0:06

I've always had big dreams of being a superstar.

0:10

Fat Joe always comes out swinging.

0:12

I'm like this, Bruce Delicious to like,

0:15

wow, I come from nothing where

0:17

you gotta be tough to survive. On my

0:19

side, here I got Fat Joe. The right Latinos

0:22

across the country, across the world loved the

0:24

authenticity of what Joe

0:27

brought hip hop a Latinos

0:29

to be like. He's not Rico suave. He's

0:32

the guy with the half moon with the medallion

0:34

on with fifty guys behind him,

0:37

and I knew it was just gonna shake the hip hop

0:39

world. Joe's personality and

0:41

confidence built this monster image

0:44

and it was about that time that I discovered

0:46

Big Pun. I brought him in the game. He

0:48

took us to the next level when he's

0:51

doing the arenas and making money getting

0:53

nominated for Grammys. I was

0:55

the Puerto Rican parv daddy and Pun

0:57

was the Latino biggie. They

0:59

were ex give me to sign any loptin or

1:01

that wrapped because they thought it was like the

1:04

time of all Latino on selling

1:06

millions of records. It was

1:08

your dream come true. And then

1:10

everything started to go bad upon

1:13

my grandfather and my

1:16

sister all died around the

1:18

same time. I went to a really

1:20

really dark place. He was just up

1:23

and then I had to go to jail. Man. How

1:26

the hell am I gonna come

1:28

back? And I've discovered that your

1:30

darkest moments bring your most clarity.

1:32

I always believed in myself, and my

1:34

dreams came true. It's really

1:37

like a hip hop fairy tale, rising

1:39

from nothing man to triumph. Let's

1:42

go behind the music. This

1:49

is my true own. That's where I

1:51

was born, the Bronx. The

1:53

Bronx created hip hop. It's the

1:55

ground zero is the birthplace, and

1:57

I was just brought up in the holy land

1:59

of hip hop music. My brother

2:02

Andrew used to be a great boy for grand

2:04

Master Flash, going to the block

2:06

parties carrying Grandmasster Flashes

2:08

records and said he would bring me all

2:11

these real original records,

2:13

the Zulu Nation, all these DJ

2:15

battles. That's how light went

2:18

off in my head, like so in love with hip

2:20

hop. I aspired to be like these guys.

2:22

That's the original origins of hip

2:24

hop, and that's what got me so addicted to music.

2:27

Uh, there would not be no Fat Joy if

2:29

it wasn't for this. I always wanted

2:32

to be like my brother and you. He started

2:34

rapping before me, so I started writing

2:36

raps to telling everybody my raps.

2:38

So that's how it came about. And so I'm

2:40

proud most of all to be

2:43

from the Bronx. If you know the projects,

2:46

we never knew what we didn't have. When

2:48

I was a kid. My family worked

2:50

very, very hard. My mother already had

2:53

three children, two sons and

2:55

a daughter with a prior husband, and

2:58

so she met my father. My

3:00

father was a baker from Cuba. My

3:02

father is real tough, real

3:05

hard. I mean, not

3:07

a bad person at all, but we

3:09

bumped heads a lot. Even now to this game.

3:12

My mom has had three jobs, never

3:14

made an excuse. We always had Christmas.

3:16

We obviously ate a lot. It

3:19

was a big, loving family environment.

3:21

My project's growing up at the time black

3:25

ten percent Latino. That's

3:27

being generous, you know, And that's all I

3:29

knew. They've been calling me fat Joey since

3:32

I'm to three years old. In my projects,

3:34

I've always been big. I've always owned up to

3:36

it. That's when my name is fat Joe. But I

3:39

got bullied in school. I

3:41

had to go to junior high school in my grandmother's

3:43

neighborhood, which might as well be

3:46

nine point nine percent

3:48

black. They have never seen

3:50

a Puerto Rican or Latino like

3:52

Fat Joe in that neighborhood in their

3:55

life. I was the eminem, the alien

3:57

over there. Every single day I got beat about

4:00

thirty guys. Never been a sucker.

4:02

I never laid down. Every day. I look

4:04

out the window of the school and I know thirty dudes are

4:06

waiting for me. I dropped my bag and punched

4:08

the biggest dude right in his face, and just get beat

4:11

up. I don't lay down. You go back

4:13

and you look at pictures of me twelve years

4:15

old, eleven years old with an

4:17

ice cold killer face. That's

4:20

because if you showed somebody's kindness, they

4:22

would definitely take it for weakness. And

4:25

the whole Bronx at that time was predator,

4:27

a prey. I refused to be prey.

4:30

At the time I met Joe, he was this

4:32

angry, you know, frustrated,

4:34

you know, a young man. We had something

4:37

in common. We loved trouble,

4:40

We loved the smoke with

4:43

everybody, anybody wherever,

4:46

but we just didn't care. Then as

4:48

you got a little bit older, knives came out,

4:50

the guns came out. I mean, I'm not gonna lie

4:52

to you. I would go outside every day for violence.

