The Breakfast ClubINTERVIEW: Fat Joe Discusses 'Lean Back' Legacy, Jumping Into Politics, Hair Dying Brand + More
Wake that ass up in the morning. Breakfast Club Morning.
Everybody' is theve j en Vy, Jesse Larry's Charlamage, the guy. We are the Breakfast Club. We got a special guest in.
The building, the Icon Living Joey Crack Fat Joe.
Why fight the time when you can rewind the time? Why fight the time when you can rewind the time?
Joe walk into Joseph Envy. I gotta check for you.
Okay, right here, it's all to find the guy. This is the best it. We made this amonia free. This won't break you out. You know how you got some people with the grays they like they like the gray. It's because the other brands will break them out. Some guys go to the hospital. This don't break you out. We made this ammonia free for the black and brown.
You know, do just for men? No, no, it's over for them. You turn me into a drill hair, you know the drill Kelsey ain't even that. Oh he got going gray already. You want to get them sharp lines.
Okay, you go to Dominican barber shop up in Washington Heights.
You might have a spot that just don't get connect. They make your ship look like Jalen Rose super like you could you could cut your finger off.
Absolutely, I'm trying to get him on the box, he said, Yo, Joe, I'm not ready for that yet. This that you know, it's it's it's been a stigma, you know what I'm saying. And you know I used to go in there and sneak in at three in the morning CBS Walgreens. If he's almost like buying a co tax a Tampa on your wife sends you to get one, and you scared the depth to go to. But now we got Travis Kelce, we got text said back for the biggest seller.
I will say this is the realist.
It's looked like you're being It actually looks.
Not like that job timeron got me right.
There's that one time with you, Joe, that one time which one it was one time it got a difference.
It wasn't.
Everyone for conspiracy for it. Like I just think my ship be so shocked that they think it's fake, you know what I'm saying. But it just be like maybe I'm loosen it. You're not thinking you want.
To lose weight.
I think it always looked good, but one time I came up here and it looked like the chalk.
He didn't come up here. I got it looking right, got me looking right.
I noticed that the ladies take care of themselves there. Every day is something that you would.
Go to CV. She said.
Lashes is this is the every day they got a new because ding in my house. You know, my daughter and my wife, they at the lashes, they at the nails. They after this. After death, there's a new treatment. It's court Morpheus there. You know, bro, let me take care myself.
You would go get it yourself. Yes, all the time. The biggest thing I like about it, but it was.
It was embarrassing, you know, I would throw it in. I walk into drugstore and I see all that. I'm like Joe getting some money. It's a long term equity player.
Yeah oh yeah, yeah yeah. And that goal that's gonna go. No, that's the bag man. I ain't gonna lie.
Shout out to Sally's Beauty Amazon Dot like I mean, people like yo, you Patrick.
I don't know this ship frying somebody's body, somebody's coughing.
You're also making more men feel more comfortable being able to do something like this without getting jokes and stuff like Charlamagne just told me that he don't grow his out because it's gray and all of that, all the sud.
You could get it there, boy, you won't break out nothing. You get that line. You look like Denzel Man. I look fifty three when you could be four, when you could be thirty.
Yeah, I mean this thing really, y'all rewinds the time? Man, like it. What's going on?
You canna rewind in the time. Twenty years of lean back? Oh, wow, my god, billion.
Dollars on one stage at the Apollo in one night.
Wow, A billion dollars will be present. Wow. We can't keep them away.
You just keep calling talking about there's no way we're gonna celebrate a lean back Fat Joe and remy Man without coming. So the list of people right now we only said dip said locks and us is really getting disgusting out there, the lineup, and we just gonna have the best time. I don't know if it's legal to smoke weeds out there, but smoke your shit, have your drink coming, positivity, have a great time because this is gonna be one. I'm making the top five New York City moment. So like when when Muhammad al Lei fought for the championship in Madison. Crit I'm doing that type of shit that when they make a movie about this time thirty years from now, they're gonna say the Night in Harlem. In fact, Joe's leaned back and the whole planet Earth came.
It was too much in there.
So I'm telling you, if you got a ticket, congrats, If you got a ticket, sell it for more now.
Like it's like it's too much out of control.
What's gonna happen in the apollom And you know, I started Amateur Night a one, four weeks in a row in Amateur Night, so when I come back, it's always just home for me, you know. So we did it three sixty were doing apollow eightproo second. It's crazy. It's like I'm telling you, it's gonna be crazy.
What did lean back do for Fat Joe's career in his life? Well, God did a lot for me, you know what I'm saying. And so, uh, you know, I went rich.
I thought I could save the whole neighborhood, thirty guys and Cadillac trucks and paying everybody's bills and buying lobsters every night for thirty guys.
That I went broke. I remember after What's Love, I was on my knees, on my knees because that's what you gotta do it. You gotta like really feel the pain when really.
Playing for a miracle was like God, one more chance, please, one more chance, one more chance.
He gave me that one more chance. That thing went number one in the world.
We was just I remember the joint came out and like, I don't know if we could talk too much, but it was like three days after the song came out and Little John asked me to come out of the show with him and perform, and sixty two thousand people were doing this three days after.
It was all like this now.
