Irv Gotti, a music mogul who founded Murder Inc. Records and was behind major hip-hop and R&B artists such as Ashanti and Ja Rule, has died. Def Jam Recordings, which was the parent company of Murder Inc., announced Gotti’s death in a statement late Wednesday night. Gotti, whose real name is Irving Lorenzo, founded Murder Inc. with his brother in the late 1990s, with the label gaining worldwide prominence through platinum-selling artists Ashanti and Ja Rule.