While music is an art form, the business side can get grimy. A producer by the name of Self Service — who has worked with DMX, JAY-Z, Fat Joe, Nas and more in the past — recently joined Math Hoffa’s My Expert Opinion podcast, where he exposed the alleged unethical business practices of Murda Inc. co-founder Irv Gotti.
Self claimed Gotti took half of his publishing and gave himself a production credit for DMX’s 1999 track “What’s My Name?,” despite not touching the record. The cut served as the lead single for the late Yonkers legend’s …And Then There Was X album, which peaked at No. 67 on the Billboard Hot 100.
“Irv took credit for the ‘What’s My Name?’ record. He didn’t do nothing on that beat,” Self said, before accusing other big-name producers of doing the same. “Puff did it, Irv did it and Jermaine Dupri — n-ggas with them names, they were getting beats from other n-ggas. Dre did it.”
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Self Service went onto reveal he was willing to give Irv Gotti a smaller percentage because he did eventually bring the menacing beat to DMX for him to record over.
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“50 percent goes to the writer and 50 goes to the writer of the music and he took 25,” Self continued. “He didn’t do nothing to the beat. I’ll make that beat right now. He been getting 25 percent of my publishing for that record and that was 20 years ago. He gets the same shit that I get for nothing.
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“I would’ve gave him something because the opportunity was through him, but you still gotta ask me. Don’t just initiate it because you the A&R… I never was in the studio when [DMX] did the record… I never had a relationship with X.”
Ironically, there was a comment under the YouTube video by a user under the name of Corey “Yellowman” Jackson calling out Self Service for using the same dirty business tactics as Irv Gotti.
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“Self did that same shit to me in 1998,” he wrote regarding a beat that eventually got into Onyx’s hands. “I was an up and coming hungry producer That was relatively unknown.. He proposed to me that he would sell my beat as his own.. Give me a musicians credit.
“And instead of me getting minimal money Coming in as a new producer in the game He would get 10 times more for the beat And give me twice as much as I would’ve gotten on my own!”
