December 16, 2021 • 39 mins
The authenticity of Fat Joe is what helped him shape the hip-hop world in the 90s. Raised in the Bronx, his personality and confidence built a monster image of rising from nothing to triumph. Even when he was surrounded by violence, drugs, and loss, he believed that the darkest moments brought him the most clarity. When faced with financial troubles, the rapper believed in himself and created the triple platinum single, “All The Way Up” with longtime collaborator Remy Ma in 2016. Fat Joe finds himself appreciative of the support from his wife and family as he continues to find success in hip-hop today.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
I've always had big dreams of being a superstar. Fat
Joe always comes out swinging. I'm like this, Bruce Delicious
to like, wow, I come from nothing where you gotta
be tough to survive. On my side, here I got
Fat Joe. The right Latinos across the country, across the
world loved the authenticity of what Joe brought hip hop
(00:28):
a Latinos to be like. He's not Rico suave. He's
the guy with the half moon with the medallion on
with fifty guys behind him, and I knew it was
just gonna shake the hip hop world. Joe's personality and
confidence built this monster image and it was about that
time that I discovered Big Pun. I brought him in
the game. He took us to the next level when
(00:50):
he's doing the arenas and making money getting nominated for Grammys.
I was the Puerto Rican parv daddy and Pun was
the Latino biggie. They were ex give me to sign
any loptin or that wrapped because they thought it was
like the time of all Latino on selling millions of records.
It was your dream come true. And then everything started
(01:11):
to go bad upon my grandfather and my sister all
died around the same time. I went to a really
really dark place. He was just up and then I
had to go to jail. Man. How the hell am
I gonna come back? And I've discovered that your darkest
moments bring your most clarity. I always believed in myself,
(01:34):
and my dreams came true. It's really like a hip
hop fairy tale, rising from nothing man to triumph. Let's
go behind the music. This is my true own. That's
where I was born, the Bronx. The Bronx created hip hop.
(01:55):
It's the ground zero is the birthplace, and I was
just brought up in the holy land of hip hop music.
My brother Andrew used to be a great boy for
grand Master Flash, going to the block parties carrying Grandmasster
Flashes records and said he would bring me all these
real original records, the Zulu Nation, all these DJ battles.
(02:16):
That's how light went off in my head, like so
in love with hip hop. I aspired to be like
these guys. That's the original origins of hip hop, and
that's what got me so addicted to music. Uh, there
would not be no Fat Joy if it wasn't for this.
I always wanted to be like my brother and you.
He started rapping before me, so I started writing raps
(02:37):
to telling everybody my raps. So that's how it came about.
And so I'm proud most of all to be from
the Bronx. If you know the projects, we never knew
what we didn't have. When I was a kid. My
family worked very, very hard. My mother already had three children,
two sons and a daughter with a prior husband, and
(02:58):
so she met my father. My father was a baker
from Cuba. My father is real tough, real hard. I mean,
not a bad person at all, but we bumped heads
a lot. Even now to this game. My mom has
had three jobs, never made an excuse. We always had Christmas.
We obviously ate a lot. It was a big, loving
(03:20):
family environment. My project's growing up at the time black
ten percent Latino. That's being generous, you know, And that's
all I knew. They've been calling me fat Joey since
I'm to three years old. In my projects, I've always
been big. I've always owned up to it. That's when
my name is fat Joe. But I got bullied in school.
(03:41):
I had to go to junior high school in my
grandmother's neighborhood, which might as well be nine point nine
percent black. They have never seen a Puerto Rican or
Latino like Fat Joe in that neighborhood in their life.
I was the eminem, the alien over there. Every single
day I got beat about thirty guys. Never been a sucker.
(04:02):
I never laid down. Every day. I look out the
window of the school and I know thirty dudes are
waiting for me. I dropped my bag and punched the
biggest dude right in his face, and just get beat up.
I don't lay down. You go back and you look
at pictures of me twelve years old, eleven years old
with an ice cold killer face. That's because if you
showed somebody's kindness, they would definitely take it for weakness.
(04:24):
And the whole Bronx at that time was predator, a prey.
I refused to be prey. At the time I met Joe,
he was this angry, you know, frustrated, you know, a
young man. We had something in common. We loved trouble,
We loved the smoke with everybody, anybody wherever, but we
(04:46):
just didn't care. Then as you got a little bit older,
knives came out, the guns came out. I mean, I'm
not gonna lie to you. I would go outside every
day for violence. Unfortunately, I got into a life of
crime before music. Father was very aggressive. He would hit
you and hit you like you a man. And so
one day I had an argument with my father. We
(05:09):
were at the dinner table. My father went to hit me,
and I stopped him, and his eyes opened up because
the first time I didn't let him hit me. And
from that point, you know, I knew like I couldn't
be here no more. And I remember telling them, you know,
you can't funk with me no more. But I went
to the staircase and I just cried for like a
(05:31):
whole hour, like a baby. I got up, I left
my mother's home, and the next day I was in
the street. I sold drugs for the first time when
I was fourteen. I started from the ground up. I
would go to Manhattan by two grams. The grahams were
twenty dollars a graham, come back, cut it up, make
(05:52):
eight two. I would take that trip to Manhattan ten
twenty times a day, just going back and forth, back
and forth, back and forth. When I was there was
when the Bronx looked like a war zone, and I
would live in this crackhead hotel when you could pay
thirty five dollars a day. It was terrifying being a
fourteen year old kid living in something like that. When
(06:13):
I would open my door, there were literally men and
women shooting heroin during the AIDS epidemic. And so to
not hear what's going on out there, I would have
this walkman and just listen to hip hop all night,
rappers like Slick Red to give me courage to make
it through the night. I met Diamond D through right
(06:34):
and graffiti. We used to go bombing together, is what
they called me. And one day he stops me at
this light pole and he says, yo, listen, man, I'm
gonna die if you're gonna die out here, or go
to jail forever. Diamond D was a big pot in
Joe's removal from the streets. He started giving him beats.
Told Shoe your feelings, put them on paper. He said,
(06:56):
why don't you tell your life in music? Diamond told me,
let me pay for the studio, and so we went
in there and we cut three songs. I want to
get on the radio. At the time, there wasn't hip
hop music all over. There was one radio station playing
it for two hours every Friday, and it was DJ
Better Luck. So he was the king Almighty. I was
(07:19):
up DJ up in the Bronx at nine point seven
kiss at him in New York City. Joel Diamond drought
me a promo song, Flow Joe and his lyrics, his flow,
his presentation man he believe rather alert. Used to play
it every week on the radio to hear him on
the radio. That was big, Like that was really really
(07:41):
big in the hood. Hood was like Yo Fatjo, Fato Fatjo, Fatjo.
Everybody knows that Joe's in town. Enough respect for the
buggie down. People used to record it and then played
in hawsm box. We had something to claim forget them.
Just the bronze to New York. You know, that was big.
(08:02):
We didn't know how big it was gonna get Latinos
across the country and across the world. Loved the authenticity
of what Joe brought hip hop a Latinos to be like,
He's not Rico suave. He's the guy with the half
moon with the dying on with fifty guys behind him,
And I knew it was just gonna shake the hip
(08:22):
Hop World. The promo cut the attention of one of
my capadres, Chris Nide. I was on the block hustling
and Chris LDY just pulled up and he was like, yo,
you know who I am. And I was like, yeah,
I know. You are your baby, Chris, and he was like,
you fat Joe right. I was like yeah. He said,
I think you could be a star. I wanted to
sign you, and then my whole life changed from that moment.
(08:45):
I signed the contract in the middle of the street. Chris,
you know, and he wanted something he always got it from. No.
Joe turned out to be number one. I really didn't
leave the drug game alone the second I got a
record deal. After Flow Joe came out, Joe blew up
because he painted a clear picture for you about his
(09:06):
block in the Bronx, and he gave you that aggressiveness.
