Fat Joe released his first solo album in 15 years, ‘The World Changed On Me.’ He shares how his new work is consistent with his past work, his personal losses and how he’s dealt with them, working with Eminem, why he started ‘Fat Joe Talks’ and more!
Category
🎵
MusicTranscript
00:00It's so good to just show people that you can come from a place of beef and violence and all
00:08of the above and just actually become cool. You gotta get the white boy. I said y'all,
00:14there's only one white boy. I'm like y'all, come on. Nobody talking like that 2024.
00:22Hi, I'm Fat Joe and you're watching Billboard News.
00:24We got a legend here. I'm talking about BX Native. Just chilling with VP Harris not too
00:35long ago. He hosted the BET Hip Hop Awards for the third consecutive year. Heavy hitter,
00:44legend, Mr. Fat Joe. You know, thank you. I resigned as host of the BET Hip Hop Awards
00:52because, no, no, real shit. 2 Chainz said I've been monopolizing. So he said,
00:59y'all let me host. I know I can be a good host. I said, you know what, my brother,
01:04you can be the host next year. You passed the torch officially? Yeah, yeah. I mean,
01:08BET don't know that. Sidebar with 2 Chainz. He was like, yo, I really want to do that. I was like,
01:15no question. I love that. I love that. I feel like 2 Chainz would be a good host, man. I mean,
01:19you held it down for three years, but it makes sense. You passed the torch because now you can
01:23focus on the music. And that's why we hear new album, first one in nearly 15 years. That sounds
01:31weird to me. Why they keep saying that? But I mean, like, what I have, Platao Plomo, that's
01:35with Remy and then. The Dre album. The Dre album, but I feel like I've been consistently working,
01:42but I guess my first solo in 15 years. That's crazy. It's the dark side, man. It's incredible,
01:46though. This album is good. It's just the dark side. This album is incredible.
01:55I'm curious, man, like knowing that it's nearly 15 years since you back,
01:59what stories are you telling on this album that fans haven't heard from Joe?
02:05I think it ain't about what they haven't heard. It's a little bit more of what they heard for
02:112024. And so, like, I don't want to go get you to Bono or Rolling Stones. And when I get the album,
02:18it sounds like one of these young kids rapping. Yeah, I want to get you to Bono. Right. So when
02:24you get a Joe Crack LP, it's gangster hip hop. It's hit records. It's lyrics. And so, you know,
02:33my daughter's 18 and she heard the album. She's like, your dad, what you doing? You talking crazy.
02:38I'm like, I don't want to buy an Ice Cube album and he's talking nice. I want to hear him say,
02:46fuck the police. So it's like, and that's what I love about this album is that I kept it really
02:53consistent with all my music in the past. Just 2024, you know what I'm saying? Different flow
02:58patterns. I noticed that, yeah. Delivery different. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You playing? Yeah, man.
03:05Tapping this. I love that. I just want to show my growth. Yeah, man. I'm curious because even when
03:10you take it back to your debut album, I was studying just some of the album titles and names
03:16and it just has like a dark feel to it, whether it's Jealous Ones, Envy, Jealous Ones Still,
03:21Envy to Now. It's real. Yeah, the world's done change on me. The world changed on me. I'm like
03:26the last ungentrified MC. I own the bodega on the block and they trying to run me out of here.
03:33They trying to make this Dumbo. And so just like you said, like, you know, when you put on my album,
03:39I'm talking that shit. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? So it's like, I'm not going to let the
03:43world change me. And so I'm bringing a little normalcy to the hip hop game. This is what we
03:49normally do. Now you say this, you get people upset. The skit starts off with the Tony Soprano.
03:57Now you say some of this. Yeah. Talking about social media that. Yeah. Talking about therapy
04:01that like it's letting you know, like we ain't changing for nobody. We just going to stick to
04:06the script. Yeah. You know, I just went in there for the art, for the love. And I went up in there
04:11and had a beautiful time. And there's some real shit on there, too. You know, when you got the
04:17They Don't Love Me, you know, which is the outro. Some of the realest lyrics I ever wrote in my life
04:24just about real life. I'm talking about my son. He's autistic. I'm talking about don't ask me no
04:29questions about women. Pat Poole's like I'm I'm tapping some subjects. Yeah. Niggas talking
04:36funny living by me with no roof. I just pray to God that he show my people proof. I'm curious,
04:42man. Like you, you mentioned your son. And I just love the bond that you have with Joey, man.