I remember I looked to the back and Kanye West was hiding behind the wall.
He was like, oh, we got one, you know. And so for me, I don't get high.
I don't really do nothing, nothing wrong, smoke your weed, do whatever you want to do. But for me, my adrenaline, my get high is putting our hit records, hearing it in every car you know, lean back.
What it did do was they was playing this in.
The club like I walked into I mean literally thirty forty times in the world, like.
You'll be dizzy in there, you like in there like, damn, is this shit gonna stop?
You know what I'm saying, And they just it's an incredible moment for hip hop music and of course for me and rap.
But you never had but one thing I'll say about Joe. You never had a problem making a hit though, So that was never a problem. Some artists they gotta find a hit, they gotta they gotta create a hit. You've never had that problem.
Well that's the problem. That is the problem. What you just said is just because a hit record is really a miracle, a real hit record, not a fad or something, but one that's gonna stay forever.
Back that ass up, just back. It's getting hot in here. Coach shorty.
Yeah, like those joints, right, they forever, you understand.
So you got a couple of yeah, I do, but it's a they're cool to get that. You understand what I'm saying.
So when you get it, you realize, oh my god, thank you God. When everybody turned around and be like, so, I'll tell you what happened. Now, I got robbed for my publishing. When I first came, you said, for your published Gus, Yeah, every artist did well. I had signed to this dude, Jelly being. He hit me with the wee Latino and stole my publishing being pun and it took me like fifteen years to get my ship back right. So, once I got my thing back, I heard all these artists ludicrous, this one, that one getting two three million dollar deals, this this. So I went around and they were like, you know, they were offering me like two hundred and fifty thousand and three. I was like, yo, what happened to the million dollar deals? And I remember my lawyer at the time.
He walked me to the truck. He was like, yo, Joe, you're not really hot right now, Jesus, I said, oh lord, that's all I need. I'm a leo, I'm a lion.
So I went down to Miami, got in with skyt stores, came back with that lean back.
Then I went right back to the same people.
They want you to move closer to the mic.
A month later, I went back to the same people and they gave me the check. They gave me the biggest check. They wouldn't even let me leave the room. Many of it came on and I was like, my people, don't that and I'm like, lean back. They was like, oh no, don't leave. We gotta we gotta get this done. And that's real negotiators. Like real negotiators want to get it done or they won't let you leave.
How did the idea of lean back?
What people do that?
Because it's such a monumental record reson of.
Air, I came up to beat with Scott starts the boom boom boom. I said, Scott, I want because Scott to play anything, So I said, Scott, I want you to play music.
Imagine when.
Nas Dmax and Belly were going in to rob the tunnel with their eyes was like that.
I said, I want to play something.
That make you feel like they're walking in, like they're about to rob the joint.
And we came up.
He was like well, I was like, like he played it right, And so through the whole beat, the beat was more like Moroccan inspired to me, he made it, but I was giving him the ideas right, But the actual hook was based on Missy Elliott right, because because Missy was like, is that your bit? Don't damn? But is that your bit?
No? No no?
And I realized that what I loved about Missy records was repetition.
Her hooks would just repeat itself.
That's when I learned how to like, I make it rain, I make it rain, I made it. You know, a hit record repeats itself. So then that's where it inspired that. And then the Jamaicans was killing everything, so that a rockaway sniggle, little playing, and so I was like, yo, we gotta do something like that. You're nakan, so we don't dance. We just pull up our pants and so.
Lean back and lean back, lean back. So that was the whole and then the rhymes actually.
We're going to keep it a hundred were originally on a k Slay tape because they're so yeah they was they was on a k Slay tape. And because you know, he would keep coming to get me every and he kept my pen whim so he would come every two three weeks and be like, y'all kick a freestyle. And then one day I just went crazy on the state and I was like, all right, when I get the right beat, I'm gonna throw these rhymes on it.
You know, So that that the rest was his that was out. The gate was always on it. You know. What she did, she did the same.
Thing to mop I didn't know how does Remy Mark thug out mop at fat Joe?
Right? So I had three verses.
I wish I remember that verse because it had to be crazy right, because it was. It was the lean back you know when you in the zone, when you in that type of zone where you like talking all that.
You know. Man, I wish I had that verse.
So I went go get McDonald's, me and callip Win, go get McDonald's and we come back. Everybody nervous in the studio and I'm like, Yo, what's up? And they like, I'm like, what's up? And it was like yo, she erased your second verse and kicked the verse. I was like yo, raandma, are you.
Are you crazy? Like? What this my? That was my solo on the Terror Squad album. And when she played oh to the Easy and.
Stayed brazy, it was like that thing they say, that thing you didn't know you need.
Oh, we never knew we needed it.
And so I'm proud you know that me and my sister did that and put it out the park together. I just feel like, you know, me and her, we just got a super winning formula.
I don't want to say it like that.
But it's true though, Like when Dre and Snoop come with a joint, you just like, no, it's dumb. When Ram and Joe come, if they come with it, it's.
Out of here.
And so that's the same thing I did with her way all the way up. You know, she came out of jail. She was struggling. I was struggling, and I sat down said, listen, man let me. I said we could just like like if we could just put the red, wouldn't needle Like if we do do what we gotta do. It's sady here because these people only know us from winning together. She's like, ill bro put it together. And so when we did all.