So I was doing like three shows a night. I'd
be in stat Nolan, Jersey, Connecticut, you know, Virginia, Baltimore, Philly,
eventually Miami. We were coming down to Miami to do
a promo show or something and a friend of mine
he's like, I got some girlfriends down there. I'm like, yo,
(09:27):
they're pretty. He was like, oh, they're the baddest chicks.
And I was like, yo, So I got to meet them.
He was like, bro, you're broke, you're fat. We met
in Miami, right outside Nikki's beach. We pulled up and
the light of the van she was walking away shined
on her ass and it was the biggest ass I
(09:51):
have ever seen. And I was like, what the fuck
is that? And then when she turned around, I was like,
oh my god. My friend said to me when he
introduced us, Joe said, that's my wife, and my friend said,
no way, she's now. She'll never be your wife. Look,
I've been with Joe for twenty five years. He was
(10:12):
that guy. I thought he was really handsome, and I
thought he was a little bit of an asshole. He
was very streaked. He was rough around the edges and
he said come back to the hotel and hang out.
And I was like, all right, I'll come on, come.
But I never showed up, and I just kept chasing
and chasing him, and Uh, I had a show in
(10:34):
writer and when she comes to the show, I said,
sit on stage. So I do the show. I'm trying
to show what I'm the man and I remember leaving
after the show and one of his friends came up
to him and he said, hey, let's hang out with
all these girls. Want to go back to the hotel
and party and listen to Now. I was like, yo,
(10:54):
I got the chicks. They want to hang out with you,
but I'm with and I said you should go with
them because I'm not going. She's like, you ain't getting
none of this, you might as well go with them.
So I look at the six girls, and I look
at her, and I look at the sister. Yeah, he wouldn't.
(11:14):
He chose me, So you know, I was happy. You know,
that was definitely something that made me feel very special
because if I was him, I would have definitely went
with the girls that were having the party. The rest
is history. You meet someone and you just say, oh,
this is gonna be my wife, you know, when you know,
you know, three months into the relationship, he was like,
(11:36):
you should move in with me, and I said, okay.
We lived in a one bedroom apartment with no curtains
and t shirts as towels. We were broke, but we
loved each other. In this business, the hardest thing to
do is to have a successful relationship. All these years later.
(11:57):
My wife's Lorenda. She supported me all the way. After
some time, it was like PAYANDEMONI and it was like
I couldn't walk down the street no more. You know.
I was finally successful, making all kind of money. Even
though I lived in Jersey on the water, I would
be in the projects every day, and everybody knew. Fat
(12:17):
Joe would go to this boat dagg and hang out
in front of it. Walking outside of a boat Dagg
and you bump into the phenom Big Punt. I didn't
know at the time, but he would eventually be one
of the biggest grappers of all time. That moment, that store,
it didn't just change me, it changed the world forever.
Punt is out there rapping, and I was like, what
(12:39):
is the fat reporto Rican kid gonna do? And he
was like, gotta the data, the data, and he just
He's going like a car hunting miles for hour, and
he just blew my mind. I was like, oh my god,
I knew nobody was better than him. You know, he
was born to rap. He made sure he was ever
where the fat was and if he had new show,
he was there whever he was. You know, he had
(13:00):
to be in a club or brought me was rounding
from around him, and so when I heard him, I
was like, that is it. This is gonna be the
Latin no biggie. Together we formed the Terror Squad. The
Terror Squad rap group consisted of guys I brought in
the crew and guys Punt brought in the crew. So
we cracked one love baby, you know the deal. Terror
Squad collect Boy ninety six cities. He told me, you're
(13:26):
gonna be my big brother I never had. I'm gonna
hold you down. You hold me down, you beat my
big brother. They were brothers, and you know, they might
have had different fathers, but there was nothing else they were.
They were brothers, and we just jelled together and formed
this dynamic duo. We call each other twins. So here's
a real quick you know before you know what looks
like best friends. I just knew that the world had
(13:46):
to hear him. So I was like, let me focus
all my energy on this guy and he will take
us to the promised Land. So I took a back
seat and just was pushing Punt. You know, I was
in the streets putting up posters myself. I'm handing out flyers,
Big pund Big Punt. What he would do for punt
(14:07):
was bigger than what he did for himself. Joe believed
in put but I think he was totally okay putting
punt front and center. I was the Puerto Rican pump Daddy.
You know, pump Daddy discovered notorious b I G Fat,
Joe discovered Big Punty, went double platinum. We signed the
deal for ten million dollars with Atlantic. It was a
dream come true to see him elevate getting nominated for Grammys. Yeah.
(14:32):
I brought him in the game, but I had never
been nominated for Grammy. I had never been around these
type of people. Punt looks so beautiful. We threw curls
on his head, l a finger waves joints when we
was fronting at the sky Blue suit on with the
yellow pin stripe. It was nothing like that time. Bro
to come from the Bronx, come from nothing and be
(14:53):
at the Grammys deal. It was like a Cinderella story.
I mean, this was really a different level of success.
They were asking me to sign any one of my cousins,
any latino they wrapped because they thought it was like
the time of all latinos selling millions of records, and
you know I was at the forefront of that. But
at the same time, I was Fat Joe the rapper too,
(15:15):
so uh and went to work or don card of Gina.
You know that video is my favorite video I ever
shot in my life. Of course, you seemed punk all
in there and then we had puffed through the hook.
Happiest time in my life. You guys are really the
stars of the show this year. How does it feel?
I mean, it feels great. I'm just happy. We're real
(15:38):
happy today. Today is a great thing. Everybody has some
sort of addiction. I was really overweight. The first celebrity
name sandwich of the millennium, the name of the Fat Joe.
(16:01):
I'm extremely hungry right now. I wish we were educated
as we are now in food and nutrition and we
just ain't no no better. Sounds good to me and punished.
Performing with Lopez on Saturday Night Live. This Saturday, we
(16:25):
honor this very big you know, not too many rappers
get to do that type of thing. J No put
out this ten time platinum album. We got a huge
hit with her song Caught Feeling So Good, and it
just opened so many doors for us to be on
that s now stage, so many eyes on us, so
many people talking about us. Taken schedule, high profile appearance
(16:49):
on Saturday Night Live had to be canceled. You didn't
want to show up. I guess he didn't feel good.
I was trying to push him to go perform. I
kept bothering him the whole week, every day, Yo, more
and come on, come on, come on. And I know
it bothered him that he didn't come, So I didn't
you know, the show must still go on. He was
telling me his legs was hurting him so he couldn't
(17:10):
do it. We were all worried about Punt's health. I
don't think anybody who could have really been in Punt's
presence didn't at some point feels some concerned. I mean,
the struggles with breathing, and we all knew it wasn't healthy.
He said, nah, you go do it by yourself, and
that much I heard him because he knew how important
it was as well. I guess these were the warning
(17:31):
signs of what was to come. The next day, Punt
had an heart attack, but we got the phone call
and I remember just seeing Joe's face, like his whole vibe,
his whole energy had just like come down. He was
really hurt and destroyed and he just you know, it
was it was a bad day. It was a bad day.
(17:52):
He's gone. Remember breaking down at UM and we flew
to New York. I remember just going straight to Joe's
house in the morning. Second we landed, and then we
had to do a whole bunch of press, which was
the worst thing. But they've shown a lot of love,
and you know that was important to him because a
lot of times we worked harder. We thought a lot
(18:12):
of efforts he was doing was going unnoticed. But you know,
now our guess he knows, and I definitely know that
he would be missed. He was loved, and you know
he's acknowledged for everything he did in life. And then
you you have a sense of guilt, like was there
anything we could have did to make sure he didn't
pass away? So it was it was just a terrible time. Man.
(18:34):
He probably lads behind a wife and three children, all
under the age of the time. He didn't deserve to
die twenty eight years old and leave his family, leave
his kids. He bent so much to everybody, the whole
community at the time that it was just like unbelievable
when when he died, it was just it felt like wow,
it was like the world ended. It was it was
(18:56):
a hard time, even a big bad that Joe couldn't
deal with it. He means me very proud, you know,
and where he's done for me. I could never, you know,
replace that. I mean there's no question. Almost too young
and ago like that. Everything it's just so overwhelming. After
(19:17):
Punt passed, it was really hard on him. He lost
like somebody that he loved and somebody that he really
wanted so much for. Everything started to throw bad. My
grandfather and my sister all died around the same time,
and it was just really really painful. I was really
really tight with my sister growing up since we was kids,
(19:39):
and so that's when depression and all that started to
sink him because it was just so much pressure on me.
