Fat Joe

Published May 1, 2024, 10:00 AM

On this week's episode of The R&B Money Podcast, Tank and J Valentine welcome the legendary rapper, entrepreneur and businessman, Fat Joe. You won't believe the gems he drops as he shares his incredible journey from the streets of the Bronx to becoming a hip-hop icon. From his early days working with the late great Big Pun, to his unforgettable collaborations with R. Kelly, Ashanti, Chris Brown and more, Fat Joe holds nothing back. He even reveals the surprising story behind one of his most famous lyrics. Along the way, he shares priceless wisdom on music, business, and life, and explains how he's been able to stay relevant for over 30 years in the game. Fat Joe also gives his take on why R&B artists seem to be "every man for himself," and tells a hilarious story about working with Kanye West. You'll never guess which R&B legend Fat Joe says is a must-have at all his birthday parties. Through it all, Fat Joe keeps it 100, with the same humor, hustle and heart he's always been known for. Fat Joe is Now on The R&B Money Podcast!

 

Extended Episodes on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/RnBMoneyPodcast

Follow The Podcast:

Tank: @therealtank  

J Valentine: @JValentine

Podcast: @RnbMoneyPodcast

 

R and B money.

We are.

Take Malachi. We are the authority on R and B Ladies and gentlemen. My name is Tank Valentine. This the all N B money buck eyes Yeah, real R and B. The authority told them the ship. Well all things R and B fighties and gentlemen. Today we have a guy my friends. Uh, it's in his blood, in his blood, that sen his blood. Every every birthday, every birthday.

I fight time when you can we wind the time because hello, Sally's that's.

Why fight the time when you you can readwind?

Why look brand new?

Bro? Let me say something every every time I've before, now, before we've gotten into business together, every time I've ever seen you and met you, it's always been about inclusion. It's always been about putting your arms around and making sure that everybody feels welcome, that you are giving the greetings and giving the love. And I've never seen anything different.

That's just who I am, you know what I'm saying. So I'm I'm I like being happy and I want to make sure my people happy. Yeah, And so that's what it's all about. And so the days of you know, we can talk about a lot of shit. We going there now off rip. I never liked the major label record companies. I never liked how they did our artists from the past. I remember they used to they used to put Old School at Noon tours together and they have guys twenty two, twenty one, twenty three on tour calling them old School at Noon. So if you get dropped off a major label, they automatically call you old School at Noon. But you're only twenty three. Yeah, you know, you got these guys and I don't want to say their names because really they're really legendary to me, but they would have them on Old School at Noon tours and shit like that. So I made a note of it. I say, yo, listen, they gonna do me the same way. So I got to make sure to diversify and make sure I get to it. And I love seeing my fellow artists look good like you look good.

You know.

I was in Beverly Hill's and you know, I'm good friends with Johnny Gill and he pulled up in the boys boy yard back. I was like, you know, I want all my guys looking good, making money getting there. That's what it's all about for me. It's never been about just me. You know when the kid plays, he'd be like, my boy, my boy never been like that with me. Had been about everybody eating. Inclusion is all all I'm about.

Bro, You've navigated thirty plus successful.

Years in this shit pretty crazy.

Really crazy. It doesn't happen right, and like it's not. It's not. You're at the thirtieth year and we're we're seeing some fall off. No, you know, you're you're you're in a thirtieth year looking like Lebron as I would like to say, yeah, Lebron and it's twenty first.

You know that's Lebron amazes me. You know, to be in that shape, still be competitive, but you're in that shape. Yeah, I don't want a better shape. Well, you know, God is pushing me through it. And so what people got to know is that I put my hands in God. You know, when people try to, you know, say cancel me or or start some shit, I don't even worry. I just know God is going to push me through because you know where my heart is. Everything, everything's the journey. You know, it can't faster for certain people, came slower for certain people. But it really is, like Nipsey said, this this career thing is really a marathon. And so it just keep going and keep going, and who knows, something leads to something, something leads to something, you know, and then you know it used to be when we started, it was about, you know, I used to be with Biggie Smalls every day recipes b ig twenty seven years and we never took pictures because that was considered sucker shit at that time, right, And now I take pictures of anything, like I'll be sitting parking the car, like, yo, take a pic because we got to capture the moment. But when I came up, it was all about if you win the club. You would see Fat Joe. You would think, yo, I can't talk to this guy. Yeah, you know, I got the gangsters around me. I'm standing there like, don't look. Because that's what the wave was at the time. And so during COVID, everybody stuck home. They allowed me to turn on the IG Live and show people my real person nine because they knew lean back, they knew the songs, they didn't really know Fat Joe the personality. And even at that time when we would go do interviews, it was like we had to be real guarded. You know, you got the the Wendy Williams, the Miss Jones ebro at one time where they're all trying to jam you up. You know, no disrespect y'all, but you know that's where that's where our interviews was. So all of us had to put up those little invisible bars. So during the COVID it was like, all right, everybody the fuck out anyway, laugh Joe, Joe jokes, play the Jones girls, you know what I'm saying. You know, I'm starting to ship with the Jones girls every every day and to try to on to check it to everybody like oh shit, I ain't No. Fat Joe was like this. But and so you never know where this journey gonna take you because it just opened so many different doors, you know what I'm saying. Like I never thought when I was hustling on the block, I'd be selling men's hair grooming products all over the world. But we're doing it with trapping.

Trapped.

It's scary out here.

Let's go back there, uh, Fat Joe to the to the Bronx sho did Little Joe desire to be a rapper a mobile in that sense and entertained?

Let me tell you a story I told a million times, but I'm gonna tell you I remember being taught. First of all, it wasn't for young people. There was no Instagram, the biggest we could think of with Sanford and Son and George Jefferson. We ain't see nobody else that look like us. And I'm in the Bronx and I hate to tell y'all, but it was like a war zone. It was like Ukraine. Pronce was fucked up. It wasn't no real buildings or nothing, no playgrounds. And I remember sitting out there with my boy Louis one day, twelve years old, and I was like, Yo, this broke shit. This ain't for me. He was looking at me like what I was like, Yo, bro I'm not gonna be broke, you know. And so I always remember that moment where it was in my DNA that I knew there was more for me out there. I didn't know what it was. So I was out in the street getting a bunch of money, you know. He tried to kill me maybe thirty forty times, literally, like the bullet had my name on it, shooting at Fat Joey. And so my man Diamond D from d TC stepped to me and said yo, Joe, man, you gotta you gotta change your life and they're gonna kill you out.

