Irv Gotti Defends His Recent Comments About Ashanti: 'I Told My Truth'

Irv Gotti has seen all the comments, think-pieces and other negative feedback from BET's The Murder, Inc Story, but the backlash isn't enough to backtrack now.

Gotti was among the distinguished guests at the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday, August 28. While he was walking down the black carpet, the Murder, Inc. founder caught up with Essence, who asked him about his thoughts regarding all the outrage over comments he made about his relationship with Ashanti. He maintained that he still has a lot of love for his former artist, but it doesn't seem like he's going to apologize for anything he said.

"It's my life," Gotti said. "They paid me a bunch of money to talk about my life at Murder Inc. I talked about my life at Murder Inc. and I caught all this flack because of it. Not one word I said is a lie. I’m not a lying type person. I wish Ashanti all the best. If you’re watching Ashanti, I wish you all the best. But I just told my truth.”

"It was kinda funny for me to see the backlash that I received," he continued. "They was trying to get the #MeToo Movement on and I was like, ‘Yo, I said I loved her.' We were together for three years...I wish her all the best."

At the beginning of the series that debuted earlier this month, Gotti revealed some intimate details about his sexual relationship, like how he and Ashanti first kissed, and how their fling began. While promoting the docu-series on Drink Champs, Gotti opened up even more and even described how their relationship inspired songs like Ashanti's "Happy." He even referred to the singer as the "b" word at one point in the interview, which prompted pushback from Ja Rule, who denounced his behavior on the episode, and Fat Joe, who wasn't happy about the disparaging remarks about his friend.

Although Irv, Ja and Joe have all pushed the drama aside, Ashanti has yet to formally respond to the controversy. Last week, she seemingly offered a rebuttal by previewing a new song on Instagram with a snippy caption. See what she had to say below.