He wasn't able to deal with all of that. He
wasn't ready for it. I mean, nobody is. He was crushed.
He was just funked up. I gained a lot of weight,
started drinking liquor, medicating myself, started losing grip of my friends,
(20:04):
my artists. I remembered whispers saying like there's no pun
there's no terrorist guard. You know, people just thought, you know,
the whole terrorist guard identity, would you would crumble. I
think the combination of Joe and Pun holding the terrorist
squad together, and then they slowly started to fall apart.
It's a down period, and Pun died and everything is
(20:24):
looking slow. Everybody jumped ship on me. I knew I
needed help. I had never felt like this before. It
was just too much, unbearable. The only thing that helped
me is that I was going to therapy, and I
would go every Tuesday. My wife, Lorena took me to
every single appointment, and no one else in the world
knew I was getting therapy, so she would support me
(20:45):
and take me in. You know, I put it through
a lot. You know, I always say, let your darkest
moments bring your most clarity. You know. I knew I
had to fight his depression for my family, my wife
and my two sons. She was a great father. For
him to be this amazing dad, he had to experience
what he went through. We take care of each other
in this family. It's just simple as that. The depression
(21:08):
went on for two years. I just said to myself, yo,
you gotta wake up. Stop feeling guilty and that at
that moment I snapped out of the depression. It was
loving life and loving his music and loving, you know,
to do what he does. And he was working in
the studio again, focused on the new head. It was
(21:30):
back before upon died. All I wanted to be was
the street that when he passed away, I realized I
had to take it from there and go to the
next level. I met IRV Gotti and told him I
wanted to make music for everybody, women, commercial hit records,
and he just woke me up one night. I'm laying
(21:51):
next to my wife and got the house phone and Joe,
what's up deserved. I was like, Yo, what's up? Come
down the hit Factory with on It was street for
in the morning and HERB said, y'all made this for you,
and he breast playing and I was like, holy wow,
they gave me a hit. They made me a hit back.
Joe has gone from being hip hop's most infamous Puerto
(22:13):
Rican to music's most popular big man. And it all
it took was a song called What's Love featuring a Shanty.
I've been in this business nine years. It's finally my
time to shine, you know, man, So what's the difference
with this album from your prior albums? Just I was
just way more focused. Man, I had no choice. I
felt like this album was like all or nothing. After
(22:33):
Punch Deaf, you know, cats was rumoring and it was
people were sleeping on me, and it was like, you think, Joco,
hold it down. So I had to lock myself in
the grimy studio and just get all this frustration out
and on this music. It's just made it happens. No, man.
There was a lot of moments where I knew he
is blowing up, Like we wanted the tour bus and
they said, you know, we want you to perform at
(22:54):
MTV spring Break and I was like, wow, Joe, this
is big. I was like, this is really big. And
I was like, man, we gotta do something to make
people talk. We gotta do something. And she was like, yo, man,
you should go there topless, take the showed off. And
he did. He fucking did. She got him this. I
think it was like affended red towel and I was like,
(23:16):
that's the outfit. She was like, that's it. Oh yeah,
she was right. She's usually right. It explodes. It's a
mainstream thing. Everybody was talking about fat Joe and Joey crack,
the cracking of his ass, showing they just fell in
love with this big guy. It's great to be that
confident and be a big man and be sexy and
(23:36):
be fly and carry us off the way he carried himself.
He was always the flyest bat guy. Ever. After that
one performance, our salves went from fifteen thousand a week
to twenty thousand a week to five thousand a week.
I never forget my phone. Rang and the reserve guy
he said, Joe Platinum, and I'm like stopping. He go Platformum.
(24:01):
It feels good. It feels like, you know, we're having
this little victory parade. And I don't know how radio
is embracing me out of nowhere like that, but I mean,
I guess you know that was my destiny. So now
I'm gonna just continue to bring you hits. This is
what I'm in it for, man, I'm not in it
to be an underground wrapper. I'm in it to be
a superstar sell millions of records. It was a different
(24:22):
audience time it went by, and you know, it wasn't
Flow Joe's crowd. There was a whole new crowd. How
was he gonna keep it going that there's millions of
people trying to make music. A hit record is a miracle,
but to keep doing it over and over again, that
lets you know these guys ain't going nowhere then boom
here because lean that lean back is actually the only
(24:44):
beat that I was afraid to wrap on because I
had so much success off of What's Love. You know,
as an artist, you start thinking that's your lane. You
gotta make songs for girls. And so I lived with
it for like a month, and I remember I was
driving on the west side of highways. I pulled dover,
I played to be and started going. I was new
to Terror Squad and I was in the studio and
(25:06):
I'm like playing for me what they were doing yesterday.
Like I'm like, what is this? And it's Joe with
all three verses. I'm like, is he serious? Take that
second verse out, turn on the mic, and I'm going
in there and I'm recording. Next day when everyone comes in,
that song comes on and he's like, hype, We're like this.
(25:27):
Then the second verse comes on and looks at me
and I'm like, Hi, I'm like, what the They totally
erased my second verse and Remy forced them to recorder
or when I heard it, I was like, Wow, she
killed that. It was just a huge record, Like not
just here around the world, every DJ was playing Leaning Back.
(25:48):
It just was over. It was over. He always comes
out swinging at the TV Awards and it was like
Bruce Willis and Lativa and all these people like laying Back,
like it was Bruce Wilicious, like like Mr die Hard himself.
Lean Back was the return of Joe. Was an anthem
and when you heard it, you were like, Joe's back.
(26:10):
That was a home run. Man. We ran the game
with this. Go to a nightclub and they would play
just lean Back for an hour straight, fifty times in
a row. They just wouldn't get tired of it. It
was a phenomenon. I won't always be known as a
guy who made lean Back. Remy became a superstar with
that song. Remy wanted to do it so album, and
(26:32):
I wanted to do a solo album with her. We
get the deal done. She made an amazing album, but
it didn't do what it should have done. I was
dealing with the record label and they kept telling me
that they were going to blow up the album. But
they didn't. I was mad about how many units of
my album was shipped out. No one anywhere who wanted
to my my album, they couldn't find it because they
didn't have it. Unfortunately, she thought it was because of me,
(26:54):
and I'm like, you should have been here with me.
If he was here, this wouldn't happen. No one's listening
to me. And so she went at me and she
was talking crazy. She was talking about I don't mind
signing to fifty cents g unit. You know, Remy's family man,
and I know it since she's a kid. So that
was the most painful former betrayal I ever felt. It
(27:17):
was like an invisible lightning rod just piercing through my heart.
You know, she's a very emotional person and Joe really
tried to do right for her. What is it that
exactly went wrong? What was the like the final breaks
always her own boss when she started disrespecting me to
the public, and a lot of stuff is coming, man,
(27:38):
you know when you will out and all that that
should be coming right back, you know, So I wish
it well. Three years later she got arrested, and you know,
I've been dealing with crime my whole life, so I
knew what she had to do to get less time
and then, and nobody was advising of the right way.
I we didn't speak for years, and in that time,
(28:00):
like I used to be so devastated because I missed
my brother. I was sad, even though I was trying
to act like, you know, it is what it is,
but it was like really really sad for her. But
I've always been on gold time no matter what, and
fighting for what we we are or what we represent,
and so I keep going and I keep pushing forward.
At the time we build a new house, it's beautiful.
(28:22):
Were in Miami with the whole family, my mother, my wife,
my daughter, and my two sons. We were all together.
It was an amazing time. And I had to hit
(28:44):
One day. I went to buy a car and they
were like, you haven't paid for your mortgages. You haven't
paid your cars. I'm like, what. I had an accountant,
I hired him. I'm sending them wire transfers to pay
my taxes. The man ain't paying my taxes. I didn't know.
