Irv Gotti Says JAY-Z Is Responsible For Roc-A-Fella Success: 'Dame Was Along For The Ride'

Irv Gotti believes that JAY-Z is the sole reason why Roc-A-Fella was successful in it’s heyday, and that Dame Dash played nothing more than a minor role.

For the second time this year, the Murder Inc. founder appeared on Drink Champs and delivered another explosive interview, at one point sharing his thoughts on the dissolution of Hov and Dame’s once-dominant record label.

N.O.R.E. started by asking Gotti if he was aware of the rumors that Dame Dash had been “removed” from JAY-Z’s The Book of HOV library exhibit, to which he replied: “I don’t know, I ain’t see it … Probably. I don’t think Jay likes Dame.”

The Drink Champs co-host then mentioned Dame’s recent claims that his former business partner was bitter about him dating Aaliyah, before expressing his surprise that Roc-A-Fella broke up considering the “chemistry” that Jigga, Dame and Kareem “Biggs” Burke had.

“Jay didn’t need nobody,” Irv said. “[Dame] started Roc-A-Fella with Jay and Biggs, so he should get credited. [But] I’m saying the making of the records — I don’t know what you want me to say. Jay didn’t need nobody.”

He continued: “Jay was picking the beats, Jay was rapping over the beats, Jay was making things — it was all Hov! Dame was along for the ride. It was a great ride.”

The Aaliyah story that N.O.R.E touched on was shared by Dame Dash in a recent interview.

During a July appearance on the That’s F***ed Up Podcast, the Harlem-bred mogul said that he and Hov were once in competition for the late R&B singer’s affections, and that the Roc Nation boss felt a way when he began dating her.

“I just threw my A-game and I guess Jay was trying to get at her as well and I didn’t know,” Dash explained. “Then it got brought up and I was like, ‘Fuck both of y’all.’ It never worked out for them and we were both trying to get at her. I eased up and then we ran into each other.

“Everybody was getting at Aaliyah, bro. She’ll go to dinner with a n-gga but she wasn’t just gonna be smashing. So that was like the big deal — who could get with Aaliyah.”

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One of the co-hosts then interjected to ask Dame if Hov was “bitter” about him winning out with Aaliyah. “Obviously,” Dame replied. “Yeah, he felt a way.”

Dame Dash went on to detail how JAY-Z was also courting Aaliyah but it came to a head at a July 4 party in 2000 where all three were in attendance, but Dame ended up hooking up with the “One in a Million” singer.

“He was sending flowers and doing all that shit — he was courting her,” he added. “So we were both going hard and we ended up in the same house Fourth of July. It was like one day it might lean toward him, then it would lean toward me.

“I was just on fire that week. Everything I was saying was funny. I remember coming down after it happened and he was like, ‘You know this gonna be hard for me.’ His friends were laughing at him and shit.”

Dame’s comments only underscore the tension that still lingers between him and JAY-Z, almost two decades after Roc-A-Fella disbanded in the mid 2000s.