Fat Joe joins GQ as he revisits some of the most iconic tracks from his career so far: from What’s Luv? (“this record saved my life”) to All the Way Up (“if we knock this out of the park, we might have another ‘Lean Back’).“That was really a reflection of my life — that’s how I grew up,” says the American rapper as he recalls writing the lyrics for My Lifestyle. Watch the full episode of GQ’s Iconic Tracks as Fat Joe breaks down his most iconic music.Director: Jeremy ClowneyDirector of Photography: Brad WickhamEditor: Ryan JeffreyTalent: Fat JoeProducer: Sam Dennis; Camille RamosLine Producer: Jen SantosAssociate Producer: Oadhan LynchProduction Manager: James PipitoneProduction Coordinator: Elizabeth HymesTalent Booker: Jenna CaldwellCamera Operator: Duell DavisGaffer: David DjacoSound Mixer: Amelia PalmerProduction Assistant: Ashley VidalPost Production Supervisor: Jarrod BrunerPost Production Coordinator: Ian BryantSupervising Editor: Rob LombardiAssistant Editor: Billy Ward
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00I am old.
00:01I'm just an old, fat, fly nigga.
00:03That's it.
00:04I'm gonna be fly till I die, till you roll up in the casket.
00:07Hey yo, what up GQ?
00:09This is Fat Joe and this is Iconic Tracks.
00:25Well this record saved my life.
00:27I was going through a lot.
00:28I was going through a lot of depression, you know, I lost Pun.
00:31I lost my sister.
00:33I lost my grandfather all in about two, three weeks.
00:36You know, I went into depression and thank God I seek therapy and I went to therapy for
00:42two years.
00:43Through the process I had met Irv Gotti.
00:45One day he called me, when you still got phones in the house, it was like three in the morning.
00:49He's like, yo, I got it.
00:51I got it.
00:52Yo, come to Soli's studio.
00:54So I go down to Manhattan.
00:56He press play.
00:57It's What's Love.
00:58And this is when they were like the Drake.
01:01When I get in there, they play it for me one time, I knew it was a smash.
01:04I had to do the lyrics and then I did the hook.
01:06When I look at your eyes, there's no stopping me.
01:08I want the knowledge that we crack on top.
01:11That's something Pun had taught me.
01:13He had taught me so good, I gave him credit on the record.
01:16He taught me how to make bridges.
01:17Like Big Pun, although I discovered him, he sat me down on days when we was the most popping
01:22and we supposed to be in the street.
01:25He'd be sunny.
01:26He'd be like, yo, hold up.
01:27Let's make music.
01:28Hold up.
01:29Let me show you how to do this.
01:30Hold up.
01:31Although he wasn't on this earth, I still credited him and gave him a piece and a publishing
01:34to his family because What's Love was so inspired by what he taught me.
01:40So when I got signed to Atlantic Records, I never forget the speech.
01:43They said, you, my friend, are not Beyonce.
01:45If you miss one, your career is done.
01:49So I had to make hits every single time.
01:52So I trained myself to only make hits.
01:56When I heard it, it was a hit.
01:58And so they was trying to say, yo, throw J-Lo on it.
02:01She's big, this, this, that.
02:02And I was like, yo, what about the girl that's on there?
02:04And she ain't had nothing out yet.
02:06To me, it's always been about the integrity of the music.
02:09If I hear it and it's a hit, I don't care if you the biggest, you the smallest, it is
02:13what it is.
02:14You know, we rocking with it.
02:22It was another time I was fighting for my life.
02:33You know, I had got jerked from my publishing.
02:35I finally fought back to get my publishing.
02:38But meanwhile, I'm hearing Ludacris, all these guys getting million dollar deals.
02:43So I'm thinking the minute I get my shit back, I'm going to get me a million dollar deal.
02:47So I went around town and the biggest offer was like $250.
02:51I had met Scott Storch, so I went down to Florida and we cut Lean Back.
02:56I wrote two versions.
02:57I wrote Lean Back the girl for girls.
03:01And then I wrote the I don't give a fuck about your faults if this happens.
03:04We from the Bronx, New York.
03:06And I remember I was almost scared of Lean Back.