We stepped to the government and we tell them, look,
this guy was taking advantage of me. I actually went
(29:05):
to court and paid the money. Back, thinking that maybe
because I don't have no previous criminal history, I'll get
house arrass or get probation, which they give to people
every day. And so they said, sorry, you have to
go to jail. That was a horrible day. I got up.
My mother in law made me breakfast and she was
crying the whole time. Lorena was in the in the
(29:27):
living room, just crying like crazy. And you know, I
kissed on the foret. I said, mine stopped. You can't
be doing this. The actual day of me, Joe's son
took the drive with him to drop him off. You
can hear a pin drop. I've done many crimes. I've
done many things in my life. I was not guilty
(29:48):
of this, like you know, so I got my all.
I guess I got what was coming to me. We
get to in front of the prison. We don't get out,
you know, we hug him. What's going to jail? Like
this ship crazy. When I was walking into the jail,
I looked back at the truck and uh, maybe I
shouldn't have had run my son there. You know, he
looked so devastated watching his father walk in there. You know. Uh,
(30:14):
and that hurt, that really really hurt. Jail gave me
a lot of time to strategize, go over my priorities,
and get really really serious about life. You know, it's
sad for me. Man. I was making money since I
was twenty two. I had been rich for the last
fifteen sixteen years. Private planes, mansions, diamonds, whatever you name it, cars,
(30:37):
whatever we wanted we had. When I got out of jail,
I had to start completely over. The hardest thing was
that they basically had absorbed of my money millions and
millions of dollars. And so I would get up and
I would look at my daughter sleep at night, and
that hurt me the most because I would be like,
she doesn't deserve to live a broke life. She deserves
(31:01):
a better life. Now you have to figure out a
way to make your money back, to make a hit
record one time, it's a miracle. To do it over
and over and over again, it's even harder. And I was.
I was a forty year old rapper. Nobody had ever
done that. I pulled up to his crib. It's a
(31:21):
huge crib he had. You know. I knocked on the
door and his wife lordly opened the door. She's like,
get in here and talk to this man. He's tripping,
and I can remember sitting down with him and he
was just like, it's over for me. Man, rap, it's
a young man's game. You know what I'm saying, It's over.
And I've never seen Joe like that, you know what
I'm saying. You know, I just turned forty years old
and they took away all my money. How the hell
(31:45):
am I gonna come back? And I can remember just
looking at him and telling him, nah no, Uh, Tina
tournament a hit record and fifty years old, so uh.
I went to work back in the studio, ready, ready
to do what I had to do. Joe felt like,
I need something to get that uh fired. At the
same time, you know, Remy, she was trying to get
(32:07):
her thing going. I'm in prison and I've been there
for four years going on five, and I'm just like, guy,
I need to speak something. And I had to go
through so much, had to put the number on my
phone list, all this stuff, so I'm like, all right,
I'm just gonna call it. It was at that point
where I didn't even care who's right or who's wrong.
I was like, I'm saying sorry, I'm gonna apologize. She
called me out of nowhere. She's just like yo, and
(32:29):
I'm like yo, and then there's an awkward silence for
like a minute, and then she was like, well talk.
I was like, well, Remy, you call me, like what
do you want? And He's like, ramp, what do you
want to say? And I'm just like all right, I
was and it was just a love fest. It took
(32:51):
one second. So when Remy got out of jail, when
we met in Miami and I had a big plan.
This was like the first time that I had off
at Joe at seven years. He's like, you're ready to
get back in the big leagues now, Like I have
this idea and I'm like, okay, what your idea is? Like,
smell you what I said, Yo, Remy. There's a chance
(33:14):
that if we worked together and we make a song,
it's like a thread going through a needle to say,
as people like Fat Joe and people like Remy Mam,
people love Fed Joe and Remy ma together, if we
hit it on there, it might explode and be the
biggest record in the world. After the reconciliation, Fat Joe,
(33:37):
Remy Martin, they were all the way up. I remember
going shopping with Remy for this video. Joe wanted my
wardrobe to be crazy, but we didn't have a budget.
She might have spent fifteen thousand dollars. She's like, yo, Joe,
I don't spend money like this no more. I was like,
funk that we need Chanelle, we need Louis Vattm, we
(33:58):
need the first It is like, I promise you you
got to get it back times a hundred. Trust me.
I said, you know what, if we don't make money
back with this song, I'll give you the money back
for the clothes. But by the cold, Not only was
all the way up big for Joe and the squad,
but it was big for hip hop and for the culture,
and come back was real for Fat Joe. We just
(34:21):
kept winning the wards. The Beefy Hip Hop Award goes
to all that that y'all hanging up. We're getting that money.
We getting that money. I could have thought of a
lot of better things to say that we're getting that money,
but I guess it was built in. It took all
my money that That was the first thing I thought
(34:43):
of saying up there was were getting that money. Boy,
Like if y'all thought I was gonna be broke. You
are very confused, right. There's nothing like having something and
have it taken away from you with for you to
come back. It was just like the top of the
world again. He always says I'm going to get a
number one, and he does. He fucking works hard and
(35:05):
he fucking makes it happen. To this day, I fight
for my family's future. I want to leave and leave
my kids. You know all set up. I needed the
music to blow up on another level so I could
do the business. The only way to succeed in life
is to empowering yourself. It's all about being an entrepreneur.
(35:26):
I want my wikipedia to start off by saying, Joseph
Antonio card to Gina, American businessman. You know, there's so
much more up than being a gangster rapper. We have
a great brand that we're all proud of. Fat Joe
started opening up sneaker stores in the city and he
created what we called the up end Y c and
(35:47):
Sneaker Initiative to reward kids with sneakers from impoverished neighborhoods
that do good in school. When I opened the store,
it was to give back to the people. Philanthropy as
as big as in my heart, I've always given back
and that's what I'm gonna keep doing. With the thought
back in the days, mom, we would live good like
(36:10):
this Huh started with nothing. Huh. Damn man, I'm so
let's do what chose. Thank God that we're here and
we're eating and pray for everybody. Wow. You know, I'm
very lucky to have them, My wife, Rich, my daughter,
little Joey. He's the Donny, always sits at the top
(36:31):
of the table. He's autistic, but he realizes that he
plays a powerful role in this family. I'm proud of him.
I love him. I feel like all my blessings come
from him. I think having a child with special needs
is something that he always tried to protect. But now
he's definitely um comfortable. My kids, they are living up
(36:52):
tremendously different childhood than me, and thank God, man, that's
what we all want for our kids. I love everybody here,
and everybody at this table very very important to me
in my life, and I'm just happy that I still
have my mother father here with me. When my mother
went through cancer, my father never left up. He's still
by the side. A lot of people they run away,
(37:13):
and so I've been blessed to have my parents, so
I try to enjoy it every second I can with them.
He's in a happy place right now where he's able
to express and he doesn't give a fuck. He just
knows that he loves and he wants to show love back.
You know, he's a positive guy and he's given out
that positive energy and he's the sunshine. Wow. I have
(37:38):
some very good friends. This was like the first song
I ever made in my life based on positivity and
uplifting the people. I'm gonna cheer him up. We're gonna
have fun. It's just the growth of Joe. It's like
he's lighter. My brother Joe Crack still knocking him out
the park at fifty years old. Joe has found a
(38:00):
sense of balance. I think he found a sense of peace.
A lot of people recording Joe the Elder Statesman and
hip hop because you think of when he came out,
what in early nineties, and now we're in one. He
have revision after putting in so much pain, after coming
from where we come from, beating the odds a gazillion times,
(38:21):
he deserves to be happy. I think what Joe did
and what he gave to the music business, two people,
marginalized people from tough neighborhoods. Hope you understood that he
came from nothing and turned it into something, and that's
what Joe gave two People's really nice to see the
evolution of where he started to where he is now.
