Irv Gotti Accused Of Stealing Beats On DMX Album

Irv Gotti has worked with some of the biggest names in music. The Murder Inc. co-founder produced hit records for stars like Ashanti, Ja Rule, Jennifer Lopez, and DMX. Some of that work has recently come into question.

Rap music often finds itself in gray areas in terms of copyright law. Sampling is heavily used within the genre. This can lead to some sticky situations. It gets even worse when blatant theft is involved.

A producer known as Self Service has accused Irv Gotti of stealing one of his beats. Self recently appeared on the My Expert Opinion podcast. On the show, the producer said Gotti stole half of his publishing take and took credit for the 1999 DMX song “What’s My Name.” Self Service says Irv never touched the track.

“Irv took credit for the ‘What’s My Name’ record. He didn’t do nothing on that beat. Puff did it, Irv did it and Jermaine Dupri, n*ggas with them names, they were getting beats from other n*ggas. Dre did it.

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50 percent goes to the writer and 50 goes to the writer of the music and he took 25. He didn’t do nothing to the beat. I’ll make that beat right now. He been getting 25 percent of my publishing for that record and that was 20 years ago. He gets the same sh*t that I get for nothing.”

Self Service believes he got a raw deal from Irv Gotti. The beat maker thinks he’s owed an additional 25% of the publishing rights to “What’s My Name.” Irv Gotti is likely laughing all the way to the bank.

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