One thing about Fat Joe, he does not play around when it comes to his longtime friend and collaborator Ashanti. As previously reported, Murder Inc. founder Irv Gotti had made a series of claims against the “Rain On Me” singer in his BET documentary, “The Murder Inc Story,” followed with comments on “Drink Champs” about their alleged sex life, which clearly didn’t sit well with Ashanti.
In the upcoming episode of Jada Pinkett-Smith’s “Red Table Talk,” Fat Joe explained why he came to Ashanti’s defense in the midst of all the controversy Irv had created by talking about his former relationship with the 42-year-old. Back in August, Joe slammed Irv by calling his comments about Ashanti “disrespectful,” adding that nobody needed to know about their sexual encounters behind closed doors.
And during his chat on “RTT,” the rapper explained, “I’m the brother that looks out for the sisters, but somebody had asked me, ‘Yo, why’d you jump out and defend Ashanti like that?’” Joe recounted one of his friends asking whether he was defending Ashanti because he may have been sleeping with her, to which he responded, “Are you crazy? That’s my sister. And then I noticed that when I started telling him that that’s my sister, his whole face calmed down and said, ‘Wow, she really is your sister.’”
The “Lean Back” hitmaker made it clear that he doesn’t have any problems with Irv, who he still deems his “brother,” despite the latter’s not-so-nice comments about his former protege. Joe had no intentions in disrespecting Irv by letting the public know that he did not support the record executive’s comments, nor was he ever aware that the two were even sharing a fling with one another.
In perhaps one of the most controversial moments during his “Drink Champs” interview, Irv explained how he came about putting together what would become one of Ashanti’s biggest hits — “Happy.” Supposedly, the two had just had sex, when the idea for the track suddenly came to his mind.
Video: Ashanti goes on to describe how Irv Gotti would put her down, degrade her and say he made her “f*ck-able”. pic.twitter.com/Uf30QVH9vC
— ashantinews (@ASHANTINEWS) October 26, 2022
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He would later find out that Ashanti had started seeing rapper Nelly — something he found out while at a basketball game — which started to change the pair’s dynamic and made things all the more difficult to separate work from personal feelings.
In her interview with Angie Martinez last month, Ashanti responded to Irv’s recollections, accusing him of flat-out lying about a lot of things pertaining to his time with her.
“The one thing is that it wasn’t surprising to me, to an extent. I’ve accepted a long time ago that that’s the person that he is,” she expressed. “But now the world is seeing.”