Are you rapping at this point? You're not right? But this is your guys.

You really have to understand. Fat Joe was born. So you know the Muslims they go to Saudi Arabia to go to mech Yeah. I literally there's just just no way a line, there's no way to doing it. I literally was born in the birth place of hip hop. No, not on the West Side, not on the East Side, not on this Grandmaster Flash was out my window DJ and every day Melle Mail was playing pickup games of basketball. Ruby d the first Latino I MC, Shot Rock the first female MC. They af from a hood, my hood, like the inception of hip hop. You know, first time somebody probably broke dance or this. That's my hood, right, so I'm watching it. So I've been to hip hop since I was born. I did everything from MC to break dance to graffiti, right, I did the whole culture. Thing only thing I could never do good was DJ. It's the only thing I could never DJ. Wright and I used to try, but and so it was either hustle or hip hop. So my man Diamond d was on already Lort and That's was on and Diamond was like, Yo, let's go to the studio. I'll pay Joe.

So we went in there.

We made a demo that became my first single, flow Joe, that went number one in America, single song.

Recorded first, So.

Yeah, it went out the park.

That's crazy.

It went out the park number one in America. Our cio.

Out the project, not even first out in the project.

I'm still in the project, you know. I moved out the projects because I was getting money before I rapped. But I was in the project to about my second album, and when it's when I realized, all righty, you you're rap star now and they starting to view you a little different. So for me, I would have still been in the projects right now, you know. But it got to where it was a lot of jealousy. It was, you know, I got up in the project showing them I ain't changed. I'm still fat Joe. And then it just got to the point where I realized, I was like, damn, you know, we one day we had a riot in the project because of me, right, So I basically I used to run the projects like you know, King of Zamonga, you know what I'm saying. And then I became a rapper, so now they're seeing me on TV and all that, so they started to looking at me like I changed. I went soft. I'm a rapper. I can't punch you in your face. I can't.

You know, you know I'm aper.

No, no, no, I'm a rapper. Of course I can't punch you in like you know, you know what I'm saying. So it's like it got to that point. And then one day we had like half the projects fight half the projects because some dude told me, like, Yo, the fuck you think you're doing that? I smacked his cheek off real quick.

Bomb.

I didn't even think about it. I left, you know it. It was just a normal currence to me. I left, I came back. Then there was a dude there that I grew up with his kindergarten and he was angry and I don't even say his name. I said, Yo, Pito, what's up? PTOs that he was the name fat Pito, Fat Joe, Fatito. We grew up since kindergarten. What you mean, what's up, nigga?

What's up?

You snapped? That was my brother in law. You slap, and he swung on me and that's not suggested right, and so swung on me. Miss I almost let him get away with it. I almost let him get away with it. I backed up. I went in the car. I never forget I tell you this story, Rich, I never forget. My brother full Flex stopped me and said, Yo, Joe, I know it's speed though, but you know if you walk away right now, they ain't gonna respect you like that in the hood no more. I said, damn, but it's Peto. He said, Yo, bro, it's up to you. I know it's feet though. He was telling me, like, I know you don't want to do nothing to Beto. You know what I'm saying. Someone in the trunk. I pulled out the shots. You remember they used to add the yellow shots, the big Michellan shit.

Yeah, I know, exact household it.

I started beating beat though up with the Michelan shit, and then the whole whoever was jealous of Fat Joe Fort Fat Joe that day, whoever was my real brothers in the projects Fort dumb So it was half of the projects again, I mean, fifty guys a getting like everybody going up. Brothers was fighting brothers and my brother Hard Power. Oh he was fighting my brother Gizmo, who started TS. TS went with Gizmo went with the other side. So it was like all our life we knew each other. We all had like a big riot because they was defending me. They was like, fuck that, Joey, Joey'll brother, you know what I'm saying. Then the other half it was a little bit jealous.

We had to we did.

We won for sure, you know what I'm saying. And then and then you know, but that taught me like, man, you can't really get out of here like that. On Man, these guys are seeing you on TV, and so it's not your perception of dumb changes a lot of times, you know, as an artist, people's perception if you change, and so you can still be the same person. You the same you know, we all kids at heart, but they start looking at you different, and so you know, you know, that's that's what happens.

Wow, is I'm sure there's a moment. I'm sure there's that moment in other moments where it's like you are graduating to a place of success on a different side, but there's this urge to maintain the street credibility, the street credibility.

Did that we put it down in this game, like in this in this rap game without saying no names, because I'm cool with a lot of people, not even cool brothers, but we we smashed anybody who tried to fuck with us, like literally everybody who try to fuck with us.

And this is all yeah, yeah, none of this can be used none of all what I'm saying, none of this can use against.

It's been so it was like, you gotta understand hip hop. They ain't no PhD, they ain't no bachelorists degree. It's like you got a bunch of guys that could rap. They probably normally wouldn't even have a career on a job if they didn't know how to rap. They aunt to Rogers, everybody who just came home from jail. Everybody think they tough. Everybody did so every now and then you gotta like reassure them that this is what happens.

It's interesting for me because me growing up in the Bay Area, I always I watched I watched you as a kid, and I watched your career and it was very parallel to e forties for me. I think on the East Coast forty because I know him so well, that's my guy, and I'm watching you on the whole other side of the country.

I'm like, this is very familiar to me. Yeah, it is very familiar to me.

Like and it was funny because and even and even how it's how it's uh come to life now later in your career, businessman, business life. But you guys were always independent. You guys always had your wife with you. It was also it was it was watching a man do business right, because we have a lot of little boys in this industry. It's very few men who are handling their business and who are approaching everything as a man.

First, all we asked is men is respect. We're not trying to say nobody, We're not trying to disrespect nobody.

This is what this is about. Yeah, So the only reason I come to do a podcast, so I do my own talk show or whatever the case may be, is transparency. Yes, you know, we got people who look up to us, whether they're R and B, whether they're rappers, and they got to hear these type of stories. They gotta hear these business moves, they gotta hear how fat you'oin fifty are friends now brothers when they was trying to kill each other.

They got here.

