I feel like this doc series would have been a bigger hit had it not been the stigma of g-unit/eminem/interscope's anti murder inc campaign that still resonates to this day
parts of the documentary looked like they got some of the footage straight from youtube, like the 50-jay-z reebok commercial, archived MTV/BET interviews, music videos, concert DVDs, but a lot of documentaries do that nowadays but the archived footage could have been scaled up to 1080p from the source instead of youtube potato quality, just saying
How they gonna skip over the Thug Lovin’ glory?
yeah, they they skipped the whole part about suge knight giving murder inc clearances to a lot of 2Pac samples they reused -- the pledge obviously but Thug Lovin sounds like an OG 2Pac beat...wasn't there a story that irv and ja met suge and ja rule's energy reminded suge so much of 2pac that suge broke down crying and said he would help murder inc by giving them whatever they wanted?
Baby had 2 remixes, the OG remix for where Gotti got the scarface 'mary jane' beat from and the one with crooked i when he was still on Tha Row and Irv was trying to reciprocate the help to revitalize Death Row Suge just got out of jail in 2001
Lmao, when they played the extended footage of Chamillionaire music video for 'hip hop police', that had nothing to do with the documentary, but that shyt was real for murder inc...the government have to recoup that task force money after reacting to the deaths of biggie, 2pac, big L, JMJ, etc...even tho Gotti beat the case, the government still caught up with supreme to give him life for earlier crime/retaliatory connections...Gotti wouldn't leave the street shyt alone and the gov picked on them as low hanging fruit. the documentary could have been paced better to cover more details
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overall, the documentary is a constant reminder that having 'ego/blind loyalty' talk and act for you is reckless and can bring back negative karma...if cooler heads prevailed, they had multiple chances to squash the 50 cent beef early but it always drew into violence first before talking even began. irv blocking 50 from signing to the other major labels before Interscope just fueled 50's fire to be ruthlessness in blocking murder inc later on with their same practices...Nas used Murder Inc as a chess move to get at Jay to ruin Jay's and Irv's relationship and Jay started siding with 50 when both of them weren't as cool with Nas
Irv did a lot of hits for Sony and JLo but should have gave those hits to his own label and artists -- I guess Irv was still played both sides of the fence for that 3m record label deal that Sony offered -- Def Jam allowed Irv to make the hardcore Murders Compilation (that flopped) with Charli, Vita, Cadillac, and Black Child because Lyor Cohen allowed for the street sound templating off the success of DMX, but then when Ja wanted to make poppy records on 3:36 pivoting away from the DMX sound, that shyt would have flew more at Sony because they are about that pop/crossover/mainstream appeal like JLo and there was pushback from Def Jam because executive idiots not a part of the culture couldn't see the vision for that new sound
Even though Irv Gotti A&Red for Def Jam and gave them Jay-Z and DMX, Jay's, X's, and Ja's ego prevented them from joining forces to make that Murder Inc supergroup album outside of 2 songs, where "Can I Get A" was a Jay-Z record but had 2 Murder Inc artists, and Irv should have not given out their hits to other artists' albums so easily. Jay-Z benefitted the most by deeboing both "Can I Get A" with Ja Rule and "Money Cash Hoes" with DMX to put on his Vol 2 album (that moreless sounds like a Jay-Z and friends compilation with other forced collabos) out of that Murder Inc group that never materialized. Irv should have rolled the dice and left for Sony instead of stayed at Def Jam because even today, Lyor badmouths Irv and says he's a crybaby, a druggie, and snotty gotti, etc. this is basically what happens when white executives who don't know the culture run the music industry -- they are as cocky and egotistical as the rappers they manage and Irv had to pick between a jew and an italian who converted into a jew between Lyor and Tommy...that doesn't look good when the record executive is not vouching your story, taking credit over you, and downplaying your success by singing a different narrative shyt-talking you on your own documentary...Irv was probably too comfortable at Def Jam and getting high off drugs, fame, money, and women to realize he should have left because only thru joint venture money with UMG did Def Jam scrape enough money to finally match Sony's 3 Mil offer, and Irv should have been shrewd to present that offer back to Sony for them to raise their offer and ultimately leave Def Jam.
Having to do a venture deal to raise money to only match that money should have been a red flag for Gotti to leave beyond the other industry BS. Gotti was too much of an asset spotting talent and producing records for Def Jam by getting them out of their hole to still not pay him his true worth, which should have been that 10mil Gotti said in the documentary. Record labels need Irv and not the other way around for relevancy and hits. Of all the times Gotti's ego could have made him take the money and run, Gotti's boneheaded blind loyalty to Def Jam got into his own way. That same blind loyalty to Supreme even though he was innocent got him into a lot of trouble and eventually blackballed his whole record label from producing more hit records. Had Irv played his cards differently without his ego and blind loyalty, he could have made that 1 Bil by now and ran his own music conglomerate spotting Lloyd early from Louisiana, etc. Wasn't Lloyd signed with J prince or something that when Lloyd was doing hit records for Murder Inc, they still had to pay kickback to J prince (the boogeyman of the south) or something?
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ngl, I kinda want to watch that 'Crime Partners' movie Gotti made from iceberg slim's novel that had def jam pay legit money to supreme...this shyt it so undocumented that I don't even see the soundtrack listing to the movie...lol we need a Primm's hood review on this with the full backstory that this is the film that got Murder Inc in trouble when they used Def Jam money to pay supreme. Nas did songs with E Moneybags but E Moneybags was killed in retaliation to the death of Black Jus, according to Supreme's wiki. Why did Nas only say 'RIP to Black Jus' on 'Queens Story' without saying RIP to E Moneybags?
Gotti said he got the inspiration to make Ashanti's Aww Baby from another record that he didn't disclose, and that shyt isn't even on whosampled, and I have no idea what it is. the drum and overall beat iteration does sound like Lil Wayne's - Shine. Ashanti probably didn't want to be a part of the documentary given that she had hidden her relationship with Irv this whole time, when people used to suspect it was Ja and Ashanti, and Irv's mouth and ego wouldn't allow himself to not talk about it. That's kinda crazy that Irv consulted his exwife to write the lyrics to Foolish where Deb cried on camera -- that's the ultimate lemonade from lemons judo move but that's still some cruel and unusual shyt airing out your own personal strife for a hit record in the entertainment industry
Gotti did make r&b hits out of already rap's classic instrumentals, which is the diddy's approach with Mary J, and then Kanye did it for a moment when he just started remaking beats, and now I think Khaled is just doing the same shyt but at a lesser attention to micromanaging the detail because khaled just puts a bunch of random artists on a track regardless if they are offbeat, offkey, or flat out sounds terrible, so people still associate the instrumental as the old rap classic and the new dub record is moreless a hit-or-miss mixtape blend with a larger album budget and original lyrics
so when the raid happened, they seized a bunch of computers...i wonder if any unreleased hits are lost forever because of that
