Ja Rule tried his hardest to remedy the issues between Ashanti and the late Irv Gotti.
The “Livin’ It Up” rapper appeared on the July 10 episode of podcast BagFuel and among discussing his time in the Fast & Furious and memories of DMX, he was asked whether he played mediator between Ashanti and Gotti.
Before the late producer and music executive, born Irving Lorenzo, died from a hemorrhagic stroke in February, for years he alleged that he and Ashanti had an affair during her time on his record label, Murder Inc. Records. Gotti detailed the alleged relationship during a 2022 episode of Drink Champs, just months after Ashanti reconciled with her now-husband, Nelly. The R&B singer would slam Gotti’s comments during an interview on podcast Angie Martinez IRL, accusing her former boss of lying, but upon his death, Ashanti expressed that she wished their ending were different.
Around the six-minute mark of the BagFuel interview above, Ja called Ashanti his “sister” and Gotti his “brother.” “It’s really like a family thing,” he added. “I’m y’all brother, how much do y’all want me to get involved?'”
Ja added that while the situation was “sometimes” uncomfortable for him, all parties involved had separate relationships with each other. “It’s
just sad that my brother and my sister were arguing and going through it like that,” he said. “I tried to play the peacemaker. I tried plenty of times to mediate the shit, but it came to a point where I was like, ‘You know what? I’m out of it. Y’all fucking deal with it.'”
He continued, “‘I’m not doing none of that shit. I’m out. Just leave me the fuck out of it. Y’all deal with it. Y’all grown.'” And everybody was was cool with my stance and that’s fine. So, I wish it could have been different.”
Ashanti would later return to Angie Martinez IRL shortly after Gotti’s passing, and around the 39-mark below, the vocalist said that she “always wanted peace” with him. “I’m sad that the last few years we weren’t seeing eye to eye,” she said. “What I do know is that I extended the olive branch and I do know that I just wanted things to be cool.”
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