I was there, I was going, but not they even dwell on that. But I'm just saying they got to see the growth so they can know, you know, like even Fat Joe, I'm a dreamer, I'm a believer. But if somebody does it. You know, I used to go to puff Daddy's house and just stare at the walls, to the ceilings and the marble and be like, yo, we could get ship like this, you know, or someone I hear a deal. You know, fifty cent just closed this TV show man. We could do that. And so I've always looked at everything like I got to see it to believe it, and from a lens of not jealousy, but inspiration. And so that's what's so important about outlets like this. It's like we got to share that information with the youth. Has somebody broke down to me when I was a young kid wilding in the industry and all like, yo, bro, this ain't good for business. Somebody, I really rest of the known out of switch right there. I would it would have saved me a bunch of paying bells, paying rents, you know, you know, I was going MTV Awards that that year, not even that all them year awards. I had bet for fifty, so I have to fly in with fifty guys. I had to put fifty guys in fifty old towels. You know, we popped in fifty bottles, hundred bottles. You know that's that's a big purse. You the boss, sit down there. The wars real because the last thing you want is to get caught off point. So you got to be right so that all that ship costs. So it's for the the youth to understand. Don't get involved in that.

You know what I'm saying.

We get we we we pray to God right. First of all, God is everything to meet. God is everything right, and so we pray to God to get us out of these terrible situations. And then once you're there, everybody race to see how they how they asshole? You ever watched them? How many you want a ward? Shows? You watch? And whoever's hot at the time, it's their chance to act like an asshole while they getting their ward. It's like yeah, yah, yeah, I'm like, yo, bro, just be humble, be happy, you know. And with R and B, you got a lot of complicated, Like you met a lot of R and B singers that're like mentally complicated, right, Like.

Well, it's just that like with R and B. You know, for the most part, R and B is a very much solo venture, right, and so it's not like it's not like cruise or where you like, where there's an accountability system in a sense, right, you always have your one guy that's like, hey man, we shouldn't like I have my guy right here. It's like that, ain't it. We need to be on that or we shouldn't do this. There's a crew, there's a sense of brotherhood, sense of family, camaraderie as R and B artists is just.

Used like everybody for themselves.

It is is I equate it to it being we're all in high school. It's the one girl that everybody likes and everybody's their friend. As soon as one guy gets her, he tucks her and says, you better not talk to none of these motherfuckers again.

That's what it is. That's what R and B music is exactly. I got the girl. So whoever is whoever is the top R and B guy? I got the girl?

Well you talk to you talking in the sense of executives.

No, I'm talking in the.

Sense of artists. I'm talking about the artists. You gotta think about it like this. We can go back to the history of R and B music and point out that probably and you know a lot of niggas gonna get mad at me about this. Keith Sweat is one of the last artists to actually put other R and B artists on silk and too many raptors that do that too, Keith Sweat, But it's more, it's more round.

You're not selfish like baby Face wrote all of Bobby Brown's all that ship. You wrote a bunch of shit, yo, Bro. That's very giving, absolutely, because everybody's like, you know, like, oh I got to hit. I'm not giving this to nobody. Give somebody a hit. It's crazy. But so in a sense, Keith Sweat definitely put a bunch of them on.

A bunch of people on You want talk.

About Keith Sweat, you know what I'm saying. Keith Sweat. All right, Let's go back to fat yo, when all the gangsters was getting money. And it's weird because they put them all in jail. They all died. But I grew up at a time where you turn the corner, it looked like it was bombed up, and then you bump into ten benzes and beamers and little kids are playing basketball with big rope chains with plates like you know, the dudes is sitting in the corner dapping dan doubt like I grew up in a fly time where guys was out there stunting crazy like that. That's that's the time I come from, right and so. But even though these guys were selling massive drugs, shooting people every day, every time you went into the most notorious guy's car, when he pressed plate, it was Keith Sweat. It's just nowhere around. There was nowhere around playing laying drives in the ship. No, it's a fat ye. That's why you say. You say, Yo, Joe man, you always get Keith Sweat at your birthday, fucking right, because my guys somemi ever, they know what the is. When he did singing, they're like, yo, he got Keith Sweat up in this motherfucker. Like you know, Keith Sweat man, I don't. I try to tell him all the time. I don't think he knows what he meant to the gangsters in the hallm in the Bronx and around America. You know Keith Sweat, I don't know he was singing love ballance, but that was some they had that.

Base under the ship. It was just it was a different it was a different vibe to his music. It was a different vibe to his music, like he sang. Really, Keith Sweat might have been the first trap so, I mean he might have hit so hard like the music hits so hard, like it was low rider music on the West Coast.

You know what I'm saying today, Man, I ain't want to no soft ship. Man, wan't sing on top of those. You got to give me some hot ship that she gotta be jumping pumping to speaker his baby and and to to parallel that. That's really what Keith Sweat is. Yeah, it's really being played by the cases key Sweat. This is a game.

Absolutely absolutely Keth Sweat man, he's something else.

Man.

One year I did my birthday party. I had to move the whole party around for his day. So we did it on Sunday because he was booked Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday for he was love playboy. I see you on my birthday to night he said, Yo, Man, the twenty six is open. I said the parties on Keith Sweat. We don't hem about last year he was gonna I don't know if people know, but you know it's house caught a fire.

Do you know that?

Yes, that was the day of my birthday. He was supposed to fly in last year and last year. We try to get you like two years tank we got last last year, Babyface came, Stephanie Mills came. You know, Mary Jay come all the time.

She early.

I'm gonna tell you early because I tried.

To No, no, no, we're gonna stop this trying to get call.

You have to tell me okay, okay earlier Joe when we're doing that that Joe party. I got a new thing. You know they say, don't talk to dudes wives. I think that's the only way to get it done now was talking to dudes wives.

I swear to.

No, No, that's how I get shit done.

To come, no, I need it.

I needed baby Face to pet me something. I have to hit this girl up, like yo, yay, Joe, we love.

It y.

You know what I'm saying. That's what's doing this ship lately, pushing the shutout. That's who I gotta find your wife would be like, Yo, check this out. I need him there.

She messed up when she's gonna calls at you right now so I can talk to him.

People know, you know, I'm more of an R and B guy, absolutely hip hop Richie, Like, Yo, why you wan't to always want to play that on b ship man all that.