The way up, it felt like lean back.
It felt like all day back, Like but you don't know what I'm going through in life.
We struggling, we pop, we try to come back.
I'm performing in Yugoslavia or China, Philip in you know, I'm trying to run up the bag.
And and so you know that, you know, all the way up, it's.
Almost like leaning back too. It's like a continuation to it. To be honest with you.
It's collaborating with me, feel like collaborating with pun.
It's the same thing. It's so weird. She's the only person tourning Sunshine too. That makes me feel like Punt is in the building when I'm in the studio with Ram. I mean, you know we you know, Terror Squad, DNA really different, Like it's really different. Were the most loyal when you lock in and it's like we got each other's back for life. So it's like when we get in that studio, we tell the stupid jokes, but you can hear puns.
Jokes in the jokes.
You know what I'm saying, and we bothering each other. We're doing whatever we're doing, but the man always in the building. You know, as weird as it sounds to anybody, you know, any moment I ever had in my life, it was like big. I swear to God, I'm not lying if I had a big moment and I'm going to call him in thee. I turn on the radio, still not a players playing, or I signed a deal and I look, somebody got a picture of Pun in the corner.
So he always reminds me like, yo, bro, I'm your angel.
You know you ain't doing this by yourself, joke, You ain't doing it by yourself.
So yeah, we feel like that.
Is lean Back a one b R number two. What do you mean in your catalog? Like what's your best song ever? If I say, I'm not gonna say best, I say biggest, biggest, I think would be What's Love?
The best song? Best, the best? The best is leaned back.
Leaning back is because you know why, it's like shook ones right, it was made, like you said, for the gutter, for the streets, for the this, for the that, and then we had Britney Spears and them singing that joint and Pink and them. I was performing at one time when I did What's Love? I see no black of Spanish people for like a year, and now I was.
Like, yo, what this record for black and Spanish people?
Because you be careful of you blowing up, you on you with jelly roll, you you ain't even seeing black and Spanish people. It's like, you know, cause they're giving you the bag. You're doing every big colosseum everywhere. You don't even know who's going on, Toby Keith next to you. And what's crazy is when I did What's Love? Uh, everything prior to that was just gangst the music. So if you hire Fat Joe for twenty minutes, and I don't care you the whitest guy in America.
He's cursing for fifteen minutes. He's going bad like. I didn't know nothing else.
I'm just all I did do was perform gainst the music and What's Love Like. They'd be like, oh my god, this is the What's Love guy like? You know, I mean, that's just the reality of it.
Now.
I say, you jumped into politics a little bit, a.
Little bit man in New York one day. No, no, no shuff happening after you.
You're getting into that game a little bit.
I don't know if it's not a game, not a game, not a get.
Price is price transparency? So me and power to the patiers.
When going to.
Uh Washington, I went one time. So what's going on is one hundred million Americans in debt because of hospital bills. The hospital this right here you could go is nine ninety nine, twelve ninety nine. You know the price. You know what the water is five ninety nine, six ninety nine.
You go to the hospital, you don't know what they charging you.
A kid goes into and the thing for EpiPen they charged him sixteen thousand, five hundred. He goes online and Google's ad an EpiPen is only two hundred dollars, right, And so you could go to the same This ain't black of Spanish either. You going to hospital right now, in hospitals all over America, every single hospital. Okay, they're charging you two thousand dollars from m I ride, they're charging him twenty six thousand. They charging out sixty four same hospital, same doctors, same tests. I don't think that's right. I don't think that's fair. And so the American people are dying because of this, because what happens when you ain't got no family, no money, the family feuds, We break up the household. And this is the only thing is bipartisan. So it's a Republican Democrats, black as white, as Muslim, as Jewish, everything across the board.
Right, So this issue is dear to me.
I went there three years ago, and I remember a journalist girl said, yo, fat Joe, what are you doing here? I said, well, I came for pressure. She was like, good lord, this is Washington. Nothing gets done here. I'm like, yo, I'm like, you.
Know, we hip hop. We created all this for nothing.
Trillion dollar business and you live in a castle off of hip hop.
Get that.
So who's gonna tell you you can't get a law passed or whatever the case? Min I go back the next year thirty five, the first year only one politician met with me is a Republican from Kentucky's name was Guthrie. Said, I know what you're talking about. You know, I got family that are right cool? Thirty five I went last year it was eighty five politicians. They passed the law in Congress. That's cool, but it says estimates, estimates are bullshit. Estimates ain't the real price. We want the price. So there's a new law coming from Bernie Sanders and Senator Bronn that says the price like you got to be held accountable for the pricing. And so that's my true passion. Now, commalass she different. You know, she got a sweet.
Spot for fat Joe.
You know what I'm saying. It's the vital Yeah, man, she got a sweet Let me explain something to you. We keep it real right. If you go on the streets, they said, yo, she was the police. Any gangster if you look at King of New York or any of them walking with their lawyer. Do you know your criminal defense attorney was a prosecutor. Every single one of them, maybe one percent weren't prosecutors. It's what you gotta go through. You had to go through walling out and all that to get here. Every single lawyer that's a good lawyer learned the experience from being a prosecutor.