04:49Talk about how he's been able to make you not only a better father, but just a person overall.
04:55Joey's stuck in a euphoria of happiness. So me and you, you know, I've lost a bunch of friends
05:02recently. And so me and you, we go through depression or ups and downs or whatever the case
05:09may be. Thank God that Joey's like, always happy. Right. Never got a sad day. If we call him right
05:17now, he's smiling. Yeah. You see him right now. He's smiling. He's learning. You know, my son is
05:23nonverbal and he doesn't walk either. But he's learning so much stuff at this age that he never
05:33did before. Yeah. You know, you mentioned that you had been dealing with some losses. And that
05:38took me back to like 2000. I remember in your book, you were saying you had some losses,
05:43whether it was with Pond, your sister, your grandfather, and obviously these string of
05:48losses now. It's the only thing that could stop me, you know what I'm saying, is death. And so
05:55I've been able to navigate, you know, recently this week, I lost my brother, who's my hero,
06:02my mentor, my inspiration. Literally days before that, we did a funeral for one of my best friends
06:11from kindergarten, Percy. And then before that is Clark Kent, a chubby baby from Atlanta. And then
06:17there's Fat Man Scoop. And so, you know, hip hop, you know, the industry, the community,
06:25has been my family for the last 30 years. So when somebody mourns somebody in the industry that
06:32I respect a lot, I mourn it too, like it's a family member. So all that is overwhelming,
06:37you know what I'm saying? And, you know, having to tell my moms that a son passed is hard or his son
06:43that his dad passed. Oh no, that ain't Fat Joe the rapper, that's Joseph Antonio Cartagena.
06:50Right. It ain't Fat Joe the rapper. Yeah. It's some real shit. Yeah. You know, I know making
06:57this album was therapeutic, but also fun. Like, you see somebody like a Killer Mike last year who-
07:03He the guy, I told him, he's the guy who inspired me. I retired. The guy was gone.
07:09I had an infamous phone call with Eminem where he was trying to talk me into not retiring. Joe,
07:15we need you. You're one of us. This, this, this, this, this. I was like, I retired.
07:19You said you were done and then you went back outside.
07:21Super done, but I got back out cause Killer Mike. The man won that Grammy. The one thing I never got
07:27in this business, a Grammy. I won an Emmy. I won so many things, but it was that Grammy. And when
07:32I seen it, I called Dre and I said, you know, I never looked from a jealous lens. I've always
07:38looked from an inspirational lens. So I called Dre and I was like, yo, it's possible. Let's get
07:46back in the kitchen. Let's cook. And so he inspired me, you know what I mean? To come out of retirement.
07:51I love that. And I feel like this year you've seen it with like LL, Eminem, obviously, you know,
07:57Nas last year. No, Nas and Primo got a project coming. Pete Rock and Common.
08:04Nominated for Grammy. I love that album.
08:06Yeah. And, uh, you know, Joe Crack's new dog, Dr. Dre. Same day. We outside. I love it.
08:15Yeah. You know, cause it was, you know, it was a time where people felt like you hit a certain age
08:21and, you know, you should retire and not be in the game. But I love that the OGs are dropping music.
08:29I tell you one thing, I'm dropping a smoker. The World Unchanged on me is too legendary.
08:36So I got to join with Babyface to hit, join with Todd Dollar. This is crazy. Um, me and Remy,
08:42Tony Sunshine, uh, Tug of War. I got this wild white boy from UK. He's from the projects and
08:49I discovered him on Instagram. I'm watching him on Instagram. He's killing every beat.
08:54And you know, he's wild cause he's in the projects talking about outside with it. I'm like, oh my
09:00God, Joe, I didn't even know he was white. When I was listening to it, I did not even know he was
09:06dead. Nice. Crazy. How did you get Chris? Mr. Rock or this fellow Nick fan? There we go. We
09:14sitting at the game and I'm like, yo, Chris, I need you on this album. Now what he said on my
09:19album, I heard him say it at Nas's 50th birthday party. So he went up there and said, hip hop
09:27is the first art form. And it changed my life. But hip hop is the first art form
09:35created by free black men and nobody exerts that freedom like fat motherfucking Joe.
