AllHipHop: New Fat Joe Interview, Pts.1-2

[Turntable]

The fact that an artist can have a successful career beyond a debut album these days is often testimony to something greater than just talent. Fat Joe is one of the tried and true artists of our time, a man with over a decade of albums and a string of street-savvy hits. While some may deem leaving a major label relationship to be the end, Joe is striking up new beginnings with his own independent label situation and a fresh perspective.

By far one of the most vocal veteran artists on the scene, Joe has experienced his fair share of controversy. From the very public issues with members of his own crew to his stance on the state of New York Hip-Hop, Joe is determined to hold things together. He sat down with us after a four year sabbatical from AllHipHop.com to chop it up about everything you wanted to know, but might have been too afraid to ask.

AllHipHop.com: The biggest point of conversation right now amongst a lot of the veteran MCs in New York is about the state of New York Hip-Hop, and the relevancy in the market right now compared to southern Hip-Hop. You voiced your concerns about it in the past and you’ve definitely advocated that the Southern hustle is tight right now. What do you feel are the biggest challenges that New York artists have to overcome right now?

Fat Joe: [They] gotta make good music. It’s too simple, I sit here and I listen to mix shows and all these rappers are rapping about the same things. You can’t even tell the difference who’s who, same kind of music. Every beat sounds like the same guy made it, even though different people made it. We basically gotta start making hit records, when you say the South is winning, the reason why you’re saying the South is winning is because T.I. and Ludacris don’t get along but they’re both dropping hit records and selling records. He got “What You Know About That” and he got your “Money Maker”, then you got Jeezy, Usher, and everybody.

[One camp can’t] bring back New York. Nas gotta pop off, Jay-Z gotta pop off, Fat Joe gotta pop off. Like Jay-Z, if he pops off, fine Jay-Z popped off. That’s all that means - it doesn’t mean that New York is a movement coming back. Everybody needs to get their grind on, make some big songs and hit records. I don’t think just making music for New York - I don’t think just making records to where you’re gonna get played on [DJ] Absolut or whatever it is bringing New York back. You need somebody in Arizona loving your music, you need somebody in the South, in the West coast, the Midwest, somebody in Cleveland loving your music. That’s the only way to say New York will have a movement and be relevant when everybody is bumping your music. I’m not talking about from New York to Philly - I’m talking about the whole world rocking your stuff.

AllHipHop.com: How do you feel as a New Yorker looking at what the South is doing from a business perspective?

Fat Joe: They’re making great music, they got a stronghold and they’re not letting it go. They’re not tryna pass that baton, so they keep coming and making great music. At the end of the day you gotta realize that it’s New York cats putting the South on. This is a business, so if New York rappers aren’t selling records or making great music…every record label is from New York so they’re putting [the South] on because they’re making better music.

I just wanna hear hit records, that Jim Jones record [“We Fly High”] is a hit record. When I hear it and people go crazy, there’s nothing you can do it about it. You don’t even gotta like him - you know it’s a hot record. Let’s move on, let’s make some hit records, that’s it. We need everybody making hit records in order for New York to come back, even the enemies. Other than that it’s a whole bunch of mumbo jumbo.

AllHipHop.com: How do you feel about the criticism that your song “No Drama” sounded too much like Rick Ross [“Hustlin”]?

Fat Joe: First of all, I ain’t never sounded like Rick Ross, I’m Joe Crack. I got more hits than probably all the MCs you ever imagined to interview to be honest with you, so I could never try to sound like nobody. Rick Ross is just freshly in the game and I embrace him. My brother [DJ] Khaled broke him, he’s my brother and I got major love for him. What happened was the beat was produced by The Runners, [who have] their own sound. I rapped on that because of The Runners sound, I would never try to bite Rick Ross or do what he did. It wasn’t a single, we threw it out to let people know Joe Crack was coming.

The craziest thing about the thing is I dropped a straight New York boom-bap record before that called “Damn” that’s straight crack music produced by LV, that not even New York embraced like that. So then I dropped a song that some critics said sounded like Rick Ross, and that caught spins all over the country. So it’s amazing when you break down who the critics are and what they want, and I feel like Joe Crack is always under a microscope. First of all you don’t like me, [a lot of the critics] and you still got something to say about everything I do. “Oh he wanna be south now,” but you don’t even give a f**k about me so why are you commenting so much on me?

