Irv Gotti, Famed Hip-Hop Music Executive, Dies

Irv Gotti, a music executive who co-founded Murder Inc. Records and built a hip-hop empire that produced some of the biggest rap and R&B albums around the beginning of the 21st century, has died.

His death was confirmed late Wednesday in a statement by Murder Inc.’s parent label, Def Jam Recordings, where he also worked as an executive. The statement did not give a cause of death, or say when or where he had died.

His record company, which he created with his brother Christopher Gotti in New York City, became prominent in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It started the careers of several commercially successful acts, including the rapper Ja Rule and the R&B singer Ashanti.

Mr. Gotti was born Irving Domingo Lorenzo Jr. in Queens. He battled legal challenges that rocked the hip-hop industry in the early 2000s. In 2005, he was found not guilty of federal charges of laundering money for a convicted drug gang leader, Kenneth McGriff.

A list of survivors was not immediately available.

A full obituary will follow.