4:55

Unfortunately, I got into a life

4:58

of crime before music. Father

5:00

was very aggressive. He would hit you

5:03

and hit you like you a man. And

5:05

so one day I had an argument

5:07

with my father. We were at

5:10

the dinner table. My father went

5:12

to hit me, and I stopped

5:14

him, and his eyes opened up because

5:16

the first time I didn't let him hit me. And

5:19

from that point, you know, I knew

5:21

like I couldn't be here no more. And

5:23

I remember telling them, you know, you can't

5:25

funk with me no more. But I went

5:28

to the staircase and I just cried

5:30

for like a whole hour, like a baby. I

5:33

got up, I left my mother's home, and

5:36

the next day I was in the street. I

5:38

sold drugs for the first time when I was fourteen.

5:41

I started from the ground up.

5:44

I would go to Manhattan by

5:46

two grams. The grahams were twenty dollars

5:48

a graham, come back, cut

5:50

it up, make eight two. I

5:54

would take that trip to Manhattan

5:56

ten twenty times a day, just going

5:58

back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. When

6:01

I was there was when the Bronx looked like a war

6:03

zone, and I would live in this crackhead hotel

6:05

when you could pay thirty five dollars a day.

6:08

It was terrifying being a

6:10

fourteen year old kid living in something like

6:12

that. When I would open my door, there

6:14

were literally men and women shooting heroin

6:18

during the AIDS epidemic. And

6:20

so to not hear what's going on out there, I

6:22

would have this walkman and just

6:25

listen to hip hop all night, rappers

6:28

like Slick Red to give me courage

6:30

to make it through the night. I met

6:33

Diamond D through right and graffiti. We used

6:35

to go bombing together, is what they called

6:37

me. And one day he stops me

6:39

at this light pole and he says, yo, listen,

6:41

man, I'm gonna die

6:43

if you're gonna die out here, or go to

6:46

jail forever. Diamond D was a big

6:48

pot in Joe's removal

6:50

from the streets. He started giving

6:53

him beats. Told Shoe your feelings,

6:55

put them on paper. He said, why don't

6:57

you tell your life in music? Diamond

7:00

told me, let me pay for the studio, and

7:02

so we went in there and we cut three songs.

7:04

I want to get on the radio. At

7:07

the time, there wasn't hip hop music all

7:09

over. There was one radio station

7:11

playing it for two hours every

7:13

Friday, and it was DJ Better

7:15

Luck. So he was the king Almighty.

7:18

I was up DJ up in the Bronx

7:20

at nine point seven kiss at him in New

7:23

York City. Joel Diamond

7:25

drought me a promo song,

7:28

Flow Joe and his lyrics,

7:31

his flow, his presentation man

7:33

he believe rather alert. Used to

7:35

play it every week on the radio to hear

7:38

him on the radio. That was big, Like

7:40

that was really really big in the hood. Hood

7:43

was like Yo Fatjo, Fato Fatjo,

7:45

Fatjo. Everybody knows that Joe's

7:47

in town. Enough respect for

7:50

the buggie down. People

7:52

used to record it and then played in hawsm

7:55

box. We had something to claim

7:58

forget them. Just the bronze to New

8:00

York. You know, that was big. We

8:02

didn't know how big it was gonna get Latinos

8:05

across the country and across the world. Loved

8:07

the authenticity of what

8:09

Joe brought hip hop a Latinos

8:12

to be like, He's not Rico suave. He's

8:15

the guy with the half moon with the dying

8:17

on with fifty guys behind him,

8:20

And I knew it was just gonna shake the

8:22

hip Hop World. The promo

8:24

cut the attention of one of my

8:27

capadres, Chris Nide. I

8:29

was on the block hustling and Chris LDY

8:32

just pulled up and he was like, yo, you

8:34

know who I am. And I was like, yeah, I know. You are your

8:36

baby, Chris, and he was like, you fat Joe

8:38

right. I was like yeah. He said, I think you

8:40

could be a star. I wanted to sign you, and then

8:43

my whole life changed from that moment. I

8:45

signed the contract in the middle of the street.

8:47

Chris, you know, and he wanted

8:49

something he always got it from.

8:52

No. Joe turned out to be number one. I

8:55

really didn't leave the drug game alone

8:57

the second I got a record

9:00

deal. After Flow Joe came out, Joe

9:02

blew up because he painted

9:04

a clear picture for you about his block

9:06

in the Bronx, and he gave

9:09

you that aggressiveness. So I was doing like three

9:11

shows a night. I'd be in stat Nolan, Jersey,

9:14

Connecticut, you know, Virginia,

9:16

Baltimore, Philly, eventually

9:18

Miami. We were coming down to Miami

9:21

to do a promo show or something

9:24

and a friend of mine he's like, I got some girlfriends

9:27

down there. I'm like, yo, they're pretty. He was like, oh, they're

9:29

the baddest chicks. And I was like, yo,

9:31

So I got to meet them. He was like, bro, you're

9:33

broke, you're fat.

9:37

We met in Miami, right outside

9:39

Nikki's beach. We pulled

9:41

up and the light

9:43

of the van she was walking

9:46

away shined on her ass

9:49

and it was the biggest ass

9:51

I have ever seen. And I was like, what

9:53

the fuck is that? And

9:56

then when she turned around, I was like, oh my god.

