Ja Rule, Ashanti, Nas, 2Pac - The Pledge (Remix)

What this video is

Released October 2002 at the absolute apex of Murder Inc.'s commercial dominance, 'The Pledge (Remix)' was one of the most strategically loaded music videos of the early 2000s. It represented a public-facing announcement of a potential Nas–Murder Inc. alliance at a moment when Ja Rule dominated radio and Irv Gotti was pursuing a signing that would have united the Queens-bred pop-rap world of Murder Inc. with Nas's…

Why it matters

A landmark early-2000s hip-hop posse cut and music video, 'The Pledge (Remix)' exemplifies the era's label-showcase video format, where crew identity, visual branding, and inter-label politics were performed as much as the music. Its use of posthumous 2Pac footage was an early and prominent…

The director

Irving Domingo Lorenzo Jr. (born c. 1970, Hollis, Queens, NY), known as Irv Gotti, was a hip-hop DJ, record producer, and music executive. He began as an A&R at TVT Records (1995) before joining Def Jam Recordings (1997). He co-founded Murder Inc. Records…