Daymond John is mourning the loss of his childhood friend Irv Gotti, like countless others in the music industry -- and believes his late friend would have had a hearty LOL at 50 Cent's "tribute."
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00:00I talked to her about a month ago.
00:03I was sending him a box, checking on his address.
00:05And then he was telling me he was living in Jersey.
00:07The last time I had seen him, we had, you know,
00:10dinner out where it was absolutely destroyed in L.A.
00:15Now it doesn't even exist.
00:17And then I remember calling him saying,
00:19why are you living back in Jersey?
00:20He said, you know, I kind of had a stroke
00:23and I needed to start taking care of more things
00:26and I'm taking care of myself.
00:27And he didn't sound as, he didn't have as much vinegar
00:33and as much in him as he normally did.
00:37And I didn't attribute it to anything
00:39about maybe potentially having a stroke.
00:42I didn't see him.
00:43And a lot of times, you know, when you have a stroke,
00:45you know, it creates so many different other aspects
00:48of how you react.
00:49So I thought maybe he was tired.
00:51I thought maybe I caught him doing something else.
00:53And I did say to him, I was like, hey man, I got you.
00:56I have been on this crazy health journey
00:58the last five years of my life.
00:59It's about longevity.
01:00No matter how much money we all have,
01:02how are we going to stay around for our kids?
01:04I know he was celebrating, of course,
01:05the engagement of his daughter.
01:09His daddy just passed.
01:10So he was just like all of us.
01:12There was so many moments of celebration for him to have.
01:14And there was so many moments of reflection
01:16for him to have that I felt that me offering him this help,
01:20that, you know, that it would do something.
01:22And he was game.
01:23He was like, yeah, man, let's do it.
01:24What are we going to do?
01:26And that was an unfortunate last time I spoke to him.
01:29Was the cause of death, like diabetes,
01:31just taking its course?
01:33I only know what the cause.
01:35I only know what I've read about the cause that I do know.
01:38He confirmed he had a stroke.
01:40I have talked to the family, but I've only
01:42shared with the family one way, you know,
01:44communication about how heartbroken I am
01:46and how heartbroken the world is and how
01:49I could be there for them.
01:50But, you know, in these times, I know
01:52they have a lot to take care of.
01:53And I don't have any other knowledge
01:55about what exactly happened.
01:57You came up in Queens, so you know the layered history,
01:59you know, from the hip-hop industry to the streets.
02:03Knowing Irv for so long, do you think
02:05he would have been offended by 50 Cent's,
02:08you know, quote unquote, tribute?
02:11Irv did not have thin skin.
02:13He would have laughed at it.
02:15You know, Irv grew up just like I did, and 50, and all of us.
02:21We grew up in a very rough town, a town of, you know,
02:25people that didn't have thin skin.
02:27And, you know, think about it like this.
02:30The FBI has a 90-something conviction rate.
02:34They targeted Irv because we all grew up around Supreme
02:38team and all these guys.
02:39And most of these guys on these drug dealers,
02:42they always told us, don't do what we do.
02:46You become better than us.
02:47And just because Irv had become friends with Supreme
02:51and Supreme was working, the FBI targeted Irv
02:56to either be snitched or to take down his whole company.
02:59He took on the FBI and out of taking
03:03on a federal organization with all the resources in the world
03:05and they know how to do their homework, he was acquitted.
03:10The only homework the FBI didn't do
03:12is their homework on how much Irv will fight and take it
03:17all the way to the end.
03:19And if you ever see that shot of him coming out
03:21of the courthouse with his legs up in the air,
03:23they drain him of all his assets,
03:26but he will never and has never backed down.
03:30So a comment like that, the 50, he took on the feds.
03:33There is nothing that can hurt his feelings.
03:37And I say it like he's still here
03:38because as far as I'm concerned, he's here with me now.
03:41Yeah, I mean, the impact that he, you know,
03:45put on just culture as a whole, you know,
03:47we can frame it under hip hop pop, but it was just culture.
03:50You know, it's the way people dress, talk,
03:52and listen to music, even go into the studio,
03:55probably will never, you know, die.
03:58So yeah, he's still here.
03:59He's still here with us.