RIP to Irv Gotti, the visionary who brought Hip Hop and R&B closer together

It was confirmed by The Hollywood Reporter that Irv Gotti, the pioneering producer and co-founder of Murder Inc. Records, passed away at the age of 54 on Wednesday (Fab. While no official cause of death was revealed, strokes and issues related to diabetes reportedly plagued the music icon throughout his later years. Gotti, born Irving Domingo Lorenzo Jr. in Queens, New York, was instrumental in bolstering the careers of Ja Rule, Ashanti, Vanessa Carlton and many others via his high-level business savvy and experimental merging of genres on wax.