It's a little too intimate for you.

You're playing blue Magic and deal Phonics.

I play that, Yeah, that's I play. I got the super old school mix for on the plane. I'm scared to fly, so I listen to all that delphonic stylistics, the blue notes, everything, Man, I listen to all that calms me down.

I gotta ask a question, yes, Switch or the barge?

The Barge's incredible? Yeah, oh Bobby, Yeah, because they're big man. You know Bobby's Bobby. But you know Switch. Most people you could have tried to jam me up right now because most people don't even know Switch unless you really know arm that barge is.

That's like saying that's the Little Brother and Little Sisters.

Yeah, that's like saying, you know Michael Jackson, LaToya or some ship like that, even though don't get it fucked up. Switch was the ship. Switch is the ship but the barge that's superstardom.

Yeah, that's fair. That's it. Let's let's talk music. What do you think if if we're giving a secret, if we're giving a blueprint in terms of sting, relevant sting, active sting on the charts, being able to do high level collaborate rations. You started that a long time ago.

Well, you know what happened to me was after Pun died Rest in peace, Big Pun. I went to All Star Weekend in d C. And it was even Philly of DC. I want to say DC. That's crazy because I remember so I think it was DC, and I was walking into the game and R Kelly was standing up on the wall and I've seen him, and so at this time R Kelly had only collaborated with like Biggie or not even jay Z. Yet it was Biggie and nas right, and so he was number one in the universe. And so when he sees me, say, your fat Joe was up and like you said, every man for himself, Like that's the only reason why Ward chosen All that is dope because you go to parties and you get to see people in this love. But we never see these people unless we see him at a concert or something. She was like, Yo, man, I'm a fat yo fan bro. I'm like Kelly, like serious, this guy was God at the top and he was like, Yo, man, yo, rest in peace. Big pun I grew up with the Puerto Ricans, which shoe in Chicago. He was like, Yo, man, I want to do a song with you. Now at this point, I'm still really street like, really really street like, like I didn't know no better, right, so I to grab all Kelly by the chart said Yo, I'm not the guy you say you want to do it somewhere and then you can just zero nah for.

Yo yo no, no, Thank god, I said it myself because I said, Yo, listen, yo, take I'm that ghetto that's still street now that Joe be like, oh wow, that'd be a you know, an honor what you know.

Then I was like, yo, my man, no, be like, I ain't the one. I ain't the guy you want to talk to like that. She's like, nah, I'm gonna be in Orlando, come down there. We do a song this this that Magically DJ bron G hits me up. I never even knew he made beats he was like, yo, Joe, man, I want I made a beat for you. So I knew all these producers that made hits, but every time I asked him for beats, say track Masters or whatever, they had all the hits, but they would send me they hard ship. So like, if I would go to Tank, it writs hits, and I'd be like, yo, Tank, I want to joint. I was so street. Tank would think of his one hardcourt joined be like, yo Joe, I got one for you. No, I want to fucking hit. I want the barge, not Switch. You understand what I'm saying. So I'm just saying I'm trying to tell you I want no yo switch. I love you. You know I held the barge, one of my favorite ever. But you know I held the barges. That's my guy. But listen, so he go like this, So Bron, we go by him. It gives us the beat. We play the ship. We start running around the fucking truck because it's the beat. Till we dug it, We're like, oh, somebody gave us a hit something at least it sounded like a hit, like because everybody else was just giving us shoot him up. They ain't that shit to marb deeper rap to or mop or you know. So I'm like, because that's what I was coming out the gate. So we dancing. So I do my verses. We drive down to Orlando. Right ll Kelly's laying on the couch. I walk up in there. Funny shit is the track masters was there too. They was doing his music and so when I walked in, I'm like, Yo, what's up, cows? Yo's up?

Yo this.

He was just sitting on the couch and he said, he said, Yo, you got the song. I said, yeah, I got the song. And it's funny because he tried to talk. He talked to you like real light and shit like yo's cows. You know what I'm saying that, you know, I actually I never heard him talk with bass. He always talked like smooth and shit. Right. So I'll give him the CD and he plays it and immediately he rolls off the couch and he grabs this recorder like a like a caller and goes, ooh he does like the inch. I don't know what he doing, but he thinking of the hook. But he's singing the ship right. He was like, Yo, this ship is ha Yo, you the fire whatever it was then he started mumbling some shit in the hook. Then he turned the ship off and he was like, and the track masters looking at me like, yo, Joe, I ain't know you can rhyme like that. I ain't know you can make hits like that. I was like, y'all, I've been telling you to give me the ship. Ba y'all, y'all keep thinking I'm fat Joe against it, right, So funny shit is he does that. So I'm thinking, you know, all, Kelly's gonna sing the hook, We're gonna do it. And he goes, yeah, yeah, you know him, I got a two fake. I'm like, huh. He's like it was like two in the morning. He was like, y'all, I got a two fake. You know what I'm saying. So you gotta, you know, go chill, We'll figure it out.

This this that.

I'm like, I drove twenty hours at the time.

I was kidding you.

I drove down there too, So I'm like, yo, caws. He was like a two fake, this this that, so out of nowhere, he disappears and walks out the room to a door through a door. So it's like ten minutes twenty thirty forty minutes. Like, I'm telling you I'm really impulsive. I'm like, really really street. At this point, I don't know how to explained, so I said, man, fuck that, man, I go to the door. I opened the door. I opened the door. He dad ass got a dentist giving him novercan on a chair in real life, in the fucking studio, like two in the morning. I felt so yo. Yeah yeah, heck yo, tex. I felt so bad. I'm sitting there like this. I'm like, oh shit, he really got a tooth. Fake. I go because I noticed one record gonna change my life. Yeah, this is a hit. Hit you know you got to hit with al Kelly at that time. It's just.

Right.

So long story short, the man don't call me for like two days, and I'm staying in like a motel and you know, Orlando, I'm writing, I'm working on my album, and then we're about to be I'm like, man, fuck him, man, we're going back up to the boss man. So we in the truck ready and out of no way. The phone ring. He's like, yo, what's Upclscals said, what's up? Kels, You're too good? Everything good. He's liked, hold up and he pressed playing you here, we eat Doug and roll and yeah and so off and then and that's what happened, man, and uh and so that ship.