03:08Like I was riding around Manhattan, middle of the night, just listening.
03:15When I think I got one, got one.
03:17Like I really go in and try to like really knock it out.
03:21And then the hook, you know, I always give credit to the Jamaicans.
03:27At the time they asked, signal the plane, signal the plane, already man, already man.
03:32And they had these dances.
03:33I was like, yo, we got to do a dance like the Jamaicans.
03:36Like Lean Back, Lean Back.
03:38And we just kept it.
03:40And that was that.
03:41I had three verses.
03:42That was my solo song.
03:44I went to eat some McDonald's with Calla when I came back.
03:47I'm like, yo, what's up?
03:48And they were like, Remy erased your second verse.
03:51She put a verse on there.
03:53I said, what?
03:54She was in the corner.
03:55They pressed play.
03:56All to the easy, M to the wizard, I danced.
03:59I was like, yo, that shit crazy.
04:02I love that shit.
04:03Remy thugged away on that and she thugged away on MOP's Andy Up.
04:08She was hungry.
04:09Remy was down with us since she was about 16.
04:12Pum met her.
04:13He said, yo, drop out of school.
04:14You don't need that shit.
04:15We're going to make you a star.
04:16She did that.
04:17And I had been looking.
04:18You know, they had Foxy, they had Kim, they had Eve.
04:22I've been looking for a female rapper in Terror Squad.
04:25And when she came, she was so incredible.
04:29And she says I was ice grilling her while she was rapping.
04:33And when we walked off, Pum was like, yo, what you think about it?
04:37Truly, I was like, oh my God, this is the greatest girl in the world.
04:40But I was like, she all right.
04:41He was like, nah, twin, she going to be your rapper.
04:44I was like, yo, she's incredible, B. She came with us on tour.
04:47She might have been 17 on tour, like around America.
04:51I remember one time I caught her selling weed.
04:53I threw her off the bus.
04:54I was like, what the fuck you doing selling weed with fucking rappers?
04:59You think we were driving across America with 10 pounds of weed?
05:02Like, you know, Remy the real deal.
05:04I had met Kevin Hart on the set of a scary movie where I went against Eminem in the scary
05:09movie.
05:10Kevin Hart was an extra.
05:12And so while we ate, we kept snapping on each other, telling jokes and this and this and
05:16that.
05:17So I took his number.
05:18When I thought of the concept of Lean Back, somebody not being able to let people in the
05:24party, I didn't want it to be a big guy.
05:26So I called up Kevin and I said, yo, come through.
05:29He came.
05:30He did that.
05:31That was iconic.
05:32You know, at the time, Lil Jon, that what was crazy.
05:35So while he was like, y'all can't come in here, Lil Jon was like, what?
05:38Y'all can't come in here?
05:39What?
05:40It was just so many different elements to the video that was fire.
05:45Let me hear it.
05:46Yeah!
05:47Yeah!
05:48Look at the top there, man.
05:51Got Mase back.
05:52Well, Mase was the king.
05:54And he disappeared, went to church, whatever.
05:58And I remember the way I got Mase was the way I got Eminem.
06:03Mase is one of Eminem's favorite rappers ever.
06:07Mase was Kanye's favorite rapper.
06:10So I told Eminem I had Mase.
06:13But I didn't have Mase.
06:14He was like, yo, send me the verse.
06:16So I had to find Mase.
06:18And then Mase did it for me.
06:19I know Mase since he was a kid with Big L and all of them.
06:24And then Eminem heard it and jumped on it.
06:27Eminem was a perfectionist, so he sent the same verse like 40 times.
06:31Then I sent it to Lil Jon to give it that South, because that South was winning crazy.
06:36That record possibly doesn't blow up without Lil Jon throwing us on Summer Jam.
06:42New York fronted on me.
06:43They didn't give me a slot.
06:45It was Lil Jon who put us on Summer Jam, and we came out of there leaning back.
06:49That shit was like three days after we dropped it, 62,000 people leaning back.
06:54You know, certain records, it's like forever.
06:57It's that lean back forever.
06:58Every time I play it, if I played it right now, bam, bam, bam, be brand new.
07:02One thing about lean back, it never gets old.