(38:41):
It's really like a hip hop fairy tale. More to
the story is courage that I have been through everything
you could think of. I was in the streets, jail
you know, we know its family, friends, and been tested
to where I had to step up, always saying that
your darkest moments bring your most clarity. H Listen to
(39:06):
Behind the Music on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Want more episodes,
you can watch remastered best of the Vault and new
episodes of Behind the Music only on Paramount Plus
I've always had big dreams of being a superstar. Fat
Joe always comes out swinging. I'm like this, Bruce Delicious
to like, wow, I come from nothing where you gotta
be tough to survive. On my side, here I got
Fat Joe. The right Latinos across the country, across the
world loved the authenticity of what Joe brought hip hop
(00:28):
a Latinos to be like. He's not Rico suave. He's
the guy with the half moon with the medallion on
with fifty guys behind him, and I knew it was
just gonna shake the hip hop world. Joe's personality and
confidence built this monster image and it was about that
time that I discovered Big Pun. I brought him in
the game. He took us to the next level when
(00:50):
he's doing the arenas and making money getting nominated for Grammys.
I was the Puerto Rican parv daddy and Pun was
the Latino biggie. They were ex give me to sign
any loptin or that wrapped because they thought it was
like the time of all Latino on selling millions of records.
It was your dream come true. And then everything started
(01:11):
to go bad upon my grandfather and my sister all
died around the same time. I went to a really
really dark place. He was just up and then I
had to go to jail. Man. How the hell am
I gonna come back? And I've discovered that your darkest
moments bring your most clarity. I always believed in myself,
(01:34):
and my dreams came true. It's really like a hip
hop fairy tale, rising from nothing man to triumph. Let's
go behind the music. This is my true own. That's
where I was born, the Bronx. The Bronx created hip hop.
(01:55):
It's the ground zero is the birthplace, and I was
just brought up in the holy land of hip hop music.
My brother Andrew used to be a great boy for
grand Master Flash, going to the block parties carrying Grandmasster
Flashes records and said he would bring me all these
real original records, the Zulu Nation, all these DJ battles.
(02:16):
That's how light went off in my head, like so
in love with hip hop. I aspired to be like
these guys. That's the original origins of hip hop, and
that's what got me so addicted to music. Uh, there
would not be no Fat Joy if it wasn't for this.
I always wanted to be like my brother and you.
He started rapping before me, so I started writing raps
(02:37):
to telling everybody my raps. So that's how it came about.
And so I'm proud most of all to be from
the Bronx. If you know the projects, we never knew
what we didn't have. When I was a kid. My
family worked very, very hard. My mother already had three children,
two sons and a daughter with a prior husband, and
(02:58):
so she met my father. My father was a baker
from Cuba. My father is real tough, real hard. I mean,
not a bad person at all, but we bumped heads
a lot. Even now to this game. My mom has
had three jobs, never made an excuse. We always had Christmas.
We obviously ate a lot. It was a big, loving
(03:20):
family environment. My project's growing up at the time black
ten percent Latino. That's being generous, you know, And that's
all I knew. They've been calling me fat Joey since
I'm to three years old. In my projects, I've always
been big. I've always owned up to it. That's when
my name is fat Joe. But I got bullied in school.
(03:41):
I had to go to junior high school in my
grandmother's neighborhood, which might as well be nine point nine
percent black. They have never seen a Puerto Rican or
Latino like Fat Joe in that neighborhood in their life.
I was the eminem, the alien over there. Every single
day I got beat about thirty guys. Never been a sucker.
(04:02):
I never laid down. Every day. I look out the
window of the school and I know thirty dudes are
waiting for me. I dropped my bag and punched the
biggest dude right in his face, and just get beat up.
I don't lay down. You go back and you look
at pictures of me twelve years old, eleven years old
with an ice cold killer face. That's because if you
showed somebody's kindness, they would definitely take it for weakness.
(04:24):
And the whole Bronx at that time was predator, a prey.
I refused to be prey. At the time I met Joe,
he was this angry, you know, frustrated, you know, a
young man. We had something in common. We loved trouble,
We loved the smoke with everybody, anybody wherever, but we
(04:46):
just didn't care. Then as you got a little bit older,
knives came out, the guns came out. I mean, I'm
not gonna lie to you. I would go outside every
day for violence. Unfortunately, I got into a life of
crime before music. Father was very aggressive. He would hit
you and hit you like you a man. And so
one day I had an argument with my father. We
(05:09):
were at the dinner table. My father went to hit me,
and I stopped him, and his eyes opened up because
the first time I didn't let him hit me. And
from that point, you know, I knew like I couldn't
be here no more. And I remember telling them, you know,
you can't funk with me no more. But I went
to the staircase and I just cried for like a
(05:31):
whole hour, like a baby. I got up, I left
my mother's home, and the next day I was in
the street. I sold drugs for the first time when
I was fourteen. I started from the ground up. I
would go to Manhattan by two grams. The grahams were
twenty dollars a graham, come back, cut it up, make
(05:52):
eight two. I would take that trip to Manhattan ten
twenty times a day, just going back and forth, back
and forth, back and forth. When I was there was
when the Bronx looked like a war zone, and I
would live in this crackhead hotel when you could pay
thirty five dollars a day. It was terrifying being a
fourteen year old kid living in something like that. When
(06:13):
I would open my door, there were literally men and
women shooting heroin during the AIDS epidemic. And so to
not hear what's going on out there, I would have
this walkman and just listen to hip hop all night,
rappers like Slick Red to give me courage to make
it through the night. I met Diamond D through right
(06:34):
and graffiti. We used to go bombing together, is what
they called me. And one day he stops me at
this light pole and he says, yo, listen, man, I'm
gonna die if you're gonna die out here, or go
to jail forever. Diamond D was a big pot in
Joe's removal from the streets. He started giving him beats.
Told Shoe your feelings, put them on paper. He said,
(06:56):
why don't you tell your life in music? Diamond told me,
let me pay for the studio, and so we went
in there and we cut three songs. I want to
get on the radio. At the time, there wasn't hip
hop music all over. There was one radio station playing
it for two hours every Friday, and it was DJ
Better Luck. So he was the king Almighty. I was
(07:19):
up DJ up in the Bronx at nine point seven
kiss at him in New York City. Joel Diamond drought
me a promo song, Flow Joe and his lyrics, his flow,
his presentation man he believe rather alert. Used to play
it every week on the radio to hear him on
the radio. That was big, Like that was really really
(07:41):
big in the hood. Hood was like Yo Fatjo, Fato Fatjo, Fatjo.
Everybody knows that Joe's in town. Enough respect for the
buggie down. People used to record it and then played
in hawsm box. We had something to claim forget them.
Just the bronze to New York. You know, that was big.
(08:02):
We didn't know how big it was gonna get Latinos
across the country and across the world. Loved the authenticity
of what Joe brought hip hop a Latinos to be like,
He's not Rico suave. He's the guy with the half
moon with the dying on with fifty guys behind him,
And I knew it was just gonna shake the hip
(08:22):
Hop World. The promo cut the attention of one of
my capadres, Chris Nide. I was on the block hustling
and Chris LDY just pulled up and he was like, yo,
you know who I am. And I was like, yeah,
I know. You are your baby, Chris, and he was like,
you fat Joe right. I was like yeah. He said,
I think you could be a star. I wanted to
sign you, and then my whole life changed from that moment.
(08:45):
I signed the contract in the middle of the street. Chris,
you know, and he wanted something he always got it from. No.
Joe turned out to be number one. I really didn't
leave the drug game alone the second I got a
record deal. After Flow Joe came out, Joe blew up
because he painted a clear picture for you about his
(09:06):
block in the Bronx, and he gave you that aggressiveness.
So I was doing like three shows a night. I'd
be in stat Nolan, Jersey, Connecticut, you know, Virginia, Baltimore, Philly,
eventually Miami. We were coming down to Miami to do
a promo show or something and a friend of mine
he's like, I got some girlfriends down there. I'm like, yo,
(09:27):
they're pretty. He was like, oh, they're the baddest chicks.