And that's your first R and B collaboration, my first hit, like my first R and B hit, you know what I'm saying.

I never forget. We used to throw parties out here in Miami. We used to every Memorial Weekend. I used to throw all the parties in all the clubs. And we had a Terror squad Pool party. I never forget. That was the biggest shit out here. So you had cam on every fab, every you know, all the usual suspects, everybody in the building. AI's in there.

Yeah.

And I go to DJ and I say, yo, press player, niggas like yo, brand new Fat Joe Nigga play that ship. When they heard that, all Kelly go we Doug and y'o. I seen. I actually got to see every rapper's face. They all was like.

Because they had never heard a record like that from you either.

Who gives a fuck? He got a smash with all Kelly at that time, they looking around like, oh shit, this motherfucker lit like this was like the ultimate collaboration at the time. You know what I'm saying, and the ship was a hit, and so we followed that up with Wes Love with a shan Tee Earth gott He that was another ill story too. You know, I didn't really know IRV Gotti. I met him like two three days before Pun died and we talked for like hours, and then Pun died and and then you know, that's where I met a Jarul. I was sitting in the funeral crying and then I look up and it was Ja Ru. He was like, Yo, sorry about your brother, and like I said, I let God push me through. At that moment, I said to myself, oh, this is my God, you know, because I don't cry. So when I finally broke down and cried out of nowhere, it was Ja Ru standing over me. I said, oh, God, let me know. This is my God. So I told him thank you, and then out of no way. I was sleeping in the crib with my wife and phone ring when you still had the house phone. Shit, like three in the morning, is Irve Gody, Yojoe, we made a joint for you. Come down. I'm like, who's this? Deserve Gotti? So I go down there, they press plays What's Love what's not.

God to do?

They gave me a smash when the niggas was rocket. I'm saying, that's why I always stayed loyal to them.

You ask a question about that, the aggression that you start the record with.

Put that fucking I was still in this. Please.

The song is called What's Love.

Put the fucking beat on, put the fucking mic on.

It was like.

I was supreme, beaan ghetto.

Still.

I don't know how to explain this shit to you. Fu you. Nobody told me it was gonna be like you know, yo, you You're gonna be doing stadiums after that. It was like white people discover Fat Joe. After What's Love, I couldn't perform for black people or Spanish people for like two years straight. I was doing all them jingle balls, every white Katie Perry, whoever, the white guys. Vegas at that point, fuck Vegas, like it was the whole place was white. It was it was like, who's the white Like if so say it was right now? What's Love was right now. I'd be on tour with Billie Eilish ship like yes, it's just nowhere around so they hear. Because you know, you can't do one song. So when they hit the other five songs, him and fuck you suck my big Bitch, this, that, that, that and then one stuff, they like confused, like, yo, I thought, he's like a fucking commercial god right, So I was doing the hardcore ship theyn't doing it now.

It was crazy, man, now that I know what I know, you know for being this a little different way different, So you hadn't settled into that being a formula. You were just like he had two of them great records that are what they are.

Fun started with the he's still not a player, still not a player. So when I met when I met Pun, I told him I wanted him to be the Spanish Biggie. And you know he's into lyrics, hardcore beats this that he love.

R and B.

Janet Jackson was his favorite. But his favorite record of all time was Fire and Desire. So he be driving through the Bronx Fire and Esi like he was a big R and B had two but he preferred to rap hardcore and so I was like, yo, we gotta do something for the girls. We got it, did and that he did the joint with Joe the singer. You know, thank God for Joe and key Dark Massenberg because you know, Joe had just sold five hundred thousand records his first week. Joe was the biggest he's he was doing trake numbers. Yeah, literally half a million first week Trake ship. And we stepped to him and Keydall was like, you know, yo, Joe, I sent him to the studio. He shows up, he does the song with us. Like, think about the artist you never met before, you never heard of? You just so FI hundred thousand and you to get on it. Yeah, Joe, that ship took off. So shout out to Joe for being the real one.

For Evan Keid, do you also feel like that the legend of fat Joe also played a part in people understanding how serious you were as a person. Yes, and you make a request, It's like, oh, fat Joe.

You want to know what's crazy is the first time I worked with Kanye. Right, we throw the beat up and I pulled out the pending in the pad and he said, he said, what's that. I was like, no, I'm about to write. He was like, you're right. I thought you was the Don Colion. They just come bring the ship to you. I said, no, motherfuck, I'm a rapper MC swear to God. Kanye said he thought I was the John. They just bring the ship to me. I was like, are you fucking crazy? I write my ship. That was the craziest ship. He really dead ass thought it was like.

Somebody right done?

It wraps up here. I was like, na, man, I write. And then we did the joint on Pride and Joy, which very underrated song I did with Kanye. We had that. Everybody on there who was on that jade the bus the most depth this everybody. Even if you all about the money, I don't really care. O Cay. That shit cost me a lot of money. That was about to be my next question.

That sounds like a very He charged me nothing.

He charged me. Nobody charged me. He charged me nothing. Shout out the bank. He charged me nothing. But he said, when we shoot the video, I gotta hire Hype Williams. Oh you know what that is? Then I gotta pay for the wardrobe. He literally had seven what was it, seven eight thousand dollars tank tops from France, tang tops. I'm looking at this sit like a hole in my head.

Man.

I'm like, when I went through the show, say yo, what we spent eighty thousand on clothes and when I was looking at shit was tang tops sweatpants for fifteen thousand. I mean, we understand that shit now, but at the time, I guess I ain't have it like that. That was coming right.

I don't think we were in tune with.

Shi it cost that much, no way, But that was right after another round. Had just had another round with Chris Brown, and that was the gift that kept giving.

And so you got a very aggressive line in that record too, which.