07:07New York's my second favorite song that I ever participated in.
07:20When having a job rule, I don't want to compare it to that because it's blasphemy to even
07:25talk like that, but it was like Jesus carrying the cross.
07:28The man went from being the biggest hit maker, the biggest guy in the game, to somebody warring
07:33with him and everybody turning on him.
07:35Me knowing him as a real brother, he was such a beautiful person, beautiful guy, I never
07:40understood why this was happening to him.
07:43But like I told you, I was loyal to him.
07:46When he's going through his war, I got the New York record.
07:49I'm like, yo, let's give it a job.
07:52I got Jadakiss on the record for him too.
07:54I think this is part of the reason why 50 Cent started dissing me.
07:57He thought he finished him, but that's just me being loyal to my friend.
08:02You know, I'm stuck with job rule.
08:04They book us together, we've been all around the world together, we best friends, we family.
08:09We did verses together.
08:11I'm just looking at him like, yeah, I'm really stuck with this guy.
08:15Thank God, him and Herb, they saved my life.
08:18And that's why I went to war with 50 with him because it was just like, you know, these
08:22guys came, saved my life at a time I really needed them.
08:26And I'm from the school of don't bite the hand that feeds you.
08:30But New York, it was like the Pied Piper.
08:33We shot the video in the Bronx, Queens, all over, and people were just coming out the
08:38firescapes, coming out the basements.
08:41You know, the only record that ever beat us, good old Jay-Z and Alicia Keys, New York.
08:48We had it for like a year or two where I was like, we got the greatest New York record
08:52of all time.
08:53It's over.
08:54We got this.
08:55Frank Sinatra.
08:56And then they came with that.
08:57I said, ah, shit, I'm not in New York.
09:01The Knicks used it all day.
09:02It's probably the second best New York record of all time.
09:21You know, I had went on tour, but not a real tour.
09:24It was a tour of NBA and I think Budweiser.
09:29And so after every game in every city, they would throw a party and I was just hosting
09:34it with whoever the star was.
09:36So if I was in Philly, it was me and AI.
09:39If I was in Memphis, it was me and Zach Randolph.
09:42Everywhere.
09:43Was playing nothing but South music in the club.
09:46And so I had realized that East Coast and New York dominance beats was out of here.
09:54One night I'm in Memphis and the DJ plays till like two in the morning.
09:59The club's about to shut down.
10:00He said, let me throw it back.
10:02The Rock Boys in the building tonight.
10:04But the problem was that was the hottest record out.
10:09And because of the sound, he called it a throwback.
10:13And I said, oh shit, we done.
10:15Like the South is running this shit.
10:17So I remember I got on a plane.
10:20So all night I had watched this Heavyset girl.
10:24She was by a speaker, dancing, dancing.
10:27And so when I go to Miami, I booked studio with Scott Storch the next day.
10:32I have dinner, I mean breakfast in a diner where my man stands.
10:37He's the hottest executive in the game.
10:39But at the time he knew nothing about the music business.
10:43So we having breakfast and he was like, yo man, I was in the strip club last night and
10:47these guys, they was just throwing money in the air.
10:51Before that you would tip a girl.
10:52I was like, money in the air?
10:54Like what?
10:55He was like, money in the air.
10:56I said, so you mean like when you threw it up, it was like drizzling back?
11:01Like it was coming down?
11:02He was like, yeah.
11:03I was like, they was making it rain in that motherfucker.
11:05I go to the studio that night and I tell Scott Storch, let's work.
11:09So he's like, what you want to do?
11:11And I said, this.
11:13You digging in the crates.
11:14You Fat Joe.
11:15You New York.
11:16You can't rap to that.
11:18Before that nobody was rapping to that.
11:19And then while he's making the beat, I'm thinking about the girl who's dancing to the
11:24speaker.
11:25And I'm like, nah, nah, nah.
11:27She ain't dancing.
11:28She ain't.
11:29And everybody looking at me like they crazy.
11:30I said, she ain't going to that.
11:31She ain't dancing.
11:32Then he finally programmed the drums and everything to where I was like, yeah, this is it.
11:37Because I studied a girl, how she was dancing.
11:40So that's how I figured out the tempo.
