Vanessa Carlton to MAYBE sign to Irv gotti's label?

[Martin.]

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 21 — In December, Irving Lorenzo had reason to think that the tumult that had sidetracked his wildly successful career as a rap entrepreneur had finally passed.

“It’s like a rebirth,” said Irving Lorenzo, right, about his expected deal with Universal. Mr. Lorenzo’s cigar buddy is the rapper Ja Rule.

After a three-year federal inquiry, a jury acquitted Mr. Lorenzo of charges that he used his rap label, Murder Inc., to launder money for a convicted drug kingpin. Now Mr. Lorenzo, known professionally as Irv Gotti, was free to produce hits for any company in the business.

Almost nine months later, however, Mr. Lorenzo, 36, has found the road back full of twists, none more unexpected than his choice of partners: the same record conglomerate that severed its ties with him during the investigation and, as Mr. Lorenzo said at the time, “made a decision to destroy me.”

He was expected to sign a deal early this week that would put him back in business with Universal Music Group, the world’s biggest record corporation, which had financed Murder Inc. and distributed its recordings. The deal would make him the chief of a new profit-sharing venture with the company’s Universal/Motown label.

“It feels exhilarating,” Mr. Lorenzo said in an interview. “It’s like a rebirth. It feels like God put me through hell, showed me a lot of things, showed me who the good people and bad people are around me, and lined me up to do what I’m put here to do.”

Under the three-year deal Universal will commit roughly $10 million to Mr. Lorenzo in an advance against future profits and payments to cover overhead, said people briefed on the arrangement, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The deal also includes a provision that could allow Mr. Lorenzo to buy ownership of Murder Inc.’s master recordings, these people said.

Mr. Lorenzo returns with a roster that includes Murder Inc.’s signature acts: the rapper Ja Rule and the R&B singer Ashanti. He has also been working to resolve a contract dispute with another R&B vocalist, Lloyd. Mr. Lorenzo has been eyeing artists in other genres, and has been in talks to sign the pop-oriented singer-songwriter Vanessa Carlton, who had a hit in 2002 on another Universal label.

Even with the new pact, it may prove difficult for Mr. Lorenzo to return to the platinum-selling pinnacles he reached a few years ago. Ja Rule and Ashanti have had lackluster sales with their last few albums, although Mr. Lorenzo said that was largely because of an overall decline in the music market.

While unaccustomed to the role of underdog, he said he was not concerned about competition.

“I embrace competition, because I get busy,” he said. “Certain of my peers in the business, I know that they don’t want me to succeed. They prayed for me to go to jail.”

In the early days of 2003 that seemed a distinct possibility. Federal agents raided Murder Inc.’s offices and seized bank accounts connected to the label. Investigators alleged that Mr. Lorenzo had used the label to launder drug money for a convicted dealer, Kenneth McGriff, whose gang dominated the crack trade in Jamaica, Queens, in the 1980’s.

Mr. Lorenzo denied that he had laundered money for Mr. McGriff. Instead, he said, he had legally negotiated a deal for Def Jam to put up $500,000 to co-produce a soundtrack for “Crime Partners,” a McGriff-produced film.

But even as Mr. Lorenzo proclaimed his innocence, Universal began turning a cold shoulder, he said. Universal pressed Murder Inc. to vacate its Manhattan offices, citing complaints from other tenants in the building, and certain high-ranking executives would no longer take his calls, Mr. Lorenzo said.

After Mr. Lorenzo and his brother, Christopher, were indicted in early 2005, the relationship with Universal foundered. Universal tightened its purse strings, and within months it moved to end its partnership with Mr. Lorenzo.

But then, he had his day in court — and won.

Within days of his acquittal, he was meeting with prospective partners that could help finance his label’s revival. Many expected him to sign with Warner Music Group, whose executive ranks are filled with Mr. Lorenzo’s former associates from Def Jam, the Universal label that marketed and promoted Murder Inc. releases.

 Mr. Lorenzo said he and Lyor Cohen, who heads Warner’s American arm and previously ran Def Jam, had discussed the possibility of Mr. Lorenzo switching to the Warner fold even before Mr. Lorenzo’s indictment. “I made that man a lot of money,” Mr. Lorenzo said of Mr. Cohen. But Warner’s offer, Mr. Lorenzo said, was so low that he found it “extremely disrespectful.”