09:46So when I heard it, it just stimulated my brain in a different way. And I was,
09:50so when I'm sitting with him in the Nick game, I said, yo man, I want you to say what you said
09:54at Nas thing on my album. He was like, yeah, no problem. He came, took a Uber, did it. Everything's
10:04good, Joe. Yeah. Laugh, signed off on it. You know, just a true gentleman. Yeah. And his favorite
10:10song is the dog house. You got to put them in the dog house. That's a record right there. Well,
10:15that's the, that's the world change on me. You love it. He love it. Everybody love it. Why?
10:20Because nobody even talks like that no more in hip hop. Nobody talks like that no more. It's
10:31time to put her in the dog house, dog house, dog house. I got to put her in the dog house.
10:37Nobody talking like that 2024. I love like we were talking about the balancing act. Obviously
10:44you've been killing with fat Joe talks. That's right. How has it been being in your journalistic
10:49bag? Knowing that, you know, I know Oprah's a inspo for you trying to get in that Oprah bag.
10:55The hardest thing I like to do everything positive, right? No negativity, right? My show.
11:01And the hardest thing I've learned of journalism is shutting up and letting the guests talk. Yeah.
11:10That's hard because as you're talking, it's like my mind's a Pandora's box and it's just opening.
11:18I just want to be like, Ooh, wait a minute. What about that? And so, you know, that's been the
11:26hardest thing, but I'm really, really proud of fat Joe talks available on stars. Everything's
11:32positivity, strictly icons. You know, I don't know how long we're going to be able to keep it
11:38just icons, right? Jay, this one, that one, just allow a baby face. This, these are icons
11:45on TI. And so, yeah, I've been really blessed with the opportunity and it came out just like
11:52I wanted. Before I jump into Khaled, I don't want to hear your dream guests that you would
11:57love to have as Obama. What's that one burning question that you would love to ask Barack?
12:03I really don't know, man. It would be so much stuff to talk about with this guy.
12:08Yeah. You know what it felt like? I know what it felt like for me when he did his acceptance speech
12:18the first time he won and he did that speech out there in Chicago. And it was like millions
12:23and millions and millions of people out there. And I felt so proud. Just it just I could not
12:30believe it. That was the time when Jesse Jackson was crying in the audience.
12:35It was ill to see that. And, you know, just to know this country's history with racism,
12:41you know, it's 100 million Native Americans murdered here.
12:50Millions of Africans were brought over here for slavery,
12:54slavery, civil rights, segregation, apartheid, whatever you want to call it,
12:59to become the president of the United States. You know, he's his ancestors biggest dream.
13:08Yeah. To this day. I mean, so when you ask me about why is he my dream guest is like
13:16this guy's like George Washington and Abraham Lincoln together.
13:21Worse. You got to get like 20 of them guys to add him up. Thomas Jefferson, like a right Obama.
13:27Yeah. Yeah. I remember Brother Khaled. He told me the story of Lean Back,
13:31how you recorded it in his garage. Lean Back. Lean Back.
13:39It's called Jerusalem. Jerusalem. We're going to keep talking about God and inspiration.
13:44His studio was called Jerusalem when we came up Lean Back. That was amazing. It was an
13:49amazing session. You know, I was privileged to, you know, Jay-Z and them, they got real lucky.
13:58You know, they had Kanye West before we knew who Kanye West was. And that boy was playing them
14:04beats. He was Kanye West will eventually make Jesus walks like and they had him there. I had
14:12Khaled. I had Streetrunner. I had Kool and Dre serving up fire before they blew up.
14:20You know what I'm saying? Kool and Dre, New York, New York, hate it or love it. All these hits.
14:27Same thing with Streetrunner and Khaled. I had Khaled. So whatever energy Khaled is giving to
14:34himself, he was giving it to me. Right. You know, when we did the Lean Back remix,
14:38I never forget. He was like, yo, what's up? He's like, you got to get the white boy. I said,
14:45yeah, it's only one white boy. I'm like, yo, come on. I respect you. I would have never even had the
14:54audacity to ask Eminem to get on a record. He was Eminem, you know, and he pushed me to ask him.
15:02He said, yo, Joe, Eminem told me, yo, Joe, you got one favor. Use it wisely. This is what you want.
15:08I said, yeah, this is what I want. And he jumped on the remix. Yeah.
15:17I love the eye you have, man, because even the video, I think of how you got Kevin Hart so early
15:24on, like when he was doing like the scary movie, even the All I Need I Brought Up. You're getting
15:28Idris. Well, I am. People think my greatest attribute is picking beats.