11:42And so I had wrote the hook and I had the hook.
11:45And then I went and played it for Irv Gotti and Irv Gotti said, yo, ain't Lil Wayne your
11:49man?
11:50I said, yeah, that's my brother.
11:52He was like, yo, send it to him.
11:53Tell him to do that hook over.
11:55And he did it.
11:56And that was it.
11:57I made so much money off Make It Rain.
12:04I mean, I couldn't stop the checks from coming.
12:07It's real talk.
12:08It was my first independent record too.
12:10And it proved that I could do numbers like that independent.
12:15Wayne is a go.
12:16He's the first rapper since Tupac Shakur to have that type of work ethic.
12:22The way you see the youth now working, Lil Wayne discovered that.
12:26Being in the studio seven days a week, I don't care where you at, Wayne was just working.
12:31Lil Wayne come from New Orleans.
12:33So he's the first rapper who spit bars, but had those different south flows that was crazy.
12:44And so after Katrina, I came down to Miami, him and the Birdman, and I moved down to Miami.
12:50I was already there.
12:52And so we was working together every day.
12:54I mean, Miami was just love.
12:56It would be Pitbull in one studio, Wayne in one studio, and Ross in one studio, and Callan
13:04and me in one studio.
13:06We did mad songs together at that time.
13:09We was just jumping on tracks and helping people.
13:11I actually felt like they was happy to help.
13:29That was it.
13:30That was the meeting of the minds.
13:31It was the kings of kings.
13:33So we had Nas, we had Jada, we had Pun.
13:38You know how hard it was to get Nasty Nas on a feature at that time?
13:43Pun was so hyped to rhyme with Nas.
13:46I'm the kid out of the Bronx, they'd start me to death like it didn't matter.
13:50Pun ain't blow yet at that time.
13:52They knew he was gonna blow.
13:54Raekwon Da Chef.
13:56Well, you know, Raekwon Da Chef, besides Nori, he's possibly my best friend in hip hop.
14:03We had MAC-10 in the video, bringing the East Coast, West Coast, MC8 was in the video.
14:09It was an amazing time, man, and everybody was just on fire.
14:13I've always loved to collaborate with the youth and collaborate with the older, collaborate
14:20with Jamaicans, collaborate with reggae tone artists.
14:23I feel like music is the universal language.
14:27Music is the one thing that brings us all together besides sports.
14:31So I always understood and I always loved the art of collaboration.
14:36I've always loved to work with artists.
14:38You know what I mean?
14:39It's always been my thing.
14:40All the way up, all the way up, nothing can stop me, I'm all the way up.
14:45For my niggas with Bentley Coupes and Rolexes, kicked the bitch out the room and gave her
14:50no breakfast.
14:51All the way up saved my life, came out of jail.
14:54I remember going in the studio every night with Kool & Dre, all the young guys, because
14:59we got a studio where we got like three rooms.
15:02I remember the young guys with the fucking purple hair, the yellow hair, rappers was
15:07looking at me like, what this old nigga doing in the studio?
15:10I remember one time it was a young dude and Kool & Dre was like, yo, he spends a lot of
15:14money here, really wants you to hear his music.
15:16When I heard that music, you know it was a time where anybody thought they could rap.
15:21And so when I heard it, I told Kool & Dre, first time in my life, and I swear I'm not
15:26a hater, I said, yo, me or the guy gotta go.
15:31I cannot have this energy nowhere near me.
15:35So they got rid of him and I sat in the couch and then we came up with All The Way Up.
15:39Remy just did eight years in jail, they was fucking with her, giving her the toughest
15:44time you ever seen.
15:46No permission, she couldn't do no shows.
15:48And so I went with her and I said, yo Rem, I think, you know, I got it.
15:52I think people love Fat Joe and Remy together.
15:55If we knock this out the park, we might have another lean back.
15:59When it came time, I mean, an ill moment is we did the BET Awards.
16:03And I don't care what you say, maybe some artists, I don't think they care, but to come
16:07back from jail, to be performing on the BET Awards in front of Samuel Jackson and everybody.
16:17And I remember me and Hov, we grabbed each other's hand and we squeezed it tight.