9:58

My friend said to me when he introduced

10:01

us, Joe said, that's my

10:03

wife, and my friend said, no

10:06

way, she's now. She'll never be your

10:08

wife. Look, I've

10:10

been with Joe for twenty five years.

10:12

He was that guy. I thought he was

10:14

really handsome, and I thought he was a

10:17

little bit of an asshole. He was very streaked.

10:19

He was rough around the edges and

10:22

he said come back to the hotel

10:24

and hang out. And I was like, all right,

10:26

I'll come on, come. But I never showed up, and

10:28

I just kept chasing and chasing him,

10:30

and Uh, I had a show in

10:34

writer and when she comes to the show, I said, sit

10:36

on stage. So I

10:38

do the show. I'm trying to show what I'm the man

10:41

and I remember leaving after

10:44

the show and one of his friends came up to

10:46

him and he said, hey, let's

10:48

hang out with all these girls. Want to go back to the hotel

10:51

and party and listen to Now. I was like, yo,

10:54

I got the chicks. They want to hang out with

10:56

you, but I'm with and I

10:58

said you should go with them because I'm not going.

11:01

She's like, you ain't getting none of this, you might as

11:03

well go with them. So I look at

11:05

the six girls, and I look at her,

11:08

and I look at the sister. Yeah, he

11:10

wouldn't. He

11:14

chose me, So you know, I

11:17

was happy. You know, that was definitely

11:19

something that made me feel very

11:21

special because if I was

11:24

him, I would have definitely went with the girls

11:26

that were having the party. The rest

11:28

is history. You meet someone and you just say,

11:30

oh, this is gonna be my wife, you

11:33

know, when you know, you know, three months

11:35

into the relationship, he was like, you should move in

11:37

with me, and I said, okay.

11:39

We lived in a one bedroom apartment with

11:42

no curtains and t

11:45

shirts as towels. We were broke,

11:47

but we loved each other. In this business,

11:50

the hardest thing to do is

11:53

to have a successful relationship.

11:55

All these years later. My wife's

11:57

Lorenda. She supported me all the way.

12:00

After some time, it was like

12:02

PAYANDEMONI and it was like I couldn't walk down

12:05

the street no more. You know. I was finally

12:07

successful, making all kind of money.

12:10

Even though I lived in Jersey on the water,

12:13

I would be in the projects every day,

12:16

and everybody knew. Fat Joe would go

12:18

to this boat dagg and hang out in front of it.

12:20

Walking outside of a boat Dagg

12:23

and you bump into the phenom Big

12:25

Punt. I didn't know at the time,

12:27

but he would eventually be one of the biggest

12:30

grappers of all time. That moment,

12:32

that store, it didn't just change me,

12:35

it changed the world forever. Punt

12:37

is out there rapping, and I was like, what is

12:39

the fat reporto Rican kid gonna do? And

12:42

he was like, gotta the data, the data, and

12:44

he just He's going like a car hunting miles

12:46

for hour, and he just blew my mind.

12:48

I was like, oh my god,

12:52

I knew nobody was better than him. You

12:54

know, he was born to rap. He made sure he was

12:56

ever where the fat was and if he had

12:58

new show, he was there whever he was. You

13:00

know, he had to be in a club or brought me was rounding

13:02

from around him, and so when I heard him,

13:05

I was like, that is it. This is gonna

13:07

be the Latin no biggie. Together we

13:09

formed the Terror Squad. The Terror

13:11

Squad rap group consisted

13:13

of guys I brought in the crew and

13:15

guys Punt brought in the crew. So

13:18

we cracked one love baby, you know the deal.

13:20

Terror Squad collect Boy ninety six

13:23

cities. He told me, you're

13:26

gonna be my big brother I never had. I'm

13:28

gonna hold you down. You hold me down, you beat

13:30

my big brother. They were brothers, and you know, they

13:32

might have had different fathers, but there was nothing

13:34

else they were. They were brothers, and we just jelled

13:37

together and formed this dynamic

13:39

duo. We call each other twins. So here's

13:41

a real quick you know before you know what looks like best

13:43

friends. I just knew that the

13:46

world had to hear him. So I was

13:48

like, let me focus all my energy on

13:50

this guy and he will take us

13:52

to the promised Land. So I took

13:54

a back seat and

13:56

just was pushing Punt. You know, I was in

13:58

the streets putting up posters

14:01

myself. I'm handing out flyers,

14:03

Big pund Big Punt. What he

14:05

would do for punt was bigger

14:08

than what he did for himself. Joe believed

14:10

in put but I think he was totally okay

14:12

putting punt front and

14:14

center. I was the Puerto Rican pump Daddy.

14:17

You know, pump Daddy discovered notorious

14:19

b I G Fat, Joe discovered Big

14:21

Punty, went double platinum. We signed the

14:24

deal for ten million dollars with Atlantic.

14:26

It was a dream come true to

14:28

see him elevate getting nominated

14:31

for Grammys. Yeah. I brought him in the game,

14:33

but I had never been nominated for Grammy.

