and was unbecoming of a hardcore rapper. “The flip-flops – he’s just not the same,” DMX once said in another interview with Vibe (via The St. Louis American). “It’s Beyoncé.

Irv Gotti, the hip hop producer and music executive who co-founded the Murder Inc. label and was instrumental in the rise of stars like DMX, Ja Rule and Ashanti, died Wednesday. He was 54.

Gotti was influential in Def Jam’s signing of celebrated rapper DMX and served as the executive producer of his 1998 album, It's Dark and Hell Is Hot.