16:21And we wanted to feel this moment.
16:24Then we did the remix.
16:25Now the remix, Drake called me three times FaceTime and kept saying, send the files,
16:32send the instrumental, send the instrumental, 50 cent call.
16:37But me and Jay-Z had beat forever and it finally was over, over.
16:42And I said, yo man, I would love to hear myself with Jay-Z and you know, he's Remy's favorite
16:47rapper.
16:48And I just made the call.
16:50So I hit up Nori, Nori called Memphis Bleak, 10 minutes later, Jay-Z called me.
16:56He was like, yo, I can't wait.
16:58Let's go.
16:59I just saw a 50 Cent interview where 50 Cent said, Fat Joe is loyal to a foe.
17:06Anybody else in the history of mankind would have got a whole verse and threw the Drake
17:09in there.
17:11But I knew it would have been iconic with just Jay-Z.
17:15I just felt like for the fans that really, really knew, it would mean so much for Fat
17:20Joe and Hov being on one song together.
17:29My lifestyle is like everybody, every hood's favorite track.
17:35It's the real deal.
17:36I remember I was shooting the movie Empire and I remember I hit Buck Wild Up and I was
17:40like, yo, Buck, you got any beats?
17:42And he came with the...
17:45And every time I got a break, I would go in the trailer and pen another line, pen another
17:49line.
17:50And it was like, I stand alone in this cold world.
18:11The peace looked tremendous.
18:13That was really a reflection of my life.
18:17That's how I grew up.
18:18I've been feeding 10 guys since I'm 14 years old.
18:24Imagine going to the ghetto Chinese and one guy pays for the 10 guys, pork fry, rice and
18:29chicken.
18:30I've been a boss since I'm 14.
18:32And a lot of guys in this game, unfortunately, I didn't realize it was entertainment at that
18:38time.
18:39I'll never forget, I rushed to a Mobb Deep show and they came out, no disrespect, they
18:43was this tall.
18:44I was like, yo.
18:46They were so small, security was carrying them.
18:48Listen, Prodigy's one of the greatest ever, Havoc's my man forever, let's be clear on
18:54that.
18:55They my friends, I love them.
18:57But you know, it's just a story I have to tell.
19:10Twins is my favorite record I ever did.
19:15East Coast, West Coast, coming right out of that beef, Pun is coming out.
19:20So I wanted to pick a beat that DJs in the West Coast and the East Coast was familiar
19:26with.
19:27So the reason we picked Deep Cover is because it had that New York sound, but it was really
19:33a West Coast song.
19:34You know, the funny thing is, the Dead in the Middle of Little Italy, that was like
19:38a joke to Pun.
19:40He never really took that serious as like bars.
19:43He listened to me, he did it.
19:44One thing about success in life, if you're uncoachable, then you'll never be successful.
19:53You got the best basketball player in the world, if he don't listen to the coach, he's
19:57bound to make a mistake in the championship game.
20:00But Pun would listen to me and respect my opinion, even though he was light years better
20:04than me.
20:06We did the Apollo.
20:08We came out, we both had the gray furs on, his shit said, big Pun inside, fat Joe.
20:14We was getting money, the gray leather pants.
20:18Every time we came out, it was like, doom, doom, doom.
20:20We was coming out to that, and it was like, Dead in the Middle of Little Italy.
20:24And the balcony at the Apollo looked like it was literally going to crack.
20:28It was like going to see Ringling Brothers and balling them barely.
20:32They could not believe, they heard it on the song, but they never seen a big boy do that.
20:38Guys was trying to run up the wall, climb up the, it was one of those moments.
20:43I'm one of the only guys that got into beef with the West Coast, physical.
20:47And then Farrakhan had to do a summit in his house.
20:52Once again, they invited the whole New York, they invited the whole West Coast.
20:56I was the only New York rapper that showed up, and Doug E. Fresh showed up.
21:00And I went at it with Ice Cube, I went at it with everybody.
21:04You know, went at it, going crazy.
21:06Snoop and Mouse became cool.
21:09That's where me and Mack 10 became brothers.
21:11And they respected me.
21:13Going to war for New York, face to face.