14:36

I had never been around these type of people.

14:39

Punt looks so beautiful. We threw curls

14:41

on his head, l a finger waves

14:43

joints when we was fronting at the sky

14:45

Blue suit on with the yellow pin stripe.

14:48

It was nothing like that time. Bro to

14:50

come from the Bronx, come from nothing and

14:53

be at the Grammys deal. It was like a Cinderella

14:55

story. I mean, this was really

14:58

a different level of success. They

15:00

were asking me to sign any one of my cousins,

15:03

any latino they wrapped because they

15:05

thought it was like the time of all latinos

15:08

selling millions of records, and you

15:10

know I was at the forefront of that. But at

15:12

the same time, I was Fat Joe the rapper

15:14

too, so uh and

15:17

went to work or don card

15:19

of Gina. You know that video is my favorite

15:21

video I ever shot in my life. Of

15:23

course, you seemed punk all in there and

15:25

then we had puffed through the hook.

15:28

Happiest time in my life. You

15:30

guys are really the stars of the show this year.

15:33

How does it feel? I

15:35

mean, it feels great. I'm

15:37

just happy. We're real happy today. Today

15:39

is a great thing. Everybody

15:53

has some sort of addiction. I

15:55

was really overweight. The

15:57

first celebrity name sandwich of the millennium,

16:00

the name of the Fat Joe. I'm extremely

16:02

hungry right now. I

16:04

wish we were educated

16:07

as we are now in

16:10

food and nutrition and we just ain't

16:12

no no better. Sounds

16:14

good

16:15

to me and

16:20

punished. Performing with Lopez on

16:22

Saturday Night Live. This Saturday,

16:25

we honor this very big you

16:27

know, not too many rappers get to do

16:30

that type of thing. J No put

16:32

out this ten time platinum

16:34

album. We got a huge hit

16:36

with her song Caught Feeling So Good,

16:39

and it just opened so many doors for us

16:41

to be on that s now stage, so

16:43

many eyes on us, so many people talking

16:46

about us. Taken schedule, high

16:48

profile appearance on Saturday Night Live

16:50

had to be canceled. You didn't want to show up.

16:53

I guess he didn't feel good. I was trying

16:55

to push him to go perform. I

16:57

kept bothering him the whole week, every day, Yo,

17:00

more and come on, come on, come on. And

17:02

I know it bothered him that he didn't come, So

17:04

I didn't you know, the show must still go

17:06

on. He was telling me his legs was hurting

17:08

him so he couldn't do it. We

17:11

were all worried about Punt's health. I

17:13

don't think anybody who could have really been in Punt's

17:15

presence didn't at some point feels

17:17

some concerned. I mean, the struggles with breathing,

17:19

and we all knew it wasn't healthy. He

17:22

said, nah, you go do it by yourself,

17:24

and that much I heard him

17:26

because he knew how important it was as

17:28

well. I guess these were the warning

17:31

signs of what was to

17:33

come. The next day, Punt had an heart

17:35

attack, but we got the phone call and

17:37

I remember just seeing Joe's

17:40

face, like his whole vibe,

17:42

his whole energy had just like

17:44

come down. He was really hurt and

17:46

destroyed and he just you know, it

17:49

was it was a bad day. It

17:51

was a bad day. He's gone. Remember

17:54

breaking down at UM

17:56

and we flew to New York. I remember just going straight to Joe's

17:58

house in the morning. Second we landed,

18:01

and then we had to do a whole bunch of press, which

18:04

was the worst thing. But

18:06

they've shown a lot of love, and you

18:08

know that was important to him because a lot of times

18:10

we worked harder. We thought a lot of

18:12

efforts he was doing was going unnoticed.

18:15

But you know, now our guess he knows,

18:17

and I definitely know that he would be missed.

18:20

He was loved, and you know he's acknowledged

18:22

for everything he did in life. And then you

18:24

you have a sense of guilt, like was

18:26

there anything we could have did to make

18:29

sure he didn't pass away? So

18:31

it was it was just a terrible time.

18:33

Man. He probably lads behind a wife

18:35

and three children, all under the age of the time.

18:38

He didn't deserve to die twenty

18:41

eight years old and leave his family, leave

18:43

his kids. He bent so much to

18:45

everybody, the whole community at

18:47

the time that it was just like unbelievable

18:51

when when he died, it was just it felt

18:53

like wow, it was like the world ended. It

18:55

was it was a hard

18:57

time, even a big bad that

19:00

Joe couldn't deal with it. He means me

19:03

very proud, you know, and

19:07

where he's done for me. I could never, you know,

19:09

replace that. I mean there's no

19:11

question. Almost too young and ago like

19:13

that. Everything it's just so overwhelming.

19:17

After Punt passed, it was really hard on

19:19

him. He lost like somebody

19:21

that he loved and somebody

19:23

that he really wanted so much for.

19:26

Everything started to throw bad. My

19:28

grandfather and my sister

19:31

all died around the same time,

19:34

and it was just really really painful. I

19:36

was really really tight with my sister growing up

19:38

since we was kids, and so that's

19:40

when depression and all

19:42

that started to sink him because it was just

19:44

so much pressure on me. He

19:47

wasn't able to deal with all of that. He

19:49

wasn't ready for it. I mean, nobody is. He

19:52

was crushed. He was just funked up.