15:38Because everybody can't pick beats. Right. I'm really good at that. Right. I'm more better
15:44or I'm way better at picking talent. Yeah. I can spot talent before it comes out.
15:50So like Khaled, Kool & Dre, Scott Storch, Remy Ma, Big Pun. You know, these guys are giants.
15:57Yeah. You know what I'm saying? So I can spot talent early and know that this person is a
16:03superstar. I got to ask. I thought this was interesting, man. You're the only cat that I
16:08know that could be cool with 50 and cool with Jah at the same time. How the hell are you pulling
16:17that off right now knowing the history they got? You know, one year I'm performing
16:26in Salt Lake City or something and it's my birthday. I'm in the concert and I perform
16:32and I get off stage and I'm watching Ludacris perform and I look to the right and there's
16:38Jah standing there and I say, holy shit, I'm stuck with this guy. Fucking the rest of my life,
16:44I'm with this guy. Four Tops, Temptations. I'm stuck with Ja Rule. Fat Joe Ja Rule.
16:51I love him. His family, I love them. Same type of situation with 50 Cent, you know.
16:59We become brothers. We become really, really tight. Him and his whole crew. So we got love
17:08for Yayo, Uncle Murda, everybody. You know what I'm saying? And it's so good to just show people
17:14that you can come from a place of beef and violence and all of the above and just actually
17:22become cool. That's what hip-hop's about, man. I think hip-hop is about, you know,
17:29rapping, lyrics and then getting to the bag, you know what I'm saying? And then, you know,
17:35showing the youth that you could be enemies at one point but you could come back together and
17:39be close friends. If you, Fat Joe, could pick between winning a Grammy or seeing your beloved
17:49I give Knicks. Really? All day. Wow. Forget the Grammys. Forget the Grammys. My Knicks,
17:56we have suffered a long time, brother. And I want to see it in my lifetime. It means that much to
18:06me. My Knicks are everything to me. I don't care if I'm in China. I don't care if I'm in Russia.
18:13I got that NBA package, that computer playing that Knick game. When we good or we bad. So,
18:20you know, I'd rather do that than a Grammy any day. Wow. Real talk. Listen, we got to start in
18:26five. So, fingers crossed. Mitch come back. Mitch come back. We got Deuce. Precious. Yeah. I always
18:34love this game. He's undersized but he's tough. Yeah. So, ladies and gentlemen, make sure Mr.
18:41Fat Joe's back after 15 years. I didn't even know it was 15, but check it out. The world changed
18:46on me. Billboard News, we out. Mr. Fat Joe, are you ready for Beat the Buzzer? Yes. So, in this
18:56game, you'll have 60 seconds to answer the question in rapid fire style. Your goal is to
19:02answer the most questions in 60 seconds. Let's start the timer. Rapping or hosting? Rapping.
19:08Lean back or what's love? Lean back. Yankee fit or the Tims? Tims. An iced out chain or
19:14iced out watch? Iced out chain. 90s or 2000s? 90s. Going out or staying in? Staying in these days.
19:23Jealous ones still envy or jealous ones envy? Jealous ones envy. Sweet or spicy? None. Text
19:29or FaceTime? FaceTime. Pre-game or after party? After party. Jordan 1 or Air Force 1? Jordan 1.
19:38Past or present? Past. Yankees or Knicks?
19:46Knicks. Empire or night school?
19:51Empire. Dressed up or dressed down? Dressed up. In the booth or on stage? On stage. Solo
19:57tour or festival performance? Solo tour or festival performance? Festival. Drums or flats?
20:04Flats. Okay. I got the flats. That was a lot of answers. Yeah, I was. I was good.
20:14I do it for fun. Let's do it. Okay. Beard or mustache? Beard. Go to, oh she wants to know
20:21your go-to bodega order. My go-to bodega order is always a sandwich. You know I worked in the
20:29bodega. My uncle's bodega. I was the number one sandwich maker in the whole bodega. And so one
20:34day my, nobody wants a sandwich from my uncle and he tells me, yeah make the sandwich fat Joey.
20:41And I started making, I used to make the sandwiches like they was for me. He was like,
20:45you losing money. You know how much stuff you, this is why, this, oh my god. It's the only time
20:50my uncle ever screamed on me. Rest in peace my uncle. I made the best sandwiches. There's nothing
20:56like a bodega sandwich.