21:15The minute I called them, we knew after we left there, Farrakhan, Minister Farrakhan
21:21had made it clear, yo, Biggie died, Tupac died, y'all gonna play yourselves if y'all want to.
21:26So we all tried to leave that meeting knowing, let's gel again, let's end this.
21:32And so when I called Snoop, he was like, yo, I'll do it real quick, Joe, no problem.
21:36And he did it for me, and it was amazing.
21:48You know, I was in them streets.
21:49So what I can tell you is, Diamond D saved my life.
21:53One of the greatest producers of all time.
21:55He discovered me.
21:57He's the one who made me get off the street and say, yo, Joe, man, you gotta stop, they're
22:00gonna kill you out here.
22:02And then Diamond was like, why don't you say your story on music?
22:06He was already, you know, popping.
22:09Diamond was popping, digging in the crates.
22:11And he was like, I'm gonna pay for the studio, you come, I'll give you the beats.
22:15He really helped me, man, he was a real friend.
22:17We went to the studio, and I remember he played the...
22:25So it sounded like Fat Joe.
22:28And at the time, I was Fat Joe.
22:30I remember I had my first show at a club called A Fever in the Bronx.
22:35And I was so nervous because they had started playing it on the radio.
22:39I was like, is anybody coming?
22:41And then we sent people over there and came back.
22:42It was like, yo, there's lines around the block.
22:45You lit.
22:46But whatever the word was, you know what I'm saying?
22:49The game just keep moving.
22:51So Flo-Jo was hot for a year and a half, two years.
22:54And then it was like, how many times you want me to hear Flo-Jo?
22:57What you coming with next?
22:58So that was like the entry level.
23:00On my TV show, I interviewed LL Cool J the other day.
23:04We in Beverly Hills.
23:06He looked at me, he said, you know what I'm thinking?
23:07I said, no, what you thinking?
23:08He was like, I'm looking at the guy with the army fatigue right now, who used to have his
23:14eyes like this.
23:15He said, you know you used to look at people's souls, Jo.
23:20I can't believe you got a talk show.
23:22You changed.
23:23You were found.
23:24I'm like, yo.
23:25All week I've been like, you know, ever since I did the interview, I've been like, wow,
23:29I'm the kid with the army fatigue.
23:31It's crazy.
23:45I never saved my life.
23:47I was at a low time, and the U.S. promoters, they was playing with my bag.
23:52They didn't want to give me my worth.
23:55But Africa, for some reason, U.S. rappers ain't really want to go out there like that.
24:01So Fat Joe was getting all the bags.
24:03I was out in Africa for like two years straight.
24:06Every country, every single ... Do you know there's a country in Africa called Djibouti?
24:13It's called Djibouti.
24:14I've been there.
24:15And then we had one big concert that it was Timbaland, Ciara, Chris Brown, and me.
24:22And I'm hanging out with Chris Brown.
24:25I've known him since he was a kid.
24:26I was there when Scott Storch made his first song.
24:29And then he was like, yo, Crack, we got to work.
24:31I said, now, Chris, I'm not the guy you say that to.
24:35I'm low, low.
24:36I really need a comeback record.
24:38I was like, I'm not the guy you promised that to, and you disappear.
24:41Or, nah, Crack just send the joint.
24:45So I was already working, so I went up to Miami and got with Kool and Dre.
24:52And we actually, that hook was three songs, three different hooks.
24:56Excuse me, ladies, but I remember I used to be in Club Liv, and Lil Wayne had that, so
25:01I wish I could fuck every girl in the world.
25:04I wish I could fuck every girl in the world.
25:07And I used to watch Lil Wayne, because he was in Liv every Sunday, and he'd be pointing
25:12at all the girls.
25:13So when we wrote that, it said, I want you, and her, and her, and her, and you, and her.
25:20And it was just too much fuckery going on in that record, and then Chris sent that back
25:25the next day.
25:27Then we went out to L.A. and shot the video.
25:29That was another moneymaker, man.
25:31That one was, that was going.
25:44Pride and Joy was a hit.
25:47It was coming right after Another Round, and Rico Love had the hot pen, it was a hit.
25:54And Bink had did the beat, and then Kanye had heard it, and he was like, yo, I want
26:00to do something to it, and let's work together.