So you're gonna hold her accountable because she was a prosecutor. You know.
So you gotta know every guy with you just a free free Johnny boy, free the guy you hugging. He put a bunch of people in jail. So we can't just hold her accountable for that. And and so you was with her for the marijuana reform of it. Yeah, but I was just with her because she she I really was there for price transparency.
I'm gonna just keep it. No, no, no, no, I was there. She asked me to come moderate the room. It was about pardons.
Yeah, because it was eleven people there who got pardoned got lost because of you, tho.
Joe think So I'm telling them now at the number one show in America that people were in there. I went there because they were talking about second chances. I, my friends, is a walking second chance story, third chance, fourth chance sort.
Okay, that Joe.
Wasn't this bubbly nice guy, giving to the community.
Loving everybody, come here. I love you, brother.
I wasn't that right, So I know that you could change, right, And so when I sit down next to the Vice President, and when I get there, I don't know about you got let me tell you something.
People just you know we flow so much and all that we.
Tell a big story. But the truth is, I don't think they know how poor I was growing up, the welfare, the free cheese, the projects to this. So when I walk in that White House with her. As I walk in the door, I start hearing we shall.
Over come, We shall.
We used to sing this thing every day and schools in the hood. Now I'm at the President's in the White House. Of course I'm gonna pull up and make sure it's positive.
Because it was really all about partners. You had one guy who couldn't coach his kids team because he had a criminal pass. He got a party. Now he could coach his team. You got people who had criminal records.
So the way they get the kids out the game is they'll catch you for drinking beer, smoking the blunt in your lobby and you can never get a real good city job if that's what you want to do. Even though I believe in entrepreneurship, I'm into owning your own shit. I see more power in the lady selling oranges on the highway than somebody who think they got a job. You know why they're gonna get fired. And then I don't even like how people talk to me when you know I got I got some jobs. Just consider jobs that I don't own it, and they talk to me funny.
They all rich. You know we paid them.
You know when they start talking like that, you'd be like, damn, I'm Joe cried. I don't have to do it because yeah, but it's like it's that thing right when you feel like y'all like, damn, I got somebody telling me like.
Pay you, Joe. So I don't believe in job security.
I believe in being an entrepreneur to create financial freedom.
That's that's that's my thing.
He was on IG Live and he was saying, like, oh, what all the stuff going on in Haiti? You feel like nobody's helping them over there because they're the first free black nation.
Yeah, I mean, what do you think I mean, I mean like they're the first freed black people.
They rebelled and they took over the country, and I feel like they cursed them and they said, you know what, we ain't never helping them.
Guys.
They're the logo. They're the Jerry West of the NBA. They're the logo of free black people. And so you think it's it's a miracle that they won our ain't flight away from here and they living under these conditions or something like that. Now that's conspiracy Joe. May not be true, you know, every now and then I guess conspiracy Joe. But what I'm saying is once again right.
This is where I differ with doctor.
Umar And listen, I agree with him on ninety five percent of the stuff he said.
I really mess with this guy.
But when he says hip hop don't do nothing, a fat Joe not Haitian. But I get up on my ig line said, listen, guys, we gotta do something.
Nobody else wants to do nothing. Let's go.
And you know what hip hop says immediately when I said that, they know they gotta go in their pocket. But Fat Joe says, hey, we collecting this Haiti time. The problem is with Haiti is that it's very corrupt system and unfortunately for years people they get in power so they can steal. And so right now after I, you know, be careful what you say. You might step and shit. So now I gotta go fat Joke gott to do his thing for Haiti. But we're trying to vet and find out who's the legit people that's going to give the people food and stuff. And got to understand it's at war. You can't just walk in there.
You know.
When I sent the food to a million pounds sup Porto Rico, we went there and we saw them give it out like all right, job done.
I don't know.
I don't know if I want to see barbecue out there when I go over there to bring the food over there. I don't want to see them guys out there they clapping, you know what I'm saying. But for your you know, rich flayers Haitian. You know some of my best friends, My best friend is Haitian. It's family's Haitian. I'm around Haitians all day. So I can't be looking at this devastation and all I'm talking about is no politics. I'm talking about poverty. Helping people human like they starving, you.
Know what I'm saying.
So you know, just like you heard that, the hip hop community heard to the higher ups heard it. Everybody heard, and they're like, all this fact. He come in with the envelope. You know what, I like the dude charity. They're safe. Then you know it's going straight to you. You know when we gave two million dollars to the Muslims, seventeen of them died in the Bronx last year. You know, we gave it to the Mayor's from we vettit that to make sure no one makes money off this charity. All the money go back to the community.
So that's where.
We're at right now. And it's hard day at war. They did you know my man rich players moms gives UH to this one church and she says, I be there. They really do it. But you know we're trying to get in touch with them. We're trying to get in touch with the right people before I start mine.
And also, I said, Zoey Dollars, who's a.
