Today, June 26, is the birthday of Irving Lorenzo Jr., otherwise known as hip-hop record executive Irv Gotti. The industry veteran is now 48 years old.

The Inc. Record label founder was born and raised in Queens, NY and knew from a young age that he wanted to be a boss.

After years of helping to build Def Jam Recordings artists DMX and Jay Z into huge stars, record exec Russell Simmons gave Gotti his own label. In 1999, Irv founded Murder Inc. Record label with his brother Chris. The first album put out under The Inc. was Ja Rule's massively successful Venni Vetti Vecci and the rest was history.

Now with decades in the business, Gotti has a proven track record for fostering stardom and monetizing everything. Gotti has worked with everyone from Ashanti and Vanessa Carlton and Ja Rule, Jay Z, Nicki Minaj, Rick Rubin and more. And it looks like money-making motives run in the family as it was recently reported that Ja Rule and Irv Gotti's kids have launched their own clothing line. In late May 2017, Irv announced he was relaunching Murder Inc. Records as a part of a partnership with 300 Entertainment. A short while later, he teamed with BET to launch his inventive TV series, Tales, an anthology that works in popular songs from hip-hop culture.

Happy Birthday, Irv Gotti!

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