26:02At the time, Kanye could not lose.
26:05So Kanye said, yo, let's make it hip-hop, and he put the hip-hop drums, and then we
26:10invited everybody and their mother, I think Jadakiss, Busta, Mos Def, I mean, all of us
26:16did that.
26:17Even if she all about the money, I don't really care.
26:20He made me do my verses, same verse, but say it over and over maybe 300 times.
26:25My guys wanted to beat him up.
26:26It was like, yo, come on, man, fuck outta here with this.
26:29He'd be like, cul-de-sac, cul-de-sac, you know, cul-de-sac.
26:33He would leave.
26:34It was here in the jungle room where he had Travis Scott in the next room, that's where
26:39I met Travis Scott.
26:40He had everybody.
26:41He'd come back, cul-de-sac, cul-de-sac.
26:47I'm like, this is the great Kanye, right?
26:49And I'm already all, I'm his OG.
26:51I love the finished product.
26:53I love how my verses came out.
26:56That sound really great, but he's a tough one.
27:01He's a tough to work one, but it was an honor to work with him.
27:03He's my favorite rapper of the last half of my whole career.
27:09To this day, he's the only guy I compare my music to with this new album, The World Changed
27:16On Me.
27:17Anything Kanye do, I'm with.
27:19You know your man Kanye.
27:20He make me higher hype.
27:21A boy hype, William would charge you $400,000.
27:24I'm independent, bro.
27:26The only thing Kanye ever charged me for is his wardrobe.
27:31I remember Kim Kardashian came with him, and I walked through his wardrobe, and I looked.
27:35It was like tank tops for like $8,000.
27:37I was like, yo, what the fuck is this?
27:40They're like, nah, it's from France.
27:42You know, special tank top.
27:44This is, I was like, man, listen.
27:47I lost a lot of money on that Pride and Joy.
27:49I mean, at least the visual is great, the song is great.
27:52It's there for hip hop history.
28:02You know, I hated that song.
28:04It went number one in America, like hot Billboard 100, but we planned it.
28:09And shout out to my brother Nelly for doing it with me, and I love him, and I loved that
28:13I collaborated with him.
28:15But that record, man, it was a genetically made hit, like a clone.
28:23We said, all right, this is a hit.
28:25We're going to do it like that.
28:26Kool & Dre made the beat.
28:27It was incredible.
28:28Then I was like, I got to rhyme like this, and then we're going to get Nelly right here,
28:31and then it's going to be a hit, and the motherfucker went number one.
28:34And I perform it to this day, and everybody loves it.
28:37You know, I like that Lean Back came out with like, I don't give a fuck about your thoughts
28:41on what happens.
28:42We from the Bronx, New York, shit.
28:44Could you imagine that playing on Z100 and every opera station?
28:49But it did.
28:50And then it was like white people discovered I was Joey Crack, so they would have like
28:55Saturday Night Live and show clips of me, the crack of my ass, and be like, they call
28:59him Joey Crack.
29:00This shit was insane.
29:01You know what I mean?
29:03But that came organic.
29:04That came, authentically became a hit.
29:18All I Need from back in the day.
29:21Underrated song.
29:22I thought it was like a real hit.
29:24I thought it could have been a real classic, a hit.
29:27Tony Sunshine, he's one guy who I think is a superstar, but never really got his really
29:32just due.
29:33Idris Elba, I was the first to put him on something.
29:36He tried out for the video, and we said, yo, that's the dude.
29:40And my wife was like, yo, this is a handsome guy right here, right?
29:43It's cool.
29:44And the girl, the lead girl for that was supposed to be Sofia Vergara.
29:49She was supposed to do it, and the last second she backed out.
29:52And I offered her the bag back.
29:55And then we used the other girl from The Best Man.
29:57She's a big actress.
29:58She was nice.
29:59Man, we did it on Biggie's block.
30:02That was shot on a brownstone in front of Biggie's block.
30:06And so I remember all the junior mafia coming by, yo, Joe, you good?
30:09I'm like, yeah, we good.
30:10You know?
30:11It's like, all right, my brother, whatever you need.
30:13That shit was cold.