It’s amazing, because my peoples tell me about the internet [and what people are saying], so I said I gotta invite people down to listen to the album so they can hear the whole album and understand where I’m coming from. It’s amazing that I’ve been more criticized about my music in the last two or three months than my whole career, and 150-200 people came down to the listening session [which is] more than I ever had. I don’t know if they came to see if “This is the end of Fat Joe” or “Let’s see what’s gonna happen, and it’s crazy.” They all came through and they loved the album, they see what it is with Fat Joe and it is what it is. A lot of the guys on the internet is weirdos too, you got your guys on the internet that just talk s**t for no reason. It could be the greatest thing on the planet Earth, “F**k that, I don’t like it.” Elvis is coming back, 2Pac is coming back, you can never grab these n***as. You can’t necessarily believe all of them.

AllHipHop.com: Who are some of the young MCs that you feel have a potential for a career that’s lasted as long as you?

Fat Joe: It’s just really hard, I don’t think you truly understand that the guy they criticize and the guy that they really don’t think is that dope [has] been here for 13 years. I got multiple Number One hits in the country, I rock with whoever you need to rock with. I’m the only rapper in the world that’s ever got better and better every album and I know what it takes. It’s a very rare and special breed, you gotta have passion for this and love the game. A lot of times in my career I could have just gave up and quit. Some of my best friends tell me “Yo it’s over, it is what it is. You made some money, let’s move on.” I’m looking at them like they smoke crack or something, you crazy I’m here. I’m a do what I gotta do. Mato told me I should retire, this is my right hand man. I wrote “My Lifestyle” that night and it was the craziest song on the planet Earth in the streets. I never listened and I’m still here. It makes me stand up, whenever you count Joe out and put his back to the wall I come out swinging harder than ever.

It would sound real disrespectful [but] I could tell you over a thousand people who came in when I came in and they’re not here. So in order to stick around like Fat Joe, I cant tell you a MC that I heard spit 16 bars that’s gonna be here 13 years later. I hear these n***as they get on a feature of a song, they spit 16 bars and the next thing I know they’re King of New York. Please, where’s the multiple classic albums, hit records or whatever the case may be? You want me to tell you that one of these new n***as is gonna be the next, I can’t tell you - and honestly I don’t see it. They gotta give me classic albums, s**t we never heard before, new vibes and everything in order for me to tell you “Yo, this n***as gonna be here 15 years later.”

It’s too hard, some of the greatest in the game [like] Kool G Rap ain’t relevant today. Pun studied Kool G Rap and Pun is probably one of the nicest lyricists ever. Your Buckshot Shorty’s and them, they’re still doing their grind and they’re on the underground level, but I could tell you about guys who were on fire flame broiling and ain’t here right now. I could tell you about guys who sold 20 million records who’s trying to come back but ain’t as relevant. It’s almost impossible, somebody like LL Cool J is about the only one who got that longevity. Hip-Hop music, our fans if you’re real fans and you love Chamillionaire right now love him 10 and 15 years from now. If you really love Bone Thugs N Harmony, keep supporting them and whoever you really love. The problem we got in Hip-Hop music is everything is new. So when they get the new gimmick, the new guy who got shot up or just came out of jail they run with it. Onyx sold four million records, I remember when Onyx couldn’t perform. It was ram packed, the whole block n***as would start riots. Go help Sticky Fingaz right now, go buy his new record. Hip-Hop is very disloyal to the pioneers that made it happen, so I urge you to keep supporting them.

AllHipHop.com: There were different levels of dissatisfaction with All Or Nothing, I think the fans on certain levels weren’t as happy with that as your past works, and I weren’t happy with a lot of the situations surrounding the album. What do you feel could have been done differently as far as recording or promoting the album, and do you feel like things would have been a little different if “Safe 2 Say” had been put out as the first single rather than “Hold U Down”?

