Daymond John Speaks On Irv Gotti's Legacy in Hip Hop

TMZ

DayJ recalls, Irv and music video pioneer Hype Williams all got their start sitting on the sidelines of the artist side of the music industry ... but went on to make their mark in pop culture.

Transcript

00:00You say Irv was your childhood friend, can you remember y'all's first meeting like it

00:06was yesterday?

00:07We were introduced by a buddy named Al, Al Cleveland, and Al Cleveland was the one that

00:14Hype Williams made the movie Belly about, but Al was kind of connected between me, Irv,

00:19and Hype, and Al.

00:21We all kind of lived in a little different pockets of Queens, but Al would drive around

00:25to all those and hang out with all those, and the first time meeting Irv, you know,

00:29and Chris and those guys, it was always just, he was always a fun-loving guy, you know,

00:33very, very passionate, and so that was when we were about 14 years old, and later on,

00:38we'd probably go on a couple of music tours as roadies for LL Cool J and Houdini and all

00:45those, so yeah, we had a really great time coming up.

00:47It was me, Irv, and Hype, when we were on tours, we all said that we couldn't rap ourselves,

00:51and we wanted, Hype wanted to be the king of videos, Irv wanted to be the king of music,

00:57I wanted to be, you know, the king of fashion.

00:59Ja Rule had lived about two blocks away from me, so I started to see Irv come up as a DJ,

01:06and I think we were all there that first day when, you know, Hype shot his first video,

01:11Bitches With Attitudes, right there in Queens, and we were all on set going, we are, we're

01:17doing it, and Irv was like, man, I'm next.

01:21I use Hype for Fatty Girl, I dress up many of Hype's videos, I've dressed many of Murder

01:26Inc.'s videos, Irv and Murder and Chris, you know, did a lot of the beats on my tracks

01:36and stuff like that for our commercials and everything else, and they always advised me

01:41on what was coming up, in regards to fashion, I always advised them on what was coming up,

01:45sometimes they would come to me and say, hey man, how should an artist look, what are you

01:49designing for the next five years, and I would say to them sometimes, what music are you

01:53making for the next five years?

01:55What was the moment when you realized that, you know, he was really on to something?

02:01The moment I realized he was on to something when I was, I believe I was on a video set,

02:06and then it was me, it was Pharrell, Kanye, and Hype, and it was Jamie Foxx, and we were

02:14on the Gold Digger set, and we were talking, and somebody said, Irv, man, like, you helped

02:21discover Jay-Z, DMX, Ashanti, Ja Rule, you're here today, like, when are you gonna stop?

02:30You're so amazing.

02:31And by the way, you know, Irv also, well, you ever talk to Pitbull, Pitbull attributes

02:35his fame to Irv, because Irv was such a visionary that one time he said he came outside on a

02:40set and Pitbull was just barking on Drag-On, he was going back and forth, and he was lining

02:48everybody up from Rough Riders and just knocking them down, because Pitbull's such a great

02:52freestyler, right?

02:54And then Irv said, yo, you're really good, what's up?

02:57And Pitbull would say something like, he went, yo, Papo, I'm out here keeping it real.

03:02I'll burn everybody out here, and Irv said, keep it real, you're gonna keep it broke,

03:08and walked away.

03:09Wow.

03:10And Pit said he went home after that and realized, hotel, motel, holiday!

03:17And now he's a global brand, because that day, with that small amount of time that Irv

03:22set with such passion, Irv said, yo, man, here's what we're gonna do for you, and Irv

03:28just gave him enough knowledge.

03:29So he was a visionary in not only hip-hop, but when you think about pop culture itself,

03:35he just is, he's just such a phenomenon.

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