30:15But you seen that chocolate Sherlin?
30:18I need that Sherlin in my life now.
30:21We've been acting dumb out here with the fashion forever.
30:24It's a lot of people's favorite song, Fat Joe Ever Did All I Need.
30:42Yo, Paradise, my latest single.
30:44Khaled had this track for his album, and I heard it.
30:48Now, the sample was from the legendary Stevie B, Latino icon, legend.
30:55The song itself was called Spring Love, and I grew up to that.
31:00And so as soon as I heard it, I knew what the song would be for me being a Latino.
31:05And it's very rarely Fat Joe has a song that's Latino-driven.
31:11I make music for everybody.
31:13But I knew the minute I heard the sample, I was like, yo, this gotta be mine.
31:16So I had to fight him.
31:17He didn't want to give it up.
31:19I kept going on him.
31:20I think finally his wife was like, Khaled, you're selfish.
31:23And he finally gave in.
31:25He said, I'll only give you this track if you get the Brazilian girl, Anitta.
31:29So I said, don't worry, I'll find her.
31:32My girl that been my massage specialist in Miami, she been massaging me for 10 years.
31:39She was like, her manager's my client.
31:42You crazy?
31:43She put me on the phone with her manager, Rebecca.
31:45The crazy thing is, Anitta back in Brazil, she joined the talent show and the judge who
31:53picked her to win was Stevie B.
31:55I worked very, very hard on this song.
31:57I swing for the fences all the time.
31:59I even hit a grand slam or I don't do it.
32:01So we got artists from my era and all that, they're putting out records.
32:05Fat Joe puts out hints.
32:07It's doing really, really well.
32:08We shot the video in Washington Heights.
32:11We was just jumping out everywhere with the camera with Yves Rivera.
32:14The thing I loved about her is she's such a huge superstar at this moment right now.
32:21She was down for this.
32:22She was with the shits.
32:23We was jumping out in the projects, jumping out everywhere.
32:26She was jumping out rocking and I was like, wow, that's great.
32:29Maybe the album is the world changed on me.
32:32There's so many different ways the world changed on me.
32:35The world is going through a gentrification, the culture, the hip hop.
32:40And I'm like the last grumpy bodega owner that's like, yo, I'm not selling.
32:45The album's amazing.
32:46It's crazy.
32:47I know everybody going to come over here and tell you, I'm old, but I'm just so current.
32:51And so when you hear me rap, it don't sound like a guy telling you, I used to be the man
32:55in 9-6.
32:56I was just, nah, that shit right now.
33:00You feel like the music's still Joe Crack, but when you hear the lyrics, you're going
33:04to be like, oh, he know what time it is right now.
33:08We ain't telling you an old story, you know, shining off the dust and all that.
33:13We popping right now.
33:14I am old.
33:15I'm just an old fat fly nigga.
33:19That's it.
33:20You know, I'm going to be fly till I die, till you roll up in the casket.
33:22You got to elevate with whatever fashion or whatever everything is going.
33:26You got to move with it.
33:27A lot of guys I came up with, they'd stay stuck and they'd try to look like when they
33:32was popping.
33:33Is there other young artists you want to work with?
33:35Do I appreciate their music?
33:37Yes.
33:38Have I heard somebody lately that blew my mind?
33:40No.
33:41Just keep it to the buck.
33:42I didn't catch that new breath of fresh air that motivates me when I hear them.
33:47You know, hip-hop is all about hearing something that inspires you to just go and work, and
33:52you be like, oh, no, no, I got to do something.
33:55This is hot like that.
33:56Doing love songs now, this shit is crazy out here, man.
34:02I came from, you know, Illmatic.
34:05I came from ready to die.
34:06I came from reasonable doubt.
34:08I came from Eminem blowing your mind.
34:11When Eminem first came out, he blew our minds.
34:13We were like, yo, what is this white boy doing?
34:16He's crazy.
34:17You asking that?
34:18No.
34:19Am I supporting the youth?
34:20Am I loving the youth?
34:22You know, do I want them to be successful and keep doing their thing?
34:26Yeah.
34:27The best thing we had was the Drake-Kendrick thing, and they're older.
34:30They're younger than me, but they're older.