Haitian, got to be upfront with me too, because you know it's you know, it's you know, you know, the world asks a lot about us. Truthfully, we're older, but we're still that young person we always was since we was a kid. Just insecurities, whatever the case may be. It's a tall task, but you know it's his time. I'm gonna help them. I'm gonna get the money. I'm gonna get everybody donate. We're gonna donate it. I'm gonna donate. But he got Joey Dollar got to be the face of it because he hates shit. He gotta he got, he got to stand.
Upright and just you got huh uh cleft my man out. We go on with that.
You know, I don't know what his situation is with Hey, I'm going Zoey dollars. You know what I'm saying, because I see him out there, and I see he got a lot of respect from the streets. It's just all we want to do is feed people.
That's it. That's all I want to do is feed people. Let people yo eat.
You know what I'm saying, Send them, send them food, send them medicine, send him this.
That's it. That's all I care about.
You can't run from your destiny. Joe Fat Joe is gonna be the man New York one day.
You got it.
I'm telling you, it's just it's inevitable for you.
You don't see it. Please, I love money. These people don't get paid. Mh.
I love politics as a as an innocent bystander, you know. But once you start digging up the bones and going in the closet, I don't want that type of problem.
But you you're transparent with everything we know. Yeah, you are on records and I like violence.
Okay, forget how about my daughter just bought a dog. We have a new member of the family. It's Bear Cardagina. He's a problem. He's from the Bronx. Okay, don't know, man, your life.
He's from the Bronx. Let me tell you this guy to keep biting me. Bit my titty man. Guy, crazy man. He's a little fluffy uh.
Nah, fluffy one of them things. What ax rich what he is? He's a fluffy uh a little dog man. But this guy is a terror. He take my jaws running around the house with the ship like yo, bro, I got.
Send him a corrective school.
Do you understand what I'm but that fact Joe was probably would have kicked him out of the house a long time ago.
But I'm still trying to deal with it, you know.
But about politics, I really I'm not a politician.
Brother.
Yeah, he's a frenchie, a fluffy. He's a bad from the Bronx. He's like pistol peach.
He got a knife. He came with a knife with him. How much you paid for your fluffy French? Them things, I don't know they had on. I went and got them all. Shout out to the breeder. That's some fun names.
She's from Orlando, man, we get we get all our dogs from her.
She ain't no joke. She in Orlando. She's the best.
So she went and got that for my daughter, and and YO ask him for the name.
That's why I didn't get a fluffy one.
It was like, got the regular one.
No, it's expensive. Yeah, but that's not the problem. Yeah, I want a nice dog. Yeah, okay, that's my problem. I had the dog recently died in my arms year ago. His name was bismarcky but he was a well what Bismarck was?
Moti? What's the girl's name from Orlando style bullies? She's the truth.
I recommend her all the way, but uh, biz Markey died in my arms right here, in Jersey.
He just he just he fell out of rushing to the hospital. I couldn't.
He was such a nice dog and he come on. I come home stressed out and I rub his belly and I get it.
You know, the man was dead for me. This guy want to bite me and all that. We gotta work on this guy.
Yes, he's from the Bronx. There's no other way the way tell you.
I want to ask you about Leaning Back again, because you know, Leaning Back such a classic record. You remember the ad libs, right, and I remember you shouting out Raoul and.
I did and went there.
He was my best friend and the most trusted uh friend in the world. And it was a time where every body went against me, even my own crew and hard being the leader of some serious guys. Right, And I remember one time it almost went crazy and the man came and.
Stood on my feet.
He went in front of me and went on my feet like he wasn't touching it. His feet was on my feet. He said, a anybody move with this guy here. It's howful everybody. He was looking at dangerous guys, but he stopped on my feet.
You get what I'm saying.
Like he said this is the priority. You know, we're going And so you know, that was the type of guy he was. He's my best friend since high school. And uh, that was that was that was crazy.
I wonder.
I mean, you know, it's still crazy. You know, I'm gonna get buried by Raoul, you know what I'm saying. In Miami, I buried them and we did a beautiful funeral, and uh, and I realize going to see him, I said, man, this way, I'm going this way, They're gonna bury me right next to my man.
His last post speaks volumes because he was bigging you up. He said, if you ran the world, everybody would.
Eat, everybody would he that's what we're about. You know. Uh. I got a mentor. His name is Jay al right, and he passed away too. He was a billionaire. He taught me.
He taught me everything I know about business, right, and.
And his whole concept was we all got to eat.
If you eat, I eat. If you're successful, I eat. And so one thing that I know, we're getting better at it. But within the black and brown community, it was always like I'm.
The king of the tower and you're under me. And that's not strength. Strength is if you know, we know him. He got all the money. But if he ever needed something, he could call Joe. I got him.
You know, if I ever needed you for something, that needed you something that's strength. Strength is everybody eating in their own way.
We ain't get We really don't need nothing. We don't need nothing. Everybody doing just fine.
But if we did, you know, that's the real strength.
Like everybody Rich.
Cutches, that was one of the coach had too many great lines, but that was one of the greatest lines ever in hip hop history because it's the truth. People always thought, you think you, something happened to you. Everybody else has broke everybody else to do.
What do you? What are we doing? You know? Shout out Rich player to ask him for the present.
He just started the Cannabis Joint on the eighteenth grand opening.
His paint pop past paint puff y'all. I'm the only one don't know the name, but.
