I can’t believe things ended like this….and it makes me so sad,” Ashanti said, paying her respects to the late

Ashanti addressed record producer Irv Gotti's death with an Instagram post on Feb. 7. The record producer, who worked with Ashanti in the early 2000s, died on Feb. 5.

Ashanti is setting the record straight about her alleged relationship with Irv Gotti. “Let’s clear this up,” Ashanti told Angie Martinez on the IRL podcast on October 26. “We dealt with each other, but was Irv my boyfriend? Was I his girlfriend? Never. Irv had several girlfriends, so I’m a little confused by the label and the description.”

In 2022, Gotti infamously claimed he had an alleged romantic and sexual relationship with Ashanti during an appearance on the “Drink Champs” podcast. He later doubled down on his comments while appearing on an episode of “The Murder Inc Story,” claiming the pair had sex before the singer recorded her 2002 hit “Happy.”

On February 5, hip-hop heavy weight Irv Gotti tragically died at 54 years old. Since then, fans and musicians alike have mourned the famed director, producer, and label executive.

Ashanti put her differences aside with Irv Gotti to mourn the passing of the founder of Murder Inc., who died at 54.