Fat Joe: It’s hard to say, because first of all I feel like All Or Nothing was really promoted. I went out on the road on a promo tour for 60-70 days, touched the town multiple times. “Safe 2 Say” was a real hot record, but when you look at the world of music it’s so hard to come with a hardcore Hip-Hop song like that and get radio play around the world. Of course, major labels they stress that you gotta make a song that’s gonna play on the radio. Let’s take the f****t 50 Cent, he can do mixtapes all day dissing people but he’ll [make] “Just A Little Bit” because he wants to get played on the radio. The only person who could kill his wife, throw her in the trunk and get played [on mainstream radio] is Eminem. Other than that, something like “Safe 2 Say” was the hottest street joint you could drop, but that wasn’t gonna get played all around the country.

The joint with Nelly [“Get It Poppin”], a lot of my fans was upset, but it was a hit record. I come from Diggin’ In The Crates, I come from hardcore Hip-Hop, but I also like to make songs for young ladies and make songs for the clubs. That’s my s**t too, so at the time I felt like I was definitely rushed into making that album. Atlantic was like, “Yo hurry up give me the album, let’s go with this and that,” it’s a real radio driven record label to where they will definitely pick the song that they feel is gonna get radio spins. That’s the nature of the whole Hip-Hop game.

So if AllHipHop.com really wants to know, you can have a rapper that you really love come out with a hardcore single that ain’t getting no play, all their fans rush to the store and say he sells 250,000 records that week. The second week is reality land - the second week you come back and if you ain’t got a video or a record that’s spinning on radio crazy then your s**t is gonna just drop dramatically and by the third or fourth week you the f**k out of here, have a nice day. As long as you ain’t selling records steadily or consistently, at least have some type of story with it that your record is going at radio or playing on video [the record label is] not gonna support your s**t. This is why some of your favorite rappers, you be like “Damn I want them to come with that s**t that’s on the album,” and they just can’t do it.

Edited October 23, 2006 by Turntable

[Turntable]

This is a good interview. He has intresting views on the rap-game.

[bigted]

Yeah he sure does, I actually read this interview earlier today on that site, I agree with him with the point that no matter what an artist does it's hard to satisfy people, and really it doesn't matter if an artist tours or not when it comes to selling records, he does big touring and sells much less than Will does, we said that "Lost and Found" would sell more if Will toured but not really, it's really more about exposure

Edited October 23, 2006 by bigted

[Turntable]

I also liked the part about the newcomers, and the vet's, and the respect fans got (or dont got). Dude know's the game. Much respect to The Don.

[bigted]

There's still a lot of great music in hip-hop from the east coast, it's not really getting much airplay but that don't mean it's wack, artists need to just keep putting out great music and put egos to side, all the egos sorta takes away from the music like Fat Joe says, the south artists don't tear each other down that's why they're selling but a lot of rappers from the east coast seem to be hating on each other, that's real talk right there

[Turntable]

If you look at all those South Guys.. They'r all guys who who seem like they dont realy take themselfs too serious. I respect that, even tho I dont like most of theyr music.

[bigted]

South rappers collab more with each other, that's why they're so popular, people like to hear collabos, a lot of east coast rappers beef with each other instead of recording hits together, in order for NY and the east coast to get back to the top of the map rappers need to stop beefing, if there's more big collabs like Busta's "Touch It" remix then the east coast will be on top of the game again

[DefCEM]

still talking about all that east west south bullsh!t? hey guys, thats not the point. its all about making good and quality music and not who's the best and where he belongs to. can't hear that sh!t anymore...

[bigted]

still talking about all that east west south bullsh!t? hey guys, thats not the point. its all about making good and quality music and not who's the best and where he belongs to. can't hear that sh!t anymore...

That's what Fat Joe's saying:

Fat Joe: [They] gotta make good music. It’s too simple, I sit here and I listen to mix shows and all these rappers are rapping about the same things. You can’t even tell the difference who’s who, same kind of music. Every beat sounds like the same guy made it, even though different people made it. We basically gotta start making hit records....

He's saying that the artists need to do less complaining about what coast is selling more than the other and just make great music that everyone would want to bump, not just a certain region, he's saying rappers need to make universal music, there's some cats on the east coast saying the south is wack when they put out wack music too and they wonder why they ain't selling, they need to look in the mirror before dissing

Edited October 24, 2006 by bigted

[derrickbrock14]

Very informative

[Bob]

This is a good interview. He has intresting views on the rap-game.

awesome stuff

[bigted]

Fat Joe: Safe to Say Part 2

By Dove ~Sheepish Lordess of Chaos~

AllHipHop.com: As far as image, you come across as a very serious person most of the time but you did a skit with Andy Milonakis, who is probably one of the craziest people in the world. Do you think that people misunderstand your personality sometimes and don’t see that you’re a fun guy?