From Melbourne's Hall them stand up, Hall them, Hall them right by Melbourne Cannabis World, paint.
The paint puffing and peace people you know.
But my brother, Yeah, but it brings me joy to see my brother winning. It brings me joy to see my brother's winning. It brings me joy to know that he's employing people in the community that look like us. You know, that's what y'all gotta understand. That is the strength. You know, I say all the time. You know, we all said we want to get out the projects, we want to get out the hood, but people get out or never come back, you know what I'm saying. So that's why I try to keep a presence out there and the open businesses in the hood and employ single, single parent mothers. And you know, I got a single parent mother. I won't say her name, but she called me up. She finally understood, you know, she from the hood.
We gave it job. She been with us ten years, but she said, y'all, I bought my first house. Wow. And she was so emotional and I felt it, and I was like, you see this what I was trying to tell you.
I was trying to tell you, if you rock with the team, you're gonna grow, You're gonna be a boss, You're gonna go to another level. But that's the stuff that makes me happiest, you know what I'm saying, And you know, making sure you know, I'm hoping that when all my employees cut their Thanksgiving turkey. They'd be like, Yo, thank you for fat God, you got us the turkey. You know what I mean, that's what it's about.
Did you.
I know, I know you got a bunch of phone calls when you did your video with the Trumps, the Trump sneak them.
It wasn't the flex. It wasn't the flex. Look, it wasn't the flex. You know, I'm a big sneaker collector.
It wasn't it. It wasn't it. And so uh, you know I owned thousands and thousands. I got the rarest sneakers.
If Michael Jackson made a sneaker made out of the white glove, I got it. If Prince I got a sneaker that's made for Prince, the Prince never got like I got all the rarest sneakers in America.
But that was not the flex. The Kamaa like, nah, they know what, they know where my heart is at, they know what that was.
Just it was wrong.
It was so you. You was the only person America got it right wrong. You know why?
You know why, because I'm mature enough to put myself out standing out the box. Be like yo, if cam wrong, would do them sneakers up or fave of one of them out have been pissed at them because you know, you know this guy. You know, you know you gotta come around, Charlet Magne, you gotta come around, man, because you know this guy.
See, we have a short no, no, we have a short term memory.
We have a short term memory, right, and we forget that two years ago we was all like sick of this guy.
We wanted it, and I like, we want the guy back because when you don't co sign.
This side, you you like leave it open to like, you know, you go over there, and I don't like the way it felt. I did not like the way that time felt when he was you know, president. I'm trying to get a law passed, so I don't want to go to partisan with it.
But you know what I mean, I tell people that you know, he's come home, come home, man, I'm not no, no, no, you like that's our home.
Let me tell you what it is. This is. This is the one problem I got. And this is with all my friends because I got a lot of Trumpers around. No, no, I got yeah.
But when you when when when when you stay new to what Martin Luther King says, silence is you know, he's not feeling. He not feeling Joe Biden and Kamala right like you like Kamala. Damn, that's good news. That's a breaking. That's a breaking, all right. That's a break that that's a break in what I thought now. But what I'm saying is uh, to say nothing is like to co sign that.
Right. My thing is, uh, I believe in.
We all we all made enough money, we all from here, we want to make more. I believe in capitalism, but I believe in looking out for the less fortune of course.
Right.
My best friends who are Republicans and Trumpers, they said, Bro, you make so much money, you want to saving tax there's a morality clause there for me. Well, I don't feel good just saving taxes, and I gotta deal with You know, there's two donkeys out here. There's one that you put the pig on, and if you don't put the saddle on them, he can't walk straight. He's a donkey, right then you that, y'all listen, Then there's another donkey, you know. Ah, listen, man, you make your choice when it's time, man, whatever the case may be. But I'm just trying to tell you man, there's serious times out here, and I like to think I'm with the righteous. I'm with the righteous team. You know what I'm saying. That's just what I'm saying. And and for all the people who got on me for showing them Trump sneakers, no.
No, no, no, no, not at the base.
You know, I've never seen hate like this in my life. Like fire Roommania, he's a sellout, you know, they was at that. I'm like, damn, I wish you guys come out to the polls, but you really feel that way. But what gets me confused about politics is why this scary part of politics.
Four days later, I'm a Kamela in the White House. Oh what you doing with this woman? With these people?
Man, you understand I'm old enough to know that I'm not a sellout. I'm trying to get you guys a party. Okay, I'm sitting with her navigating. You know, Yo, Yoe were giving pardons out. Oh sure, I would love to sit next to you for this one, Like we're gonna give some people pardons.
I gotta ask, though, I know you gotta go. You did apologize the other day to a young kid.
Oh no, no, that was just a that was a regular apologize.
You know what happened was you know that's why I got in trouble, Well, not in trouble, but that's why people got in their panties about the Trump sneaker.
Right. So the thing about sneaker collecting is it's ego. It's like, Yo, I got the joint you ain't got Clark can't get sick when I put up something. He hit me up, y'all.
You just sucker mayor threatens me. We do this worldwide. This is it's just like hip hop. You pull out the sneaker. Oh, everybody's mad.
Whatever.
