Source: JD Barnes / for HelloBeautiful
When former Murder Inc. CEO Irv Gotti went on Drink Champs in August, he gave off major creep vibes as he talked about his past sexual relationship with his signee and protege Ashanti in the early 2000s.
For her part, the songstress stayed quiet for months as rumors and conjecture about the relationship swirled. Well, Ashanti is quiet no more. Per our sister site Madame Noire, the 42-year-old R&B star sat down with veteran radio personality Angie Martinez for her IRL Podcast where she candidly told her side of the story.
Ashanti told Martinez that it was after her career started to take off that she realized that Irv was “manipulative” and that as she began to take charge of her own career—he pushed back.
“I feel like sometimes when a man feels like he’s losing control, and he can’t manipulate and he can’t dictate and tell you what to do what your finances….that gets to a man’s ego,” the “Baby” hitmaker explained. “So, then he turns to bashing and he turns to intimidation and he tries to make you look bad to boost his own ego. It’s just really sad to watch that. ”
As far as the “dating” or “relationship” rumors, Ashanti initially seemed to dodge responding—she takes a deep breath before saying that Irv “has his side and his version.”
“I think that sometimes when you may think that it’s something and the other person knows that it’s not, then you manifest it into something big and when the other person fully realizes that it’s not that, it turns them into a completely different person.”
She added, “Pillow Talk is a dangerous thing. You know what I’m saying? There are so many things that I know, but I don’t have the desire to expose certain things… I’m happy. I’m in a different space… I feel like I operate at a very different vibration than him. I don’t play in the mud.”
She also claimed that Irv would frequently tell her that he made her “f**kable.”
In finally clearing up the relationship rumor, Ashanti said, “We dealt with each other, but was Irv my boyfriend was I his girlfriend? Never! Irv had several girlfriends. I’m a little confused by the thought, the label and the description.”
The songstress said that Irv never apologized for comments he made during the now-infamous Drink Champs appearance—where he frequently referred to her as a “bi**h” earning the backlash of fellow rapper, Fat Joe.
Additionally, near the end of the interview she repeated claims that Irv Gotti tried to tarnish and damage her career, saying, “I believe that Irv wishes death on me. 1,000,000 percent. It’s crazy.”
Tagged: Ashanti, Celebrity News, Drink Champs, entertainment blog, fat joe, irv gotti, murder inc, music blog