Hip Hop Boss Going Down

28 January 2005

The big boss of Murder Inc, the record label that has brought us Ja Rule and Ashanti, has been charged with laundering more than 1 million dollars from a drug operation through is music business. Irving Lorenzo, known in the music biz as Irv Gotti, his brother and six other associates will face charges in Brooklyn federal court. Also named in the sting was alleged drug king-pin Kenneth McGriff who is already in prison serving time for gun possession.

It's kind of ironic that the studio known as 'The Crackhouse' has become the centre of the accusations, it's said that a lot of business dealings were done from the studio where Ja Rule and Ashanti have recorded hits that have sold more than 20 million copies around the world. In defence Gotti's lawyers have said that Irv has been unfairly targeted because he has made a name for himself after climbing out of the mean streets of his Queens neighbourhood.