We love each other, shout out DJ Clark can't and and but you know, we flex. So a little kid comes up to me and I didn't realize he was a little kid, and I flexed on him.
Shout out the.
Little Jozzy that the reporter Nah went bad, Like I got sneakers older than you?
Why got that?
When I look back at the video, yo, solo, man, I felt terrible.
I'm gonna get the kid an interview. Noah, I'm good. I swear to god, I got what kind of questions? You trying to too cocky? Like come on, man, checked yourself patrol. Nothing. I was just on my cocky. I went to sneaker car and all the sneaker collectors and the like. He says, Yo, let me ask a question about why are you the man you ask you questions? I got this sticker. I looked at the video. I was so embarrassed. Like a week later, man Yo asked Rich who was again, who's the kid? Asked Rich the ball? But who's the kid? Yo? Bro. I looked at that. I said, oh, no, I gotta I gotta correct myself. Let me tell you something. Let me tell you what.
No, no, we gotta be very careful. I'm gonna tell you what. I know you work hard. I know you tired sometime. I know you got things to do. People don't know that celebrities really have real life, really stressed out beyond the scene.
We're dealing with parents that are ill.
Who knows your kid might just your kid grew up in a mansion, but now he wants to think he's a gang member and being the hood, and now you gotta worry about your son. I mean, we worked all our life to give our kids a great and somehow they all want to end up in the hood.
In the gang, trying to trying to be like something they miss, right, And so.
Sometimes we're guilty of being in the airport really really tired, and somebody might ask you for a picture or something.
You just like, yo, I just did, and I got a chill. You know.
I'm in the All Star Weekend and I'm walking out and I see one of my favorite correspondents, Wolf Blitzer.
From seeing that, I mean, I grew up with Wolf.
I love this guy, right, So I see him and I go Wolf Blitzer almost groupie, like, I'm just gonna be honest with you.
I never seen him in my life. Was that your Wolf, Wolf Blitcher.
So he keeps going his whole team, I mean the whole team. That's Cure, the publicist, maybe his daughter, whatever. They ran in front of him.
They're like, yo, it's fat yolays fat Joe. He looks to the side. I could see him a little bit, you know, I can see him. I don't care who it is. Let's go. I was sitting there, said Wolf.
He was walking away, said Wolf. And I knew from that moment I never want to treat one of my fans.
Like that again. And that and and and so so the kid probably came up Fat Joe number one sneaker. I want to smoke with me. What's his name? Did he? Last question? I gotta ask you?
Know you you talk about all the time how people try you feel, try to trick you out, trick you out of your position.
Right.
They want you to punch him in the face. They want you to do something for him to take And you said you spend a long time dealing with that. Have you ever had conversations with some of these artists to be like, it's okay to let it go.
What happens, what happens, for instance, or what happened else. What happens to me is that my life is transparent.
Gabriel, Gabriel, my life. That's the little kid that does the interviews. I'm gonna do one with them. My life is so transparent. So when you see me going on, I g and I tell you.
About I got bullied, beat up, or I write the Book.
Of Jose, or I tell them when we won, when we lost. I tell them stories like how I lost two million dollars when somebody was trying to give it to me, but I had thirty forty thugs with me and they stopped.
That's the way I reach out to them.
Now if somebody calls me or somebody talks to me like you know, I've talked to the biggest young like you know, the Kodak Blacks twenty one Savages. They asked the OG questions to be like yo, g And sometimes I don't mind my business.
If I see Lotto who who I love?
Right, If I see about to get into something, I hit it with the DMB, like says, get that moving, and we don't.
Through there, been there, done that, And she'd be like, oh, thank you, OG. I had to hear this.
And so you know, I always reach out to the to the young kings and queens that's moving and be like, oh no, we got to go Cardi B. I'll be like, no, no, no, no, you have to keep that moving, like he's trying to jam. And I've been through every jam though. You know, I learned right, And I appreciate you guys, uh for just keeping it about subject man. But it was a young guy where it was a young guy he went to the radio. I don't know who he is. I owe him so much money, right, it's a young rapper.
He went up there. He had a project out. I think this was in LA. Let's just get New York out the clear.
And he went in there and went to talk about his album and they said, Yo man, what's up sweet rappers touch and such? He said, Yo man, I don't really know that, brother, I'm here to talk about the new album. Right, kept going, what about rappers such and such? He said, Bro, this is how you jam usself and you start us going against each other. I'm not here for that about my album. And I watched the on air person that I said, well we just talking about that album. We ain't really got nothing to talk about. That was the end of the interview. But from that young dude, me or O G. I learned so much from that young kid. I always him money is what I'm trying to tell you because I used to come up here and just like Joe, what about yeah, got him do this?
Do that?
And I'm sitting.
Here and when I look at my old interviews, I was like I was just an automatic goal.
Like it was like anything you said that Joe, he gonna run out.
And you know, a crash dummy, just straight up a crash dummy, Like where do you think about.
Let's go yeah, I don't care, you know, telling the truth. That's who that's your life, that's that's who you were. It's not like you was up here lying like no, no.
No, But why happened to me one time that that you gotta be careful because your words are powerful. And I'm really not trying to but it's his perfect example. He's Coast West Coast. I'm really tight with Biggie Smalls. I do know Tupac's your cord, right. I know that's weird to the young kids listening, but Biggie's my man, my man, my man, right family since day one.