And I was like, yo, So I got to meet them.
He was like, bro, you're broke, you're fat. We met
in Miami, right outside Nikki's beach. We pulled up and
the light of the van she was walking away shined
on her ass and it was the biggest ass I
(09:51):
have ever seen. And I was like, what the fuck
is that? And then when she turned around, I was like,
oh my god. My friend said to me when he
introduced us, Joe said, that's my wife, and my friend said,
no way, she's now. She'll never be your wife. Look,
I've been with Joe for twenty five years. He was
(10:12):
that guy. I thought he was really handsome, and I
thought he was a little bit of an asshole. He
was very streaked. He was rough around the edges and
he said come back to the hotel and hang out.
And I was like, all right, I'll come on, come.
But I never showed up, and I just kept chasing
and chasing him, and Uh, I had a show in
(10:34):
writer and when she comes to the show, I said,
sit on stage. So I do the show. I'm trying
to show what I'm the man and I remember leaving
after the show and one of his friends came up
to him and he said, hey, let's hang out with
all these girls. Want to go back to the hotel
and party and listen to Now. I was like, yo,
(10:54):
I got the chicks. They want to hang out with you,
but I'm with and I said you should go with
them because I'm not going. She's like, you ain't getting
none of this, you might as well go with them.
So I look at the six girls, and I look
at her, and I look at the sister. Yeah, he wouldn't.
(11:14):
He chose me, So you know, I was happy. You know,
that was definitely something that made me feel very special
because if I was him, I would have definitely went
with the girls that were having the party. The rest
is history. You meet someone and you just say, oh,
this is gonna be my wife, you know, when you know,
you know, three months into the relationship, he was like,
(11:36):
you should move in with me, and I said, okay.
We lived in a one bedroom apartment with no curtains
and t shirts as towels. We were broke, but we
loved each other. In this business, the hardest thing to
do is to have a successful relationship. All these years later.
(11:57):
My wife's Lorenda. She supported me all the way. After
some time, it was like PAYANDEMONI and it was like
I couldn't walk down the street no more. You know.
I was finally successful, making all kind of money. Even
though I lived in Jersey on the water, I would
be in the projects every day, and everybody knew. Fat
(12:17):
Joe would go to this boat dagg and hang out
in front of it. Walking outside of a boat Dagg
and you bump into the phenom Big Punt. I didn't
know at the time, but he would eventually be one
of the biggest grappers of all time. That moment, that store,
it didn't just change me, it changed the world forever.
Punt is out there rapping, and I was like, what
(12:39):
is the fat reporto Rican kid gonna do? And he
was like, gotta the data, the data, and he just
He's going like a car hunting miles for hour, and
he just blew my mind. I was like, oh my god,
I knew nobody was better than him. You know, he
was born to rap. He made sure he was ever
where the fat was and if he had new show,
he was there whever he was. You know, he had
(13:00):
to be in a club or brought me was rounding
from around him, and so when I heard him, I
was like, that is it. This is gonna be the
Latin no biggie. Together we formed the Terror Squad. The
Terror Squad rap group consisted of guys I brought in
the crew and guys Punt brought in the crew. So
we cracked one love baby, you know the deal. Terror
Squad collect Boy ninety six cities. He told me, you're
(13:26):
gonna be my big brother I never had. I'm gonna
hold you down. You hold me down, you beat my
big brother. They were brothers, and you know, they might
have had different fathers, but there was nothing else they were.
They were brothers, and we just jelled together and formed
this dynamic duo. We call each other twins. So here's
a real quick you know before you know what looks
like best friends. I just knew that the world had
(13:46):
to hear him. So I was like, let me focus
all my energy on this guy and he will take
us to the promised Land. So I took a back
seat and just was pushing Punt. You know, I was
in the streets putting up posters myself. I'm handing out flyers,
Big pund Big Punt. What he would do for punt
(14:07):
was bigger than what he did for himself. Joe believed
in put but I think he was totally okay putting
punt front and center. I was the Puerto Rican pump Daddy.
You know, pump Daddy discovered notorious b I G Fat,
Joe discovered Big Punty, went double platinum. We signed the
deal for ten million dollars with Atlantic. It was a
dream come true to see him elevate getting nominated for Grammys. Yeah.
(14:32):
I brought him in the game, but I had never
been nominated for Grammy. I had never been around these
type of people. Punt looks so beautiful. We threw curls
on his head, l a finger waves joints when we
was fronting at the sky Blue suit on with the
yellow pin stripe. It was nothing like that time. Bro
to come from the Bronx, come from nothing and be
(14:53):
at the Grammys deal. It was like a Cinderella story.
I mean, this was really a different level of success.
They were asking me to sign any one of my cousins,
any latino they wrapped because they thought it was like
the time of all latinos selling millions of records, and
you know I was at the forefront of that. But
at the same time, I was Fat Joe the rapper too,
(15:15):
so uh and went to work or don card of Gina.
You know that video is my favorite video I ever
shot in my life. Of course, you seemed punk all
in there and then we had puffed through the hook.
Happiest time in my life. You guys are really the
stars of the show this year. How does it feel?
I mean, it feels great. I'm just happy. We're real
(15:38):
happy today. Today is a great thing. Everybody has some
sort of addiction. I was really overweight. The first celebrity
name sandwich of the millennium, the name of the Fat Joe.
(16:01):
I'm extremely hungry right now. I wish we were educated
as we are now in food and nutrition and we
just ain't no no better. Sounds good to me and punished.
Performing with Lopez on Saturday Night Live. This Saturday, we
(16:25):
honor this very big you know, not too many rappers
get to do that type of thing. J No put
out this ten time platinum album. We got a huge
hit with her song Caught Feeling So Good, and it
just opened so many doors for us to be on
that s now stage, so many eyes on us, so
many people talking about us. Taken schedule, high profile appearance
(16:49):
on Saturday Night Live had to be canceled. You didn't
want to show up. I guess he didn't feel good.
I was trying to push him to go perform. I
kept bothering him the whole week, every day, Yo, more
and come on, come on, come on. And I know
it bothered him that he didn't come, So I didn't
you know, the show must still go on. He was
telling me his legs was hurting him so he couldn't
(17:10):
do it. We were all worried about Punt's health. I
don't think anybody who could have really been in Punt's
presence didn't at some point feels some concerned. I mean,
the struggles with breathing, and we all knew it wasn't healthy.
He said, nah, you go do it by yourself, and
that much I heard him because he knew how important
it was as well. I guess these were the warning
(17:31):
signs of what was to come. The next day, Punt
had an heart attack, but we got the phone call
and I remember just seeing Joe's face, like his whole vibe,
his whole energy had just like come down. He was
really hurt and destroyed and he just you know, it
was it was a bad day. It was a bad day.
(17:52):
He's gone. Remember breaking down at UM and we flew
to New York. I remember just going straight to Joe's
house in the morning. Second we landed, and then we
had to do a whole bunch of press, which was
the worst thing. But they've shown a lot of love,
and you know that was important to him because a
lot of times we worked harder. We thought a lot
(18:12):
of efforts he was doing was going unnoticed. But you know,
now our guess he knows, and I definitely know that
he would be missed. He was loved, and you know
he's acknowledged for everything he did in life. And then
you you have a sense of guilt, like was there
anything we could have did to make sure he didn't
pass away? So it was it was just a terrible time. Man.
(18:34):
He probably lads behind a wife and three children, all
under the age of the time. He didn't deserve to
die twenty eight years old and leave his family, leave
his kids. He bent so much to everybody, the whole
community at the time that it was just like unbelievable
when when he died, it was just it felt like wow,
it was like the world ended. It was it was
(18:56):
a hard time, even a big bad that Joe couldn't
deal with it. He means me very proud, you know,
and where he's done for me. I could never, you know,
replace that. I mean there's no question. Almost too young
and ago like that. Everything it's just so overwhelming. After
(19:17):
Punt passed, it was really hard on him. He lost
like somebody that he loved and somebody that he really
wanted so much for. Everything started to throw bad. My
grandfather and my sister all died around the same time,
and it was just really really painful. I was really
really tight with my sister growing up since we was kids,
(19:39):
and so that's when depression and all that started to
sink him because it was just so much pressure on me.
