Irv "Gotti"
Lorenzo is in the process of changing the name of his label Murder Inc. to The
Inc. in an attempt to shed negative connotations surrounding the older moniker.
"I am changing
the name so people can just try and focus on our music and not our name,"
Lorenzo told AllHipHop.com. "I’ve been making hits now for close to ten
years in this game. All everyone seems to want to focus on is the word ‘murder.’"
A press conference
is scheduled in the near future to announce the name change. On that day, Lorenzo
intends to announce that he will no longer use the name "Gotti."
Lorenzo named himself
after New York mob boss, John Gotti. Similar to the original Gotti, Lorenzo
is under scrutiny from the United States government in a drug and money laundering
case.
"I feel it’s
a good idea," Def Jam’s Founder, Russell Simmons, added. "They have
always made music that focuses on love, so it makes sense to get rid of the
word ‘Murder,’ it’s just too negative."
Def Jam, the label
that Simmons founded, distributes records by The Inc., whose roster includes
multi-platinum artists Ashanti and Ja Rule.
The government
is probing whether or not Lorenzo aided Queen’s drug kingpin Kenneth "Supreme"
McGriff in laundering drug proceeds through the record label.
Lorezno vehemently
denies the charges and saying that McGriff is merely a friend that he attempted
to help turn his life around.
"Hopefully
people will focus on me and my artist’s talents, which is making great records
and entertaining fans," he said.
The label recently
dropped Ja Rule’s Blood In My Eye, which landed at number 6 on Billboard’s
Top 200 Albums chart. Ashanti s set to drop a Christmas album as well.