Inc was pumping the platinum hits.

“I embrace competition, because I get busy,” he said. “Certain of my peers in the business, I know that they don’t want me to succeed. They prayed for me to go to jail.”

Even with the new pact, it may prove difficult for Mr. Lorenzo to return to the platinum-selling pinnacles he reached a few years ago. Ja Rule and Ashanti have had lackluster sales with their last few albums, although Mr. Lorenzo said that was largely because of an overall decline in the music market.

While unaccustomed to the role of underdog, he said he was not concerned about competition.

“I embrace competition, because I get busy,” he said. “Certain of my peers in the business, I know that they don’t want me to succeed. They prayed for me to go to jail.”

Gotti says he had nothing to do with McGriffs drug dealings or money laundering and maintains he simply signed a $500,000 contract to provide a soundtrack to a McGriff produced movie.

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