Irv Gotti on Getting Your Music Heard

Irv Gotti of The Inc. discusses how he uses his industry and social contacts to help him find undiscovered and unsigned talent.

Among one of hip-hop’s most successful producers, New York’s Irv Gotti is founder and CEO of The Inc. Records, as of 2006 a co-venture with Universal Music Group. His credits include chart-topping albums and singles by Ja Rule, Ashanti, DMX, Jay-Z, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Mary J. Blige and Fat Joe. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Gotti’s spacious and bass-heavy arrangements often featuring female vocalists were nearly ubiquitous on Top 40 and hip-hop radio. As a measure of his success, at one point in 2002 three Gotti-produced singles simultaneously occupied spots in Billboards’ Top Ten - "Always on Time” (Ja Rule), "What's Luv?" (Fat Joe) and “Foolish” (Ashanti).