19:55

I gained a lot of weight, started

19:57

drinking liquor, medicating

19:59

myself, started losing grip of

20:02

my friends, my artists.

20:05

I remembered whispers saying like

20:07

there's no pun there's no terrorist guard. You know,

20:09

people just thought, you know, the whole

20:12

terrorist guard identity,

20:14

would you would crumble. I think the combination

20:16

of Joe and Pun holding the terrorist squad

20:18

together, and then they slowly started to

20:21

fall apart. It's a down period, and Pun

20:23

died and everything is looking slow. Everybody

20:26

jumped ship on me. I knew I needed help.

20:28

I had never felt like this before.

20:30

It was just too much, unbearable.

20:33

The only thing that helped me is that I was going to

20:35

therapy, and I would go every Tuesday.

20:38

My wife, Lorena took me to every single

20:40

appointment, and no one else

20:42

in the world knew I was getting therapy, so

20:44

she would support me and take me in. You

20:47

know, I put it through a lot. You know, I always

20:49

say, let your darkest moments bring your most

20:51

clarity. You know. I knew I had to fight his

20:54

depression for my family, my

20:56

wife and my two sons. She was a great

20:58

father. For him to be

21:00

this amazing dad, he had to experience

21:03

what he went through. We take care of each other

21:05

in this family. It's just simple as that.

21:07

The depression went on for two years.

21:10

I just said to myself, yo, you

21:12

gotta wake up. Stop

21:14

feeling guilty and that at that moment

21:17

I snapped out of the depression. It

21:19

was loving life and loving his

21:21

music and loving, you know, to

21:23

do what he does. And he was working

21:26

in the studio again, focused

21:28

on the new head. It was back

21:31

before upon died. All I wanted

21:33

to be was the street that when he passed

21:35

away, I realized I had

21:38

to take it from there and go to

21:40

the next level. I met IRV Gotti

21:42

and told him I wanted to make music for everybody,

21:45

women, commercial hit

21:47

records, and he just woke me

21:49

up one night. I'm laying next to my

21:52

wife and got the house phone and

21:54

Joe, what's up deserved. I

21:56

was like, Yo, what's up? Come down

21:58

the hit Factory with on It was street for in

22:00

the morning and HERB said, y'all made this

22:03

for you, and he breast playing and I was like,

22:05

holy wow, they gave me

22:07

a hit. They made me a hit back.

22:09

Joe has gone from being hip hop's most

22:12

infamous Puerto Rican to music's

22:14

most popular big man. And

22:16

it all it took was a song

22:18

called What's Love featuring a Shanty. I've

22:20

been in this business nine years. It's finally my time

22:22

to shine, you know, man, So

22:25

what's the difference with this album from your prior albums?

22:28

Just I was just way more focused. Man, I had

22:30

no choice. I felt like this album was like all or

22:32

nothing. After Punch Deaf, you

22:34

know, cats was rumoring and it was people were

22:36

sleeping on me, and it was like, you think, Joco, hold

22:39

it down. So I had to lock myself in the grimy

22:41

studio and just get all this frustration

22:44

out and on this music. It's just made

22:46

it happens. No, man. There was a lot of moments

22:48

where I knew he is blowing up, Like we

22:50

wanted the tour bus and they said, you

22:52

know, we want you to perform at MTV spring

22:55

Break and I was like, wow,

22:57

Joe, this is big. I was like, this

22:59

is really big. And I was like, man, we gotta do

23:01

something to make people talk. We gotta do something.

23:04

And she was like, yo, man, you should go there

23:07

topless, take the showed

23:09

off. And he did. He fucking

23:11

did. She got him this. I

23:13

think it was like affended red towel

23:15

and I was like, that's the outfit. She was like, that's

23:18

it. Oh yeah, she was right. She's usually

23:20

right. It explodes. It's

23:22

a mainstream thing. Everybody

23:25

was talking about fat Joe and Joey crack,

23:27

the cracking of his ass, showing they just

23:30

fell in love with this big guy. It's great

23:32

to be that confident and be a

23:34

big man and be sexy and

23:36

be fly and carry

23:39

us off the way he carried himself. He was

23:41

always the flyest bat guy. Ever.

23:44

After that one performance, our

23:46

salves went from fifteen thousand a week

23:48

to twenty thousand a week to five

23:50

thousand a week. I never forget my

23:53

phone. Rang and the reserve guy

23:55

he said, Joe Platinum,

23:58

and I'm like stopping. He go Platformum.

24:01

It feels good. It feels like, you know, we're having

24:04

this little victory parade.

24:06

And I don't know how radio is embracing

24:08

me out of nowhere like that, but I

24:10

mean, I guess you know that was my destiny.