Fat Joe: Big time they mis-underestimate my personality. It’s not my fault I’m a real n***a and most rappers aint real. It’s not my fault that I go in the club maybe three or four deep and I get the respect of the n***a hustling popping the bottles, the killers. They all respect me as a man, as a serious and real n***a, I’m not the rapper getting drunk smoking a blunt in the club looking like an a**hole, or getting smacked up and robbed that’s not what I do. People take that image and they look at it like, “Damn he’s unapproachable,” but I’m the nicest dude on the planet Earth. That’s why I’m in my community, that’s why I talk to the kids and give computers back. That’s why we talk to everybody, I’m the funniest n***a. My n***a T.A. tells me, n***as ask him all the time “Yo Joe Crack, he looks serious [all the time].”

Another thing is this Hip-Hop game is full of a lot of wanna be and attachable n***as and n***as bandwagon and s**t like that. I know all you n***as, I will never let you n***as hang out with me. So all these n***as that hang out with all these other rappers that I dismiss [they say] “Yo Crack you the realest. Let me hang out with you, let me hold your bag for you.” N***a please, you see me with the same n***as I move with the same crew. We’re small, we not down with the wanna be fake n***as. We’re not dissing you, we’re just not down with that - I wanna be cool and associate myself with real people.

So it’s different, but actually Fat Joe is probably one of the only rappers that truly cares about his community and the people and I love people and joke with people. If I gotta play softball with people, if I’m at the Rucker and got a team, I’m walking through Harlem going to eat there, spending my money back in The Bronx I love you guys. When you see me and I just got that ice grill on in the pictures and all that, that’s part of me. That’s my Hip-Hop wild out side, but I’m a father, a family man and actually a fan and a great friend.

AllHipHop.com: What’s the status of your relationships with Remy [Ma] and Tony Sunshine at this point and will you work together in the future?

Fat Joe: Of course I’ll work with Remy, Remy just came to the video for “Clap and Revolve”, we talk to her every single day. I’m getting tired of answering this, but Remy Martin is the best female rapper on the planet Earth. Her album was incredible. Me and Remy argue all the time behind the scenes, because she’s my sister. She damn hear lived with me for five years, so the one time she came out the side of her mouth on the radio she was feeling pressure. She thought the album wasn’t gonna do as well as it should, so she was mad at the world but she threw me under the bus as she does to me every day. We could argue everyday, hug everyday it is what it is.

Everything she was saying was actually right, but she was picking the wrong person to be mad at. I’ve been working with Steve Rifkind since Pun, he’s responsible for putting me on and making me an executive. He gave me the deal for Big Pun when everybody told him not to, all the f****ts in the industry were like, “Yo don’t work with him, them dudes are crazy” - he gave me a chance. So I was very loyal to Steve Rifkind. Because of Remy’s project I don’t talk to Steve Rifkind no more, and I have a long history with him of making mad money and doing positive things with him. I don’t even work with him no more, I took Terror Squad off of Universal because of Remy. So I was up there everyday arguing with him, arguing with the chairmans [like] Mel Lewinter, and every time you saw Remy’s album pushed back, I kept telling them to push it back because I was like, “This is not set up properly, we did not spend the right marketing money, send her out on the road long enough, spend the right money to market this video.”

I know what it takes to make hits and sell tons of records and give you the visibility, so at least you have a chance. So everything she was saying, I totally agreed with her, the problem is she threw me under the bus. The difference is you gotta understand that in Hip-Hop, if she said Mel Lewinter would you care? Would you know who he is? Even with Steve Rifkind, would you care? Would you know? So what happens is when The Lox go on the radio and say “Let us go!” and Puffy cant walk through the streets because n***as is like “Yo, let them go!” but if they had signed to Rob Wockenthorn they could have been screaming that s**t for a lifetime and n***as wouldn’t give a f**k nor would they have gotten their publishing back. I know the cost of being the boss is very, very hard, and I accept that responsibility - but it is what it is.

