Irv Gotti is once again getting his way — well,
sort of.
While Gotti still hasn't been able to sign Bobby Brown to Murder Inc., he finally got the
legend in the studio. The crooning controversy magnet recently teamed up with Ja Rule for
the track "Thug Lovin'."
The cut is the first release from Ja's The Last Temptation, due November 19 (see
"Irv Gotti Moves Up Ja Rule Date to Sync With Nas' LP"). The thugsters will team
up for the song's video when the clip goes into production in L.A. sometime in October.
That won't be the only video Ja pairs up for. He and fellow Queens-bred multiplatinum
plaque-holder Nas will go in front of the camera lens, this time in Miami on September 23
and 24 for the video to the remix of "The Pledge," which also features Ashanti.
That song is now going to be the initial offering from Irv Gotti Presents ... The
Remixes, which drops October 29.
Meanwhile Gotti, who says he met with Bobby earlier this year in hopes of wooing him to
the Inc., may just be that closer to producing the hit with the Brown Bomber he's dreamed
about.
"I would love to sign Bob," Gotti said last month of the singer, who appeared
with wife Whitney Houston in the Inc.'s video for "Down 4 U." "We're gonna
see. Me and Bob talked, but Bob is his own dude. I don't know if he wants to come and be
down like that, but we just like the guy.
"Everybody's down with Murder Inc.," he continued. "We get along with Bob
and Whitney very well. I just think that Bob is a star. If Bob got a hit record, I think
Bob will be off the chain. He's the R&B Tupac. He don't give a f---, and he says
whatever he wants to say. I would love to make a hit record for him and just let him go be
crazy-ass Bob."
—Shaheem Reid
