Fat Joe Says It's Okay For Non-Black People To Use The N-Word; Backlash Ensues
Lean back, Fat Joe.
Instagram Depending on who you ask, he's either just someone who got lucky in his career because he took over after Big Pun died, or he's just a hardworking rapper who is now an OG in the game. If nothing else, he gets people talking. Who is Fat Joe?
Joseph Cartagena, the man whom the hip hop world would come to know as Fat Joe, got his start in the Bronx, New York, as a member of the Diggin' In The Crates Crew. He turned his success with that group into his own solo label called the Terror Squad. The Terror Squad collective would go on to sign some of the biggest names in hip hop, including Remy Ma, Big Pun, and DJ Khaled (the latter of whom was one of his last signees). But his biggest successes include work on the songs "Make It Rain" by Lil Wayne and "Lean Back" with the entire Terror Squad.
Let's look at what we know about this hip hop OG.
1. He turned down Eminem.
According to XXL Magazine, Fat Joe got approached by Eminem at least six different times with his demo tape. Each time he approached Fat Joe, however, he got turned down. To this day, though, Joe says that one of his biggest regrets was not signing Eminem to the Terror Squad because he's now "the biggest name in the world."
2. Fat Joe says that Kanye West doesn't write his own music.
Fat Joe told Power 106 that when he was approached by Kanye West to co-write "Pride'n'Joy," he realized that West didn't write his own music. Check out his claims in the video below.
3. He got kidnapped in Africa.
According to The Source Magazine, Fat Joe goes to Africa to perform at least 10 times a year, and it's these performances in Africa that pay his bills for the entire year. But, the last time he went to Africa, he got kidnapped. And what's worse, the same guy who kidnapped Fat Joe is the same guy who kidnapped DMX the last time DMX went to Africa! Well, damn, then, sir!
4. Fat Joe says it's okay for him to use the N-word.
"My thing is, when you say ‘You’re Latino. Why you using the N-word?’ are you calling me racist for using it? Like, do you think I’m racist for using it? The way the N-word offends me is when someone says it in a racial way [and] we feel like somebody’s trying to call us a n----a. So, now you looking at me with racist eyes when all I do is for my culture, my people? I treat Black people and Latinos the same way, 100 percent. I treat them all the same way," he said to BET.
5. And he thinks it's okay because he's Latino, and "all Latinos are black."
Check out the video below, in which he tells Hot 97 that all Latinos are black.
6. Fat Joe also said that Tekashi 6ix9ine is a "rat" and that he lied to him.
"You hang out with the wrong guys, you together you trapped in the web. He lied to me, off the record he was like, 'Yo I don't do none of that, this is all a front.'" I believed him, this guy got a gimmick man he got it lit out here acting like this, but obviously he was stepping on shit," he said to Complex Magazine, who also added that Fat Joe said that Tekashi 6ix9ine was a "rat" and that he was "destroying families" by telling the authorities what he knew about the gang-related activity.
Bernadette Giacomazzo is an editor, writer, and photographer whose work has appeared in People, Teen Vogue, Us Weekly, The Source, XXL, HipHopDX, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Post, and more. She is also the author of The Uprising series. For more information about Bernadette Giacomazzo, click here.