IRV GOTTI - GOTTI'S MOVE FOR MORE 'WHOLESOME' LABEL

Rap mogul IRV GOTTI axed MURDER from the name of his record company INC to give the label a new "wholesome" image.

Gotti, whose artists include JA RULE and ASHANTI, said his move last month (NOV03) was aimed at disassociating the labels association with crime and violence.

Speaking at a press conference yesterday (3DEC03) he said, "We made a lot of clean wholesome, big records. From the PUT IT ON ME to FOOLISH to the I'M REAL.

"All of these big records, but people would still come back and try to focus on the negative word murder.

"I felt it was a great time to remove the word Murder off of Murder Inc. and just be The Inc. for the sole purposes of hopefully everyone to focus on our talent and not the word of murder."

But Gotti is adamant he won't be censoring any of his artists, "The lyrical content is going to stay the same. I'm not going to tell my artists, if they say 'It's murder' in a rhyme... don't say that, say the Inc.

"I don't tell my artists to do anything. They got lyrical freedom with me a 100 per cent. They say whatever they feel as long as it's hot."