IRV Gotti bounces back

By: Yves Erwin Salomon

Inc. Records CEO Irv Gotti is ready to take over the world again after he was acquitted of federal money laundering charges earlier this year. Gotti is back in business with Universal Records and he's shooting his own reality show. Gotti told the New York Post's Cindy Adams, "Listen, no matter what I went through, I kept Ja Rule, Ashanti, all my acts. I now have a joint venture with Universal, the same company that kicked me out when those accusations came down. They even gave me back my masters. I sold 20 million albums. I produced J. Lo's two biggest hits, 'I'm Real,'13 weeks on the charts, and 'Ain't It Funny,'11 weeks. Now I own all my stuff and I split with Universal. Doug Morris gave me the deal. He's grooming me to be president of Universal. And Tobey Maguire and I bonded over poker, so next up I'll produce movies."

As for the new reality show, Gotti explained that it would be a one shot deal. He said, "I'll be taping this reality thing -- there's no name yet -- for six months. I told them it's a one-shot deal. I own a piece of it. I'm executive producer, so I OK the final cut. They're tracking my success back from the days I mixed tapes in my house and sold them for 10 bucks apiece to friends. They'll also include scenes from Crack House, my two-floor SoHo studio."

Gotti also expects some of his famous friends to end up in some of the episodes. He said, "Some friends like Jay-Z, Damon Dash, Russell Simmons will probably be on it. Hey, Russell saw my canary-yellow diamond chain and said, 'With each link, you could feed a village in Africa or . . . you could get a lot of (a phrase indicating a kitty cat)."