Tony Sunshine’s album is coming out in March, he’s Puerto Rican and he does Black music. He’s incredible, his album is phenomenal crack music. But we signed him to like three or four labels and they didn’t understand, they tell me, “We wanted the Latino movement.” I’m like. “Yeah well he is the Latino movement.” [They say] “Yeah but he’s Puerto Rican and he does Black music.” Well what the f**k you think Big Pun and Fat Joe is? They get nervous because they never seen nobody like him in R&B music. Right now he has a beautiful home, we signed a joint venture with UBO and these guys are motivated to popping him off. Ladies I know you’ve been waiting a long time, fellas I know you love Tony Sunshine. He’s coming out in March.

I mess with very few artists because in order for me to endorse an artist or really get behind him I have to feel like they’re superstars. I brought you Big Pun, the greatest Latino ever and one of the top rappers ever. Remy Martin is the best female, I brought you producers like Cool & Dre who’s made tons of hits. I brought you DJ Khaled, best DJ on the planet Earth. So whenever you see Fat Joe embrace and mess with something, you automatically know he’s behind it and he really knows this s**t is hot. So everybody in the hood comes at me like, “Why don’t you put out more n***as?” - another thing is I’m just the middleman. Puff Daddy is a middleman, all of us are middlemen. Jimmy Iovine is the f****t’s boss [50 Cent], at the end of the day we try to get it popping but all we are, is like, spokesmen.

[Like I mentioned] earlier, how many times rappers I was down with told me, “Let’s just retire, we did it already.” Every two years they tell us we should retire and we come back with a smoker. Just before “Lean Back,” I was talking to - I cant even tell you who - but they was like “Yo, you know you rich already, just give up” and I came up with “Lean Back” and smacked these n***as in their face. It’s tough to be built like this and go up against the world, really honestly, we’re the poor people’s champions. We throw rocks at tanks. A lot of people don’t want us here, a lot of f****t n***as in power, not meaning actual homosexuals, just saying the bougie society who is scared of guys like Fat Joe and they really never wanted me here.

Through my music I’ve been able to last this long. Another thing is, I can’t force you to buy the record. You love the music, go buy it and support. I can’t put a bazooka at the fans and tell them go buy it. I can’t force radio and video to play my record. A lot of people think just cause Fat Joe is that tough bravado type n***a, some n***as think I done thugged my way in this industry and forced n***as to making me number one. [laughs] It’s the most illiterate s**t I ever heard, I’m working day and night trying to promote my music and go out. I can’t chase down the whole f**king country. I work for you, the people, be clear. I make music for you, if you don’t appreciate it and support it that’s your choice.

AllHipHop.com: With the changing shift in Manhattan with living situations, how do you feel about the gentrification of the South Bronx and what it’s doing to the Hip-Hop culture there?

Fat Joe: This ain’t a racist conversation, this is a reality conversation. I’ve heard stuff like, “Joe reps the Spanish, he might be racist.” Well, I didn’t say Public Enemy was racist and they were green, black and red and I bumped that s**t all day, I’m for everybody, the people. But the true statement [that] we’re gonna say right now, is that obviously people have to be closer to Midtown. It’s going on around the whole country, Humboldt Park in Chicago, Philly it’s going down. Whenever you see the f**king Starbucks come up and the Jamba Juice, it’s on. So you take a little old lady who owned a house in Harlem for all her life, she’s a property owner and what you do is a find a way to raise her tax so that she’s old already and can’t pay $20,000 a month in property tax. So what she has to do is sell the s**t, somebody goes to buy it who can afford it and be 10 minutes away from Manhattan. This is going on in every hood in every city in America.

The thing that bothers me is I wonder where these people go. When everybody’s thrown out of hood, they move everybody out and beautify it, all of a sudden s**t starts being clean. You know when you’re in the hood you ain’t got no f**king clean s**t, it ain’t no cops, you hear a million shots. Once that Starbucks comes up and that Jamba Juice and Citarella, [there are] no more shots and cops on every corner, n***as walking freely. It’s a matter of do you wanna help or you don’t wanna help. It’s like obviously they help when they want to help.

[Turntable]

Very cool. Thanks for that. He's a real guy.

Edited October 25, 2006 by Turntable