24:12

So now I'm gonna just continue to bring

24:14

you hits. This is what I'm in it for, man,

24:16

I'm not in it to be an underground wrapper. I'm

24:18

in it to be a superstar sell

24:20

millions of records. It was a different

24:22

audience time it went by, and you

24:25

know, it wasn't Flow Joe's crowd. There

24:27

was a whole new crowd. How was he gonna keep

24:29

it going that there's millions of people trying

24:31

to make music. A hit record

24:33

is a miracle, but to keep doing

24:36

it over and over again, that lets you

24:38

know these guys ain't going nowhere then boom

24:40

here because lean that lean back is

24:42

actually the only beat that I was

24:45

afraid to wrap on because

24:47

I had so much success off of What's Love. You

24:50

know, as an artist, you start thinking that's

24:52

your lane. You gotta make songs for girls.

24:55

And so I lived with it for like a month, and

24:57

I remember I was driving on the west side of highways.

24:59

I pulled dover, I played to be and

25:01

started going. I was new to Terror

25:04

Squad and I was in the studio and I'm

25:06

like playing for me what they were doing yesterday.

25:08

Like I'm

25:10

like, what is this? And it's Joe

25:13

with all three verses. I'm like, is he serious?

25:16

Take that second verse out, turn

25:18

on the mic, and I'm going in there and I'm

25:20

recording. Next day when everyone

25:23

comes in, that song comes on and he's

25:25

like, hype, We're like this. Then

25:28

the second verse comes on and looks at me and

25:30

I'm like, Hi, I'm like,

25:32

what the They totally erased

25:35

my second verse and Remy forced them

25:37

to recorder or when I heard it, I was like,

25:39

Wow, she killed

25:42

that. It was just a huge record,

25:44

Like not just here around the world, every

25:46

DJ was playing Leaning Back. It just was

25:49

over. It was over. He

25:51

always comes out swinging at

25:53

the TV Awards and it was like Bruce Willis

25:57

and Lativa and all these people like laying

25:59

Back, like it was Bruce Wilicious,

26:02

like like Mr die Hard himself. Lean

26:05

Back was the return of Joe. Was

26:07

an anthem and when you heard it, you were like, Joe's

26:10

back. That was a home run. Man.

26:12

We ran the game with this. Go to a

26:14

nightclub and they would play just lean

26:17

Back for an hour straight,

26:19

fifty times in a row. They just

26:21

wouldn't get tired of it. It was a phenomenon.

26:24

I won't always be known as a guy who

26:26

made lean Back. Remy became

26:28

a superstar with that song. Remy

26:31

wanted to do it so album, and I wanted to do a

26:33

solo album with her. We get the deal done. She

26:35

made an amazing album, but it didn't do what

26:37

it should have done. I was dealing with the record label

26:39

and they kept telling me that they were going to blow up

26:41

the album. But they didn't. I was mad

26:44

about how many units of my album

26:46

was shipped out. No one anywhere who

26:49

wanted to my my album, they couldn't find it because they didn't

26:51

have it. Unfortunately, she

26:53

thought it was because of me, and I'm like, you should

26:55

have been here with me. If he was here,

26:58

this wouldn't happen. No one's listening to me.

27:00

And so she went at me and she was talking

27:02

crazy. She was talking about I

27:05

don't mind signing to fifty cents

27:07

g unit. You know, Remy's family

27:09

man, and I know it since she's a kid. So

27:12

that was the most painful former

27:14

betrayal I ever felt.

27:17

It was like an invisible lightning rod

27:19

just piercing through my heart.

27:22

You know, she's a very emotional person and

27:24

Joe really tried to do right

27:26

for her. What is it that exactly went wrong?

27:28

What was the like the final breaks always

27:32

her own boss when she started

27:34

disrespecting me to the public, and a

27:37

lot of stuff is coming, man, you know

27:40

when you will out and all that that should be coming

27:42

right back, you know, So I

27:44

wish it well. Three years later she

27:46

got arrested, and you know, I've been

27:48

dealing with crime my whole life, so

27:51

I knew what she had to do to get less

27:53

time and then, and nobody was advising

27:55

of the right way. I we

27:58

didn't speak for years, and in that

28:00

time, like I used to be so devastated

28:02

because I missed my brother. I was sad,

28:04

even though I was trying to act like, you know, it

28:06

is what it is, but it was like really really sad

28:09

for her. But I've always been on gold

28:11

time no matter what, and fighting for

28:13

what we we are or what

28:15

we represent, and so I keep

28:17

going and I keep pushing forward. At

28:20

the time we build a new house, it's

28:22

beautiful. Were in Miami with the whole family,

28:25

my mother, my wife, my daughter,

28:27

and my two sons. We were all together.

28:29

It was an amazing time. And I had to

28:31

hit One

28:44

day. I went to buy a car and they were like, you

28:46

haven't paid for your mortgages. You haven't

28:48

paid your cars. I'm like, what. I

28:51

had an accountant, I hired him. I'm

28:54

sending them wire transfers to pay my taxes.

28:57

The man ain't paying my taxes. I didn't know.

29:00

We stepped to the government and we tell them,

29:02

look, this guy was taking advantage of me. I

29:04

actually went to court and paid

29:06

the money. Back, thinking that maybe because I don't

29:09

have no previous criminal history, I'll

29:11

get house arrass or get probation,

29:13

which they give to people every day.