You want to fuck you with the mask on Halloween, pussy. Yeah, that was a matter of bed. He tells me all the time and in the day that don't go. You know how I do that that that line, it was coming at the single day I go on Twitter, somebody like this nigga said fuck you with your mask on holiday Halloween, pussy. But let me tell you that story. I'm in, I'm in I'm in Africa. So for a long time I've been to more places in Africa than most artists have been everywhere Africa. And so it was a time where American artists were either scared to go to Africa or didn't want to go to Africa. So I was doing I've been to Kenya. I've been to Somali. I've been to Zimbabwe. I've been to South Africa. I've been to Luanda. I've been to Rwanda. I've been to Angola. I damn there, lived in ain't Goola, Equatorial Guinea. I've been to Morocco. I've been Yo Bro. I went to Nigeria a million times. I went to a place called Jabooty. I'm doing all of Africa right, So I did everything in Africa. And then one show I had had Timberland Chris Brown seattra. It was finally I seen some Americans. I'm in Africa and Chris Brown sitting there and he talking with me, said, Yo, crack man, let's do a song. It's time. How look at Chris Brown said like that, Chris, I'm kind of kind of fucked up right now too. I needed to hit hit. You know, when you go through one of them sluts where you got a little three four years where you ain't putt one out the park, that's that's. Look when you're used to putting out number ones and you get a slump where you almost can't see the number. I was putting out so many number ones. They was like a joke to me. I was giving away number ones like to other artists. My friends, Yo, take that, it's the number one, yo. Don't worry about this. I thought they just come to everybody like that. When I went in that drout and your ma and Chris Brown said he gonna give me a life preserver, I said, now, Chris, now, Chris, please, I'm an Africa with you. You probably He's like, nah, nah, send the song. I do it. So I went right back to the studio with Cooling Dre shout out Cooling Dre, and they monsters in the game. And and so I said with Dre and that that actually was like three different hooks that we did in another round. So I had one song where they had when on You, and that was on one song. Then we had to we broke that whole hook down three. It was actually three hooks like on records I had. And then we just made it one hook and send the best part to send it to Chris, and he sent the back he shat and so and so when we wrote I want it on you, I want to fuck you, and you know what inspired that little part right there? And I hope I don't get sued was when when Lil Wayne had that record. I used to go to live and he'd be sitting on the couch and saying, I just want to fuck every girl in the world. I just want to fuck every girl in the world. And I'll be looking at him and he'd be like, I just want to and he pointing a round. And so that's how I came up with that part of the hook that won you. And you never know what inspires. So he did it, and that ship just rangle off crazy.

You know.

The only problem with that song, I would say, was that I wasn't on fire like so if I was on fire, so that ship would have been the biggest ship in the universe. But the fact that I had to dig myself out of hole, you know, all the way up was similar to you know all the way up. It was a couple of years before I dropped the Big Boy, so it stalled. You know, people were asking, you think, you know these guys, you know, there's a real bandwagon ship. Anybody got to jump on some ship this and that. Social media wasn't out yet like that, and so and and and all the way up. So a couple of DJs just like yo, should I sound like a lean Back? And then the ship just took off and went flying.

You know, did you skip over?

Lean Back was out of here? Lean Back was monster different type of dang. Shout out to scotts if.

I had no question, are you are you independent?

With no no, no, no, no no no, I'm signing Steve Rifkin. At the time, that was just like.

But it's still under you though, on the squad because and we'll.

Go to everything's under right, And that's what stories I want to talk about. That the stories I'm trying to tell you. It's like, look, I was signing Relativity Records, low low budget record label. Thank god they put me on. That's why I'm so close with Common. Me and him started on the same label, m P the beat Nuts, Chi Ali and so we we had this little label that was independent, but we I didn't own ship. I was just an artist. And then Bee Smalls blows up. So I gave Biggie Smalls his first show ever. So I was rapping and promoting shows at the same time. Like I told you, I was promoting out here. So we was tight tight. So Biggie said, y'all, let's make an album. Together. He was on the time. He had all a beef for Tupac and this and this and that and so, long story short, we recorded a couple of records. Immediately Atlantic Records heard that I was working with Biggie and you know how they do the divide and conquer. They came right over shout out my brother rob Reef Tuloh, thank god you did that. So he came over and said, Yo, you're working with Biggie on the album. I was saying yeah, so boom, he said, nah, we want to give you your own record label. We wanted this, this, that, and so I didn't even deserve my own record label. You know what I'm saying. I didn't even deserve my own record label because I was just on a bum fuck record label and I ain't really sell no records or nothing like that. Because they heard, they said, Yo, anything Puff touching anything, Biggie touching anybody touching like that, getting that the ship about to go get them.

So we want to get a label and millions, and you had a label deal. Off of a tall conversation.

We heard Nigga's talking Yo, Joe and Biggie working on something social social currency at the time. It wasn't social media, it wasn't not like that, but they heard the hype and it was like boom. And I remember I showed Poff Daddy the contract and he read it. He said, oh, play boy, you got to sign that. I ain't ain't. I'm not giving you nothing like that, playboy. Let me tell you some of the greatest South Sus single of all time. His name is Hector Loveo. That movie O Conte Jalo and Mark Anthony. That was his life and he's my favorite souths single of all time. And he got live songs where he's talking so much ship tank and I feel like I'm there. When I'm there, he says, the only singer that sings underwater, the only singer that when he opens his mouth, fire comes out. This this that I know you see a lot of singers in here and then fucking with me tonight like he was. And they were there and and and and so think Marvin Gay Stevie wondered this, but this and that. He was talking that ship with them there, so he's talking that SELLI cruises here, the biggest was there. He was like, ain't can't nobody fuck with me? I am the best and I'm like, wow, what you know? I never seen him live. I'm like, what it would have been to Besy?

Yeah?

Now my favorite song of all time?

Hold on Speed Speed, Yeah. I introduced these kind of things, songs for these kind of things.

Joe, you have songs for the introduction.

Joe, this is crazy, gotta dream, hold on, let me get the dream dream. There we go, Joe, we have a song for this. Who's the song? Tell him what song? Top F.

You're to lie.

F your top fat ob singer?

What else?

R and B songs?

We got a new that's this that Joe? We know how you room? What do we? You aren't know your top.

And yes, rare.

Pow top far.

Jo.

Okay, I'm gonna give you my top five.

Luther Evangels the greatest of all time, just my opinion. You know, some people say Teddy, some people say Stevie, some people say.

People say Donnie. They say that, but I got their faithorite.

We say everybody? So my guy is Luther Evangels the greatest of all time. I used to go to see him and he'd be this small because I was up a deck with a cheap three piece suit on. Like the cheap shit one n eighty dollars three piece suit up with my wife, with my wife, with my wife. The second one would be Babyface, And so anything Babyface is uh, Babyface is like uh, I know every ad, live, every lyric, every everything too. I could be a background singer for Babyface and so so many times baby Face performing people want to throw me out the show because you know, decent people go see Babyface.