He wasn't able to deal with all of that. He
wasn't ready for it. I mean, nobody is. He was crushed.
He was just funked up. I gained a lot of weight,
started drinking liquor, medicating myself, started losing grip of my friends,
(20:04):
my artists. I remembered whispers saying like there's no pun
there's no terrorist guard. You know, people just thought, you know,
the whole terrorist guard identity, would you would crumble. I
think the combination of Joe and Pun holding the terrorist
squad together, and then they slowly started to fall apart.
It's a down period, and Pun died and everything is
(20:24):
looking slow. Everybody jumped ship on me. I knew I
needed help. I had never felt like this before. It
was just too much, unbearable. The only thing that helped
me is that I was going to therapy, and I
would go every Tuesday. My wife, Lorena took me to
every single appointment, and no one else in the world
knew I was getting therapy, so she would support me
(20:45):
and take me in. You know, I put it through
a lot. You know, I always say, let your darkest
moments bring your most clarity. You know. I knew I
had to fight his depression for my family, my wife
and my two sons. She was a great father. For
him to be this amazing dad, he had to experience
what he went through. We take care of each other
in this family. It's just simple as that. The depression
(21:08):
went on for two years. I just said to myself, yo,
you gotta wake up. Stop feeling guilty and that at
that moment I snapped out of the depression. It was
loving life and loving his music and loving, you know,
to do what he does. And he was working in
the studio again, focused on the new head. It was
(21:30):
back before upon died. All I wanted to be was
the street that when he passed away, I realized I
had to take it from there and go to the
next level. I met IRV Gotti and told him I
wanted to make music for everybody, women, commercial hit records,
and he just woke me up one night. I'm laying
(21:51):
next to my wife and got the house phone and Joe,
what's up deserved. I was like, Yo, what's up? Come
down the hit Factory with on It was street for
in the morning and HERB said, y'all made this for you,
and he breast playing and I was like, holy wow,
they gave me a hit. They made me a hit back.
Joe has gone from being hip hop's most infamous Puerto
(22:13):
Rican to music's most popular big man. And it all
it took was a song called What's Love featuring a Shanty.
I've been in this business nine years. It's finally my
time to shine, you know, man, So what's the difference
with this album from your prior albums? Just I was
just way more focused. Man, I had no choice. I
felt like this album was like all or nothing. After
(22:33):
Punch Deaf, you know, cats was rumoring and it was
people were sleeping on me, and it was like, you think, Joco,
hold it down. So I had to lock myself in
the grimy studio and just get all this frustration out
and on this music. It's just made it happens. No, man.
There was a lot of moments where I knew he
is blowing up, Like we wanted the tour bus and
they said, you know, we want you to perform at
(22:54):
MTV spring Break and I was like, wow, Joe, this
is big. I was like, this is really big. And
I was like, man, we gotta do something to make
people talk. We gotta do something. And she was like, yo, man,
you should go there topless, take the showed off. And
he did. He fucking did. She got him this. I
think it was like affended red towel and I was like,
(23:16):
that's the outfit. She was like, that's it. Oh yeah,
she was right. She's usually right. It explodes. It's a
mainstream thing. Everybody was talking about fat Joe and Joey crack,
the cracking of his ass, showing they just fell in
love with this big guy. It's great to be that
confident and be a big man and be sexy and
(23:36):
be fly and carry us off the way he carried himself.
He was always the flyest bat guy. Ever. After that
one performance, our salves went from fifteen thousand a week
to twenty thousand a week to five thousand a week.
I never forget my phone. Rang and the reserve guy
he said, Joe Platinum, and I'm like stopping. He go Platformum.
(24:01):
It feels good. It feels like, you know, we're having
this little victory parade. And I don't know how radio
is embracing me out of nowhere like that, but I mean,
I guess you know that was my destiny. So now
I'm gonna just continue to bring you hits. This is
what I'm in it for, man, I'm not in it
to be an underground wrapper. I'm in it to be
a superstar sell millions of records. It was a different
(24:22):
audience time it went by, and you know, it wasn't
Flow Joe's crowd. There was a whole new crowd. How
was he gonna keep it going that there's millions of
people trying to make music. A hit record is a miracle,
but to keep doing it over and over again, that
lets you know these guys ain't going nowhere then boom
here because lean that lean back is actually the only
(24:44):
beat that I was afraid to wrap on because I
had so much success off of What's Love. You know,
as an artist, you start thinking that's your lane. You
gotta make songs for girls. And so I lived with
it for like a month, and I remember I was
driving on the west side of highways. I pulled dover,
I played to be and started going. I was new
to Terror Squad and I was in the studio and
(25:06):
I'm like playing for me what they were doing yesterday.
Like I'm like, what is this? And it's Joe with
all three verses. I'm like, is he serious? Take that
second verse out, turn on the mic, and I'm going
in there and I'm recording. Next day when everyone comes in,
that song comes on and he's like, hype, We're like this.
(25:27):
Then the second verse comes on and looks at me
and I'm like, Hi, I'm like, what the They totally
erased my second verse and Remy forced them to recorder
or when I heard it, I was like, Wow, she
killed that. It was just a huge record, Like not
just here around the world, every DJ was playing Leaning Back.
(25:48):
It just was over. It was over. He always comes
out swinging at the TV Awards and it was like
Bruce Willis and Lativa and all these people like laying Back,
like it was Bruce Wilicious, like like Mr die Hard himself.
Lean Back was the return of Joe. Was an anthem
and when you heard it, you were like, Joe's back.
(26:10):
That was a home run. Man. We ran the game
with this. Go to a nightclub and they would play
just lean Back for an hour straight, fifty times in
a row. They just wouldn't get tired of it. It
was a phenomenon. I won't always be known as a
guy who made lean Back. Remy became a superstar with
that song. Remy wanted to do it so album, and
(26:32):
I wanted to do a solo album with her. We
get the deal done. She made an amazing album, but
it didn't do what it should have done. I was
dealing with the record label and they kept telling me
that they were going to blow up the album. But
they didn't. I was mad about how many units of
my album was shipped out. No one anywhere who wanted
to my my album, they couldn't find it because they
didn't have it. Unfortunately, she thought it was because of me,
(26:54):
and I'm like, you should have been here with me.
If he was here, this wouldn't happen. No one's listening
to me. And so she went at me and she
was talking crazy. She was talking about I don't mind
signing to fifty cents g unit. You know, Remy's family man,
and I know it since she's a kid. So that
was the most painful former betrayal I ever felt. It
(27:17):
was like an invisible lightning rod just piercing through my heart.
You know, she's a very emotional person and Joe really
tried to do right for her. What is it that
exactly went wrong? What was the like the final breaks
always her own boss when she started disrespecting me to
the public, and a lot of stuff is coming, man,
(27:38):
you know when you will out and all that that
should be coming right back, you know, So I wish
it well. Three years later she got arrested, and you know,
I've been dealing with crime my whole life, so I
knew what she had to do to get less time
and then, and nobody was advising of the right way.
I we didn't speak for years, and in that time,
(28:00):
like I used to be so devastated because I missed
my brother. I was sad, even though I was trying
to act like, you know, it is what it is,
but it was like really really sad for her. But
I've always been on gold time no matter what, and
fighting for what we we are or what we represent,
and so I keep going and I keep pushing forward.
At the time we build a new house, it's beautiful.
(28:22):
Were in Miami with the whole family, my mother, my wife,
my daughter, and my two sons. We were all together.
It was an amazing time. And I had to hit
(28:44):
One day. I went to buy a car and they
were like, you haven't paid for your mortgages. You haven't
paid your cars. I'm like, what. I had an accountant,
I hired him. I'm sending them wire transfers to pay
my taxes. The man ain't paying my taxes. I didn't know.