29:16

And so they said, sorry, you

29:18

have to go to jail. That was a horrible

29:20

day. I got up. My mother in law

29:22

made me breakfast and she was crying the whole

29:25

time. Lorena was in the in

29:27

the living room, just crying like

29:29

crazy. And

29:32

you know, I kissed on the foret. I said, mine stopped.

29:35

You can't be doing this. The actual day

29:37

of me, Joe's son took

29:39

the drive with him to drop him

29:42

off. You can hear a pin drop. I've

29:44

done many crimes. I've done many things

29:46

in my life. I was not guilty

29:48

of this, like you know, so

29:51

I got my all. I guess I got what was

29:53

coming to me. We get to in front

29:55

of the prison. We don't get out, you

29:57

know, we hug him. What's going to

29:59

jail? Like this ship crazy. When I was walking

30:01

into the jail, I looked back at the

30:04

truck and uh, maybe I shouldn't

30:06

have had run my son there. You know,

30:08

he looked so devastated watching his father

30:11

walk in there. You know. Uh,

30:14

and that hurt, that really really hurt.

30:16

Jail gave me a lot of time to strategize,

30:19

go over my priorities, and

30:21

get really really serious about life.

30:24

You know, it's sad for me. Man. I was making money

30:26

since I was twenty two. I had been

30:28

rich for the last fifteen sixteen

30:31

years. Private planes, mansions,

30:34

diamonds, whatever you name it, cars,

30:37

whatever we wanted we had. When

30:39

I got out of jail, I had to start

30:41

completely over. The hardest

30:43

thing was that they basically had absorbed

30:46

of my money millions and millions of dollars.

30:49

And so I would get up and I would look at my daughter

30:51

sleep at night, and that

30:53

hurt me the most because I would be like, she

30:56

doesn't deserve to live

30:58

a broke life. She

31:00

deserves a better life. Now you

31:02

have to figure out a way to

31:05

make your money back, to make a hit record

31:08

one time, it's a miracle. To

31:10

do it over and over and over

31:12

again, it's even harder.

31:15

And I was. I was a forty year old rapper.

31:18

Nobody had ever done that. I pulled

31:20

up to his crib. It's a huge crib

31:22

he had. You know. I knocked on the door and his

31:24

wife lordly opened the door. She's like, get in here

31:26

and talk to this man. He's tripping, and

31:28

I can remember sitting down with him and he was just like,

31:30

it's over for me. Man, rap,

31:33

it's a young man's game. You know what I'm saying,

31:35

It's over. And I've never seen

31:37

Joe like that, you know what I'm saying. You know, I just

31:39

turned forty years old and they took

31:41

away all my money. How

31:44

the hell am I gonna

31:46

come back? And I can remember just looking at

31:48

him and telling him, nah

31:50

no, Uh, Tina tournament

31:52

a hit record and fifty years old, so uh.

31:55

I went to work back in the studio, ready,

31:58

ready to do what I had to do. Joe

32:00

felt like, I need something to get that

32:03

uh fired. At the same

32:05

time, you know, Remy, she was trying to get her

32:07

thing going. I'm in prison and

32:09

I've been there for four years going

32:11

on five, and I'm just like, guy,

32:14

I need to speak something. And I had to go

32:16

through so much, had to put the number on my phone list,

32:18

all this stuff, so I'm like, all right, I'm just gonna call it.

32:20

It was at that point where I didn't even care who's

32:22

right or who's wrong. I was like, I'm saying sorry, I'm

32:24

gonna apologize. She called me out

32:27

of nowhere. She's just like yo,

32:29

and I'm like yo, and then

32:32

there's an awkward silence for like a minute,

32:35

and then she was like, well talk. I was like, well, Remy,

32:37

you call me, like what do you want?

32:39

And He's like, ramp, what

32:41

do you want to say? And I'm just like all right,

32:44

I was

32:48

and it was just a love fest. It

32:51

took one second. So when

32:53

Remy got out of jail, when we met

32:55

in Miami and I had a big plan.

32:58

This was like the first time that I had off

33:00

at Joe at seven years. He's

33:03

like, you're ready to get back in the big leagues now,

33:05

Like I have this idea and I'm like, okay,

33:08

what your idea is? Like, smell you what I

33:11

said, Yo, Remy. There's a chance

33:14

that if we worked together and we

33:16

make a song, it's like a

33:18

thread going through a needle to say,

33:20

as people like Fat Joe and people

33:23

like Remy Mam, people

33:26

love Fed Joe and Remy

33:28

ma together, if we hit

33:30

it on there, it might explode

33:32

and be the biggest record in the world. After

33:34

the reconciliation, Fat

33:37

Joe, Remy Martin, they were all the way up.

33:40

I remember going shopping with Remy

33:42

for this video. Joe wanted my wardrobe

33:45

to be crazy, but we

33:47

didn't have a budget. She might have spent fifteen

33:49

thousand dollars. She's like, yo, Joe, I don't

33:52

spend money like this no more. I was like,

33:54

funk that we need Chanelle, we need

33:57

Louis Vattm, we need the first

34:00

It is like, I promise you you

34:02

got to get it back times a hundred.