And I'm sitting in there.

I'm standing in the front roads. You know, tell me where.

You know?

You tell me who you know. That's when you turn around, love you like you don't. You don't want to go to a Mary Jay's show with your wife there. You don't want to go cause you probably get stabbed in your back about forty times by mad women. Right, But Babyface, you could turn to your wife and go, but where where you go? And tell me who who? Who's gonna live your baby where that I do not tell you where?

No, baby Face is the conversation.

Where you go, Where where you go? And tell me who's gotta you know that's your babyface. There would be a Needa Baker. Now, I listen to Anita Baker every single day of my life. The only problem I got with Anita Baker still when I go to her shows, she don't sing the song. You know, she she kills it so much. She's so tired of singing these songs. So if you come to my song, you're gonna hear me. Go my show, you're gonna hear me say lean back, lean back, ain't hey, Hey, I'm trying to sing along with us, but she's killing it so much that I can't. Lauren Hill do that too. She get like they just like I guess, they want to change the song. Tired of singing the ship. They freak it a whole different way, you know what I'm saying. So, but Anita Baker, she's uh top three. So I got Luther, Babyface and Needa Baker Forth you know where I had to keep sweat. I have yeah, keep sweating. Oh you know step on stage. Girl screamed like I'm chief. He's just amazing to me. Man, I watched this man be a superstar my whole life. Yeah no, yeah, watch this man in real life be a superstar my whole life. When he used to have the show in Madison, squat Gardener, when he come out in the bed, they pushed the bed out and he got the He's still the biggest so Keith sweat Man. He's definitely a role model to me, somebody I look up to. And another way, Uh, and last is Stephanie Mills for sure, and so is you know, because Stephanie brings my moms and my aunts into it, you know. And when they was cleaning the saturdays, you know what I mean, they playing that Stephanie top and I'm just like, you know, losing my mind with Stephanie and every time I hear her music it makes me feel the same way. Yeah, and she's also touring.

Uh. You know. R and B.

I think their fans support more than hip hop fans do because you can have hip hop guys slip through the cracks, but R and B, if you're not getting high, you show up, you can sing good still because some people that is sad. I've went to see some R and B singers that they lost their voice, and so it's crazy because I know they got to pay their bills, but I'd rather listen to the record how I know them, how they really was putting it down. They go to a show and they can't do it right. So that's my top five. Luther Vangels grew up like three blocks from me. Luther Vanels was born in the Lower East Side but came up to the Bronx, but literally three so that's it's safe to say. Luther grew up where hip hop was born.

He lived.

Five foot steps, you know, five blocks from me, so I didn't know tell our sampled the Luther's on to the Sunshine and his family. They cleared it so fast and they was like, Yo, we love you fat Joey from five blocks away. And then when I went to YouTube and started singing, I was like, Yo, fucking Luther from five blocks that's crazy. Luther van Jos everything to me. You know what I'm saying. He's uh, he's my idel man. He's special. I don't think nobody can sing like him. I think he can hear any kind of note in the world. He was just crazy. I remember I used to go to shows. He walked past, and you know, Luther about to get him some shit. So every now and then I go on YouTube and I'd be like, all right, Luther BT Award Luther, American Music Award, Luther Tribute to Dion Warwick, and she on some shit. Like he's sitting there.

You're ready.

The whole crowd is laughing me for you. He started to sing because they already know, all right, Luther about to be on some shit. So that's why guy gave you the songs. I'll tell you a funny story about all right. And of course Michael Jackson Trump's everything. You know, Michael Jackson is Michael Jackson. He's an alien, right, and so to anything Michael Jackson.

Right.

But I mentioned a crazy story is I was in the studio with Rico Love, good friend of mine, brother, and he was working this one. He was writing every hit for Usher. I was there when he was writing all them hits for Usher, like hanging out with them, and Usher was dead. That's funny bout Usher. So so we up there one day, Usher begs me to take them to the club, right, and I'm like, y, usher Man, you know you don't want to go to no club, you know, because us likes I don't want the responsibility of having to hold down these fucking superstars, right, because I become security, you know, I can never let nothing happen to us. Ship now telling me take him to where all the Spanish chicks is that's usually in the hood out here. So he's like, Yo, I want to see this the Spanish chicks, let's go. I'm like, y'all should stay here. He was in a safe studio, fucking Jay Valentine Candles. We walk in the club and he starts dancing and I'm looking at him and the man is floating in one spot. He was doing some ship where he was floating. I'm looking at him. Everybody's looking at him, like, yo, fucking Usher floating in one spot. I don't know what the fuck he was doing. I was like, yo, the Scott he's not on his feet, he's like floating, right, Usher. But I was there for when we go rode all of them. And then I actually had to convince Kelly Rowland to do that song Motivation, and so she wasn't sure about it, and I was like, yo, Kelly, because she had just had a hit that was one of them sat Ship, so she was thinking about and I'm like, yo, bro, you know you Destiny's child. You know that ship is this man. The man just wrote thirty million hits for us, like you catching them. That's another thing you know as a writer now, I know, right, Like so I did four songs with Scott Storch. Each one of them went number one on the Billboard one hundred. Had I known that, I would have did twenty songs at the time. You know, when you're gun hot. Yeah, when you got a pen in your gun hot, you gotta go.

You know what I'm saying.

So I'm like, yo, his gun hot right now? You know she did it, and look that was a big hit for her. You know what I'm saying.

Let's build your super R and B artists, Joe, right now, how do we do that? Show you? I'm goin to show you. This is called voltron, right, So you have to pick an R and B artist, dead or alive that you would get the vocal from, that you would get the performance style from, that you would get the styling from, and that you would get the passion from. So out of all the R and B artists that you know and love, did her alive? To make your super R and B artists, who would you get the vocal from?

Michael Jackson? Nobody got that. Nobody got that tone, any kind of record, any record, nobody.

We've said he had had four voices overtime, He's had four different voices Ala.

Michael Jackson performance, I get Chris Brown. So I got an m J and a Chris Brown absolutely absolutely on the summer.

All right Will Records. So who's the styling of the artists the drip? Who got the fly sh it on?