We stepped to the government and we tell them, look,
this guy was taking advantage of me. I actually went
(29:05):
to court and paid the money. Back, thinking that maybe
because I don't have no previous criminal history, I'll get
house arrass or get probation, which they give to people
every day. And so they said, sorry, you have to
go to jail. That was a horrible day. I got up.
My mother in law made me breakfast and she was
crying the whole time. Lorena was in the in the
(29:27):
living room, just crying like crazy. And you know, I
kissed on the foret. I said, mine stopped. You can't
be doing this. The actual day of me, Joe's son
took the drive with him to drop him off. You
can hear a pin drop. I've done many crimes. I've
done many things in my life. I was not guilty
(29:48):
of this, like you know, so I got my all.
I guess I got what was coming to me. We
get to in front of the prison. We don't get out,
you know, we hug him. What's going to jail? Like
this ship crazy. When I was walking into the jail,
I looked back at the truck and uh, maybe I
shouldn't have had run my son there. You know, he
looked so devastated watching his father walk in there. You know. Uh,
(30:14):
and that hurt, that really really hurt. Jail gave me
a lot of time to strategize, go over my priorities,
and get really really serious about life. You know, it's
sad for me. Man. I was making money since I
was twenty two. I had been rich for the last
fifteen sixteen years. Private planes, mansions, diamonds, whatever you name it, cars,
(30:37):
whatever we wanted we had. When I got out of jail,
I had to start completely over. The hardest thing was
that they basically had absorbed of my money millions and
millions of dollars. And so I would get up and
I would look at my daughter sleep at night, and
that hurt me the most because I would be like,
she doesn't deserve to live a broke life. She deserves
(31:01):
a better life. Now you have to figure out a
way to make your money back, to make a hit
record one time, it's a miracle. To do it over
and over and over again, it's even harder. And I was.
I was a forty year old rapper. Nobody had ever
done that. I pulled up to his crib. It's a
(31:21):
huge crib he had. You know. I knocked on the
door and his wife lordly opened the door. She's like,
get in here and talk to this man. He's tripping,
and I can remember sitting down with him and he
was just like, it's over for me. Man, rap, it's
a young man's game. You know what I'm saying, It's over.
And I've never seen Joe like that, you know what
I'm saying. You know, I just turned forty years old
and they took away all my money. How the hell
(31:45):
am I gonna come back? And I can remember just
looking at him and telling him, nah no, Uh, Tina
tournament a hit record and fifty years old, so uh.
I went to work back in the studio, ready, ready
to do what I had to do. Joe felt like,
I need something to get that uh fired. At the
same time, you know, Remy, she was trying to get
(32:07):
her thing going. I'm in prison and I've been there
for four years going on five, and I'm just like, guy,
I need to speak something. And I had to go
through so much, had to put the number on my
phone list, all this stuff, so I'm like, all right,
I'm just gonna call it. It was at that point
where I didn't even care who's right or who's wrong.
I was like, I'm saying sorry, I'm gonna apologize. She
called me out of nowhere. She's just like yo, and
(32:29):
I'm like yo, and then there's an awkward silence for
like a minute, and then she was like, well talk.
I was like, well, Remy, you call me, like what
do you want? And He's like, ramp, what do you
want to say? And I'm just like all right, I
was and it was just a love fest. It took
(32:51):
one second. So when Remy got out of jail, when
we met in Miami and I had a big plan.
This was like the first time that I had off
at Joe at seven years. He's like, you're ready to
get back in the big leagues now, Like I have
this idea and I'm like, okay, what your idea is? Like,
smell you what I said, Yo, Remy. There's a chance
(33:14):
that if we worked together and we make a song,
it's like a thread going through a needle to say,
as people like Fat Joe and people like Remy Mam,
people love Fed Joe and Remy ma together, if we
hit it on there, it might explode and be the
biggest record in the world. After the reconciliation, Fat Joe,
(33:37):
Remy Martin, they were all the way up. I remember
going shopping with Remy for this video. Joe wanted my
wardrobe to be crazy, but we didn't have a budget.
She might have spent fifteen thousand dollars. She's like, yo, Joe,
I don't spend money like this no more. I was like,
funk that we need Chanelle, we need Louis Vattm, we
(33:58):
need the first It is like, I promise you you
got to get it back times a hundred. Trust me.
I said, you know what, if we don't make money
back with this song, I'll give you the money back
for the clothes. But by the cold, Not only was
all the way up big for Joe and the squad,
but it was big for hip hop and for the culture,
and come back was real for Fat Joe. We just
(34:21):
kept winning the wards. The Beefy Hip Hop Award goes
to all that that y'all hanging up. We're getting that money.
We getting that money. I could have thought of a
lot of better things to say that we're getting that money,
but I guess it was built in. It took all
my money that That was the first thing I thought
(34:43):
of saying up there was were getting that money. Boy,
Like if y'all thought I was gonna be broke. You
are very confused, right. There's nothing like having something and
have it taken away from you with for you to
come back. It was just like the top of the
world again. He always says I'm going to get a
number one, and he does. He fucking works hard and
(35:05):
he fucking makes it happen. To this day, I fight
for my family's future. I want to leave and leave
my kids. You know all set up. I needed the
music to blow up on another level so I could
do the business. The only way to succeed in life
is to empowering yourself. It's all about being an entrepreneur.
(35:26):
I want my wikipedia to start off by saying, Joseph
Antonio card to Gina, American businessman. You know, there's so
much more up than being a gangster rapper. We have
a great brand that we're all proud of. Fat Joe
started opening up sneaker stores in the city and he
created what we called the up end Y c and
(35:47):
Sneaker Initiative to reward kids with sneakers from impoverished neighborhoods
that do good in school. When I opened the store,
it was to give back to the people. Philanthropy as
as big as in my heart, I've always given back
and that's what I'm gonna keep doing. With the thought
back in the days, mom, we would live good like
(36:10):
this Huh started with nothing. Huh. Damn man, I'm so
let's do what chose. Thank God that we're here and
we're eating and pray for everybody. Wow. You know, I'm
very lucky to have them, My wife, Rich, my daughter,
little Joey. He's the Donny, always sits at the top
(36:31):
of the table. He's autistic, but he realizes that he
plays a powerful role in this family. I'm proud of him.
I love him. I feel like all my blessings come
from him. I think having a child with special needs
is something that he always tried to protect. But now
he's definitely um comfortable. My kids, they are living up
(36:52):
tremendously different childhood than me, and thank God, man, that's
what we all want for our kids. I love everybody here,
and everybody at this table very very important to me
in my life, and I'm just happy that I still
have my mother father here with me. When my mother
went through cancer, my father never left up. He's still
by the side. A lot of people they run away,
(37:13):
and so I've been blessed to have my parents, so
I try to enjoy it every second I can with them.
He's in a happy place right now where he's able
to express and he doesn't give a fuck. He just
knows that he loves and he wants to show love back.
You know, he's a positive guy and he's given out
that positive energy and he's the sunshine. Wow. I have
(37:38):
some very good friends. This was like the first song
I ever made in my life based on positivity and
uplifting the people. I'm gonna cheer him up. We're gonna
have fun. It's just the growth of Joe. It's like
he's lighter. My brother Joe Crack still knocking him out
the park at fifty years old. Joe has found a
(38:00):
sense of balance. I think he found a sense of peace.
A lot of people recording Joe the Elder Statesman and
hip hop because you think of when he came out,
what in early nineties, and now we're in one. He
have revision after putting in so much pain, after coming
from where we come from, beating the odds a gazillion times,
(38:21):
he deserves to be happy. I think what Joe did
and what he gave to the music business, two people,
marginalized people from tough neighborhoods. Hope you understood that he
came from nothing and turned it into something, and that's
what Joe gave two People's really nice to see the
evolution of where he started to where he is now.
(38:41):
It's really like a hip hop fairy tale. More to
the story is courage that I have been through everything
you could think of. I was in the streets, jail
you know, we know its family, friends, and been tested
to where I had to step up, always saying that
your darkest moments bring your most clarity. H Listen to
(39:06):
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