34:04

Trust me. I said, you know what, if

34:06

we don't make money back with this song, I'll

34:08

give you the money back for the clothes. But by

34:11

the cold, Not only was all the way up

34:13

big for Joe and the squad, but

34:15

it was big for hip hop and for the culture,

34:18

and come back was real for Fat

34:20

Joe. We just kept winning the wards. The

34:22

Beefy Hip Hop Award goes to all

34:25

that that y'all hanging up. We're

34:29

getting that money. We

34:31

getting that money. I

34:33

could have thought of a lot of better things to

34:35

say that we're getting that money, but

34:38

I guess it was built in. It

34:40

took all my money that That was the first

34:43

thing I thought of saying up there was were getting

34:45

that money. Boy, Like if y'all thought

34:47

I was gonna be broke. You are very

34:49

confused, right. There's nothing

34:53

like having something and have it taken

34:55

away from you with for you to come

34:57

back. It was just like the

35:00

top of the world again. He always says

35:02

I'm going to get a number one, and he does. He fucking

35:04

works hard and he fucking makes it happen.

35:06

To this day, I fight for my family's future.

35:09

I want to leave and leave my kids.

35:12

You know all set up. I needed

35:15

the music to blow up on another level

35:17

so I could do the business. The

35:19

only way to succeed in life is

35:21

to empowering yourself. It's

35:24

all about being an entrepreneur. I

35:26

want my wikipedia to start

35:29

off by saying, Joseph Antonio

35:31

card to Gina, American

35:33

businessman. You know, there's so much more

35:36

up than being a gangster rapper. We

35:38

have a great brand that we're all proud

35:40

of. Fat Joe started opening up

35:42

sneaker stores in the city and

35:44

he created what we called the up end

35:47

Y c and Sneaker Initiative to

35:49

reward kids with sneakers

35:51

from impoverished neighborhoods

35:54

that do good in school. When I opened

35:56

the store, it was to give back to the

35:58

people. Philanthropy as

36:00

as big as in my heart, I've always given

36:02

back and that's what I'm gonna keep

36:04

doing. With the thought back in the days,

36:07

mom,

36:09

we would live good like this Huh started

36:12

with nothing. Huh. Damn

36:14

man, I'm so

36:17

let's do what chose. Thank God that we're here

36:19

and we're eating and pray

36:21

for everybody. Wow. You

36:24

know, I'm very lucky to have them, My wife,

36:27

Rich, my daughter, little Joey.

36:29

He's the Donny, always sits at the top

36:31

of the table. He's autistic, but he realizes

36:34

that he plays a powerful role

36:36

in this family. I'm proud of him. I

36:38

love him. I feel like all my blessings come

36:40

from him. I think having a child with special

36:42

needs is something that

36:44

he always tried to protect. But now he's

36:47

definitely um comfortable. My

36:49

kids, they are living up

36:52

tremendously different childhood

36:54

than me, and thank God, man, that's what we

36:56

all want for our kids. I love everybody

36:58

here, and everybody at this table very

37:01

very important to me in my life, and

37:03

I'm just happy that I still have my mother

37:05

father here with me. When my mother went

37:08

through cancer, my father never left up.

37:10

He's still by the side. A lot of people they run

37:12

away, and so I've been blessed to have

37:15

my parents, so I try to enjoy

37:17

it every second I can

37:20

with them. He's in a happy place

37:22

right now where he's able to express

37:24

and he doesn't give a fuck. He just knows

37:27

that he loves and he wants to show

37:29

love back. You know, he's a positive

37:31

guy and he's given out that positive

37:34

energy and he's the sunshine.

37:37

Wow. I have some very good

37:39

friends. This was like the first

37:41

song I ever made in my life based

37:44

on positivity and uplifting

37:47

the people. I'm gonna cheer him up. We're

37:49

gonna have fun. It's just the growth

37:51

of Joe. It's like he's lighter.

37:54

My brother Joe Crack still

37:57

knocking him out the park at fifty years

37:59

old. Joe has found a sense of balance.

38:02

I think he found a sense of peace. A lot

38:04

of people recording Joe the Elder Statesman and hip

38:06

hop because you think of when he came out,

38:08

what in early nineties, and now we're

38:10

in one. He have

38:12

revision after putting in so

38:14

much pain, after coming from where we

38:17

come from, beating the odds a

38:19

gazillion times, he

38:21

deserves to be happy. I think what Joe

38:23

did and what he gave to the

38:25

music business, two people,

38:28

marginalized people from tough neighborhoods.

38:31

Hope you understood that

38:33

he came from nothing and turned it into

38:36

something, and that's what Joe gave two People's really nice

38:38

to see the evolution of where he started to where

38:40

he is now. It's really like

38:42

a hip hop fairy tale. More to

38:44

the story is courage

38:48

that I have been through everything you could think of. I

38:50

was in the streets, jail you

38:52

know, we know its family, friends,

38:55

and been tested to where I had to step

38:57

up, always saying that your darkest moments

38:59

bring your most clarity. H

39:06

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