If I could pick, if it could be a female, it could be a female. And I really think about this, but I think I go Aliyah.

The stylis fly.

You know what I'm saying. That was that little tomboy look showing her little six pack. You know what I'm saying. I think she was a big trendsetter. Yeah, yeah, yeah, So I would go vocally m J performance, Chris Brown styling the Leah.

Passion, passion.

That's a lot of passion, but passion. I'm torn between two. One I really know which is Maxwell.

Right.

Yeah. Every time I see Maxwell, I stop him. I make him sing that ship to he can be drunk at a part. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, every time sing the song man, Yeah yeah, sing the song. Max. We could be in the club popping. I'll be like, yo, you gotta be like yo, Joe, you got so you need passion to hit that note. And somebody I don't really know all her music like that, but just from seeing her perform so many times throughout my whole life, I'll say, you Alounder Adams because when she's singing, she's shinging.

She's not playing.

You know, yeah, she's not playing with these people, you know what I'm saying. And we get throw Patty in there too, Patty LaBelle, but you know those are like, you know what I'm saying, passion. So I got vocally nobody better than MJ with the his tones is like it's unreal. Like every time I listen to Michael. Matter of fact, I'm gonna listen to him now when I leave here and go in the car. Vocally nobody, performance wise, nobody like Chris Brown. I don't watch Chris Brown jump off the balcony and land on one finger the ship like yo, bro, this guy here, I'm not exaggerating. I'm not exaggerating.

I didn't know where he.

Was gonna say, Yo, he flipped off the bunton. He laying on one finger and then opening humbrother and like yo, brother, like the man unreal, like we gotta stop but this but.

This ship is true too. That's what makes me. Man.

It's unreal. Then he'll go playing game of basketball and dropped sixty on it. Yo, He's unreal. Swag I said it, lib yeah, yeah, and passion. I gave you a couple of Jews from Yolanda Adams, Patty Down and uh and Maxwell. It's just Maxwell. He did it.

He did.

You know Nas. You know Nas never had the rhyme outside of Illmatic. He created such a classic, the album Illmatic. If he never rhymed again, he'd be a legend, the icon on the Mount Rushmore forever. Yeah, right, because if you think about it, on Dred three thousand ain't really rapping, like fifteen years, we still got him on Mount Rushmore. So your man Nis were ill matter. He was done. He did some ship that goes into in the Museum of Natural History, right, and so Max man with that. I ain't never had the saying of a song swimming through the concrete and ship. You remember the video. You remember the video You're swimming through the you know what I'm saying. So you know, I'm good with what my choices.

Were all before we let you, before we let you out of here, brother Joe. Yeah, we got a very very very special part of this show. We keep themed songs. Ready here, Okay, that's my that's my job. This one is. I ain't saying no names. I ain't saying no names. Ain't saying no names. I ain't saying no name.

Where you were, what you did? You don't say she.

I ain't saying nobody.

And that's all we want to We don't want nobody to say no names.

So this is no man, very very very special segment.

Thank you so much. Man, it was an honor to be You got you got to. You're not done yet. Oh I'm not done.

You're not done. You got one more thing. Okay, it's the part of the show is called I ain't saying no names. Will you tell us a story? Funny or fucked up? Are funny and fucked up? The only rule to the game is you can't say no names.

Okay, what comes to mind?

Man?

I got too many stories. Oh it was an artist right that, Uh, an R and B artist who was very sexual, very uh you know, write songs for the ladies and this and that and.

Uh.

He would have women butt naked like if it was like like art, like you know how you statue like a statue like art. And he would write his hit records looking at butt naked women. That was like his art, you know how he got this and then and then another red Bone to come and another one and they was they was older. I don't want nobody thinking, no crazy shit. But I ain't saying no names. But let me tell you something that that I never forget. I never forgot that session. But I was just like they was just coming poles about an hour coming poles, but naked on the stool thing. My walk out the room, another one come in and the dude just be writing here records about girls. I ain't saying no names. Wow.

I like that.

That's a legendary. I never gave nobody that one.

That's a legend to that. Wow.

Yeah yeah yeah.

You never know what people's inspiration is that. Okay, this is is a question. Is that is that? Is that cheating? I'm just writing a song. It's not it's not cheating, right.

No, it's not cheating. No, no, no, it's not cheating.

It's not cheating.

Okay, with that, I didn't see the girls flirting. They weren't even looking at us. They were there minding their business like they posing like I don't get yeah, yeah, yeah, but I ain't saying no names.

Wow, wow, other fat Joe. We are. I mean, family goes without saying, but we are.

We are.

I think we are all inspired and and we are all better because of what you've done and how you do it, man, And we appreciate we appreciate you a thousand times over. I appreciate you giving me the call. As I said, you've always been inclusively, You've always wrapped your hands and arms around everyone. And you give me a call and say, hey, man, you want you want to be part of this. Yeah, it wasn't a do you want to be part of this? It was you want to be part of.

You get money right? Think of Tyson back for right, one of the most handsome men in the world. You've been a runway model forever. We found a way for people who love him to support and he get paid now office his looks so every night somebody, every day he ain't somebody buying the box. You know, we finally found the right system for Tyson Beckford to get his just due, get his flowers right. And so you know, it's the beginning of a lot of stuff we're gonna do. You know, shout out to jay Z. He going for the casino up in New York Times Square, and so I wanted to get it because then fifteen thousand people that look like us to get jobs and Times Square and so I just every time I hear amazing things from people you know, I look up to or who I love or what they're doing, you know, and inspires me.

Well, you inspire his brother in that absolutely, that is the blueprint, man. How can we continue to push it forward or pay it forward? You know what I mean? That's it. I'm Tank, this podcast authority on all things R and B and this has been all things fat yup, Yeah, R and B Money.

R and B Money is a production of the Black Effect podcast Network. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Don't forget to subscribe to and rate our show, and you can connect with us on social media at j Valentine and at the Real Tank. For the extended episode, subscribe to YouTube dot com or slash R and B Money

In 1 playlist(s)

  1. R&B Money

    150 clip(s)

R&B Money

R&B Money Podcast is hosted by the Legendary Grammy Award winning R&B singer/songwriter/producer TAN 
Social links
Follow podcast
Recent clips
Browse 150 clip(s)