Around the same time Universal’s chairman, Doug Morris, decided he was not ready to let Mr. Lorenzo leave the fold. For their part Universal executives said the legal proceedings enveloping Mr. Lorenzo had forced their hand when they parted ways with Murder Inc.

Mr. Lorenzo, still resentful of the company’s treatment, was skeptical. But, he said, he was persuaded by Universal’s president, Zach Horowitz (the only senior executive who had kept in touch with him), to attend a lunch with him and Mr. Morris. Mr. Lorenzo and his business lawyer, Ron Sweeney, met with them at a restaurant in Santa Monica, and each side vented. Mr. Morris noted that Universal’s move to break from Murder Inc. arose from Mr. Lorenzo’s decisions to conduct business with Mr. McGriff. And Mr. Lorenzo said certain executives should have been more supportive personally even if Universal had to distance itself.

Mr. Morris said Mr. Lorenzo “really felt betrayed, and I don’t blame him.” But Mr. Morris said: “I never had any bad feelings toward him. It wasn’t anything to do about him. He’s one of the most talented people in the industry.”

Mr. Lorenzo’s representatives had been seeking outside investors who could help him start a label on his own, allowing him to keep the profits instead of sharing them with a big music company. Within weeks of his acquittal, he was introduced to Larry Goldfarb, a hedge fund investor from the San Francisco area, who expressed interest in such an arrangement. Mr. Goldfarb accompanied Mr. Lorenzo on the Grammy party circuit in February.

Soon the two worked out a deal in which Mr. Goldfarb had agreed to invest as much as $30 million to finance Mr. Lorenzo’s label, one of the biggest such investments in years. But weeks later Mr. Goldfarb, apparently uncertain about his potential return, abruptly bailed out of the arrangement.

Mr. Lorenzo had to start from scratch, working out a revised agreement with Universal. While the new structure means he will have to share more of the profits than if he owned the label himself, he said he was content to be back in business without a legal cloud overhead. Still, he acknowledged that it would not be so simple to rule the charts after his legal woes kept him “on ice for three years.”

But he added: “Our story is not finished yet. After this next three years, if I don’t win, and I’m not successful, that was the right ending to the story. But what happens if I win? I like my chances.”

I want to see her hold up the Murder Inc sign... and say MURDAAAAAAAA

[B]

As weird as that would be, I know they put a ton of money and promotion time behind Ja and Ashanti, so if they'd do the same for V I'd be all for it.

[LimeTwister]

I would love to hear some nessa in a rap song...like that guy (name escapes me) did with Enya.

[KULPDOGG]

hahahahahaha :lol: ...I don't know what to say...
this is unexpected, but I'm sure we'll get the truth from Vanessa soon enough.

[joey]

I'm getting scared...I really hope he doesn't have much to do with the album...

and he allows her to stick to her roots...

[clamicas]

lol, imagine in one of her videos having that big "murder Inc" logo in the beggining and end lol

[Ghisy]

I can only see one appropriate reply to that announcement:

8O 8O  8O  8O  8O

[BWilli]

keep in mind, folks, that she hasn't actually signed with the label and may never...it just says that he's interested in having her sign...

[mellsbells12]

could that be the "group of people" supporting this album that we're gonna be surprised about  8O

just a thought, probably wrong though lol.

[ManuelD]

I don't think they will make her do hip hop oriented music anyway because not many hip hop fans would buy her album, most of her fans don't like hip hop and it would sound awful. If they offer her musical freedom and support her album I hope she signs.

[GuitarHead27]

I think she should go for it if they'll let her do her own thing and they promote her well.

That would be interesting though "Murder Inc. presents....Vanessa Carlton!!"...:-P

[saphire]

lets hope that she won't went the way Nelly Furtado went.

[Martin.]

it said the label wants to do OTHER genres, so they'll keep her the same.

plus, i can't see Vanessa wanting to go hip hop anyway.

i can imagine her sitting at the piano though while all the ohter gangsta's are having beef with eachother and shit :lol:

[nosticker]

I've got a GREAT idea for a video for the next single, another Vanessa/Jenkins collaboration.  We could call it "Piano Driveby".  It's based on the ATM vid. Instead of being out on the road with cars, she'll drive through strip clubs, mansions, and crack dens.  To keep the east coast/ west coast singer/songwriter feud going, we could have her mow down Jackson Browne with an AK-47.

Crunk as all hell.



Dan/NS

[ManuelD]

lets hope that she won't went the way Nelly Furtado went.

God I hope she does not.