And Tupac I know him. We cool. But I get up here and they do it to me. Hey know what you think about the East coast West Coast? Yo, y'all.
I don't know, man, but if somebody talk to me, it's on it popping out here like we can get it, popping this whatever they want this this now, Tupacs in jail doing time up up in New York. The Spanish cats hear that, and they start making them feel real uncomfortable in jail. Now right, move to our bell can tell you the story, right, So Tupac reaches out to me, it says, Yo Joe.
Put them on the phone. I think it was great.
Nice from Nice and Smooth put them on the phone and like, yo, I got Tupac, so bless you.
He's like, I got Tupac. Now your sup. And he's like, yo, Joe, you know, I'm fuck with you. You know.
My beef with them is this and this and that. He was like, you know, they're making it real uncomfortable for me in here. The Spanish dudes. It's like, you got on the radio center, kite, you don't rock with me. So I had to send the real kite to the Spanish dudes in there and say, yo, yo, I don't really have a problem with him, Like don't don't do that.
You know what I'm saying.
They wind up being cool with him in there, and you know, and so he always said to his crew and everybody like yo, fat Joe. You know he held it down. But you gotta be your words are very powerful and they could cause real situations out there without you even knowing, So you.
Gotta be careful.
But Joe gotta go, guys ay prow second to you, Apollo, that's right, get your tickets standing up.
I mean he's so doubt.
But if you can get one to buy from a scalper, do it. No, I just people tell me Terror Squad will a different dr name. You See how cal it move, See how I move. I don't take nothing for chance. If my sneaker came out, I went again the sneaker to anybody who would take it, to make sure it's sold out.
I'm not thank you, brother, thank you. The point is I'm gonna put in that work.
So Apollo is so doubt already congratulations, but I'm still making my rounds to let y'all know you're gonna miss something.
Is an all time high in New York.
It's a billion dollars on the stage at one night at the Apollo April second. I don't know how else to take. I don't know who else is coming. It's gonna get dumb. I can't confirm them. But in the world of hip hop, there is nobody who's not calling the phone talking about we pulling up. You know what, Cali, the whole Philly coming, the Beanie Siegulls, this, this, that, this, this, anybody you could think of on the planet, the mab Deeps, the this, the Kims, the kiss that won't stop.
The four like your og.
We're gonna salute you, We're gonna see how smooth, and then it's just not gonna stop.
You might see you might of course, Norie, you might see out of nowhere. Girl, I've been thinking about you all day long. We're going real he hate on him, were going real ninety. It's getting done.
I mean all I keep saying every time my phone goes down, all I hear is that that that that Bay Area song, dumb dumb, dum dum. I swear to god, that's all. That's the theme song of this show is. I just keep hearing dumb dumb. You know how they get high feel dumb dumb. I can't believe it.
I'm sitting I'm let's see how this happens. We're gonna see Little Gabriel. Huh, little Gabriel coming. No, no, no, no, no. I don't really know him. He knows you you know music. Yeah, I don't know him, but anybody I do know. Man, they coming.
It sounds like there's gonna be two nights.
No, it's one night. Se No.
People that want about tickets to no, no, no, no, no, the one.
Day ask favors every night. Yeah, Apollo budget ain't like that. Come on, let's get get real. We ain't making no money. This is a culture this one night only, you know what I mean.
It's Fat Joe coming back to his home, the Apollo Theater, and we're gonna just leave it all on the floor. And I just think that we need a good time. We just want to have a good time. Smoke the ship, drink the ship, have fun. If you don't get high, I don't get high, so were good, right, But just come in there.
And enjoy and be in the moment.
You know you could, you can film whatever you want, but I'd rather you just be in the moment because it's gonna be one of them nights in New York City history that you're never gonna forget if you're in the building. And if you're not in the building, you're gonna be sick because they're gonna be calling you like, oh my god.
You know you might just be chilling out a way no where you're here, jeezu Boa. We could get it.
We could get the drama. Poppet, what's going with that many men in my before?
You'll never perform together? I mean, I'm not saying.
I'm just trying to say and the hip hop wishes. That's what I'm trying to tell you, is that billion dollars on the stage. It could be anybody. They might just come through gliding like you know what I'm saying. What I can tell you is not a single person I have called and said, No, that's all I'm saying, not one person. I said, you know, yeah, you might be in there and go. Milk is chilling, gis most chilling. What more can I say? Tops what they said? What did jamake it say? It's gonna be a lot of pull up. No, No, it's gonna be shout out to DJ test Move. He's gonna be DJ and the whole joint. You know he aren't that you know what I'm saying. All the DJ's hit me up. They want to get on and test the move told me he said, they wasn't with you shooting in the gym right?
And I said, y'all looked at Tad.
I said, wow, that whole covid I did the Fat Joe show, ted was up there, DJ and woman.
I said, you why you deserve this?
Let's go Tad and the lady the only one that deserved that.
That's the absolutely Joe Kritak, always a pleasure, my brother, Thank you so much.
The Breakfast Club, Fat Joe, get that hands up in the morning.
Breakfast Club
