Backstage Pass

    Murder Inc. founder Irv Gotti hands out so much advice on his new VH1 reality show “Gotti’s Way,” he’s even got some for one-time enemy 50 Cent, who is regrouping after his high-profile showdown with Kanye West.
    “He thought he was going to crush Kanye, all he did was help him,” Gotti told me recently in his Midtown office. “Why would you pair yourself up with someone who never sold as many records as you? Now people want you to lose. They want to knock you off of that pedestal.”
    Gotti knows because it’s what happened between 50 and Murder Inc.’s Ja Rule a few years back. “We was Goliath and he was David,” he says He came at us at a time when we had had three strong years of radio. It was the perfect time to come at us. He had his music right. He should’ve been smart enough to know, don’t [expletive] with David when you’re Goliath or he’s gonna slay you.”
    Now Fitty has to do what all rappers eventually have to do: Focus on the music. “He didn’t even know that when he’s won to stop picking the fight,” Gotti says. “He said he was gonna stop rapping. Now, you’ve got a bunch of people saying, ‘Shut up. Didn’t you say you was gonna shut up? Aren’t you a man of your word?’ He needs to say, ‘Let me just fall back and make records now.’”