Fat Joe calls himself the “Forrest Gump of hip-hop.”
His life certainly has been unpredictable like a box of chocolates. The self-applied moniker comes from the rapper and entrepreneur’s uncanny attendance at “priceless” landmark events that shaped hip-hop culture as the genre grew in popularity. It’s a journey he explores in “The Book of Jose,” his memoir, out Nov. 15, which follows Joe from South Bronx street hustler to Grammy-nominated lyricist.
From witnessing the musical “Bridge Wars” rivalry between KRS-One’s Boogie Down Productions and Marley Marl’s Juice Crew as an eager wannabe MC in the ’80s to receiving one of the last phone calls from the Notorious B.I.G. before his untimely death in 1997, Fat Joe provides an encyclopedic collection of one-of-a-kind stories.
The Puerto Rican and Cuban artist, whose real name is Joseph Cartagena, founded the Terror Squad rap collective in the ’90s, which featured artists including Remy Ma, DJ Khaled and the late Big Pun. Although he’s perhaps best known for hits like “Lean Back,” “Make It Rain” and “All the Way Up,” Joe recently told The Washington Post that it was important for him to revisit his failures and traumas to help readers learn “the do’s and don’t’s of life.”
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“The biggest fear I had was people not believing me,” he said. “That’s why I had to let it all go down [in my book] because it’s pretty amazing. … I actually went to rap as a way out — as a way out of jail, not being in jail for life or killed.”
Joe’s memoir explores his identity as a Latino growing up in a majority Black neighborhood, even holding himself accountable for his lifelong use of the n-word. He details his painful transformation from prey to predator as a result of severe bullying in junior high school and his subsequent ascent to a feared drug dealer “terrorizing” Uptown New York with his gang. He intersperses these memories with reflections on becoming a student of hip-hop and his insatiable drive to build a successful business empire and enduring legacy for his family.
His transparency will continue to be used “as a template” when his book is adapted into a scripted Showtime series executive produced by “Black-ish” creator Kenya Barris. “It’s gonna go into me being bullied and the poor choices I made in life and how I changed my life,” Joe said. “I was there with Biggie. I was there with Tupac. I was there at crucial times in hip-hop. I was there at the Source Awards. Everywhere something happened, Fat Joe was there.”
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The “What’s Luv?” rapper will also take his hosting skills from Instagram Live to Starz, which picked up a pilot order for a documentary-style interview series starring Joe and produced by him, Diddy and LeBron James’s SpringHill production company.
We spoke with Joe about evolving as a storyteller, reinventing himself as a host and protecting freedom of expression for hip-hop artists.
(This interview has been edited for length and clarity.)
Q: Your book details how your upbringing in the South Bronx is interconnected with the evolution of hip-hop. How did you find yourself at so many key points in hip-hop history?
A: Obviously, I was there the first time people heard Big Pun rap. I was there when Big Daddy Kane brought out Jay-Z for the first time in Manhattan. This was before [they had] records. I was there when the Outsidaz brought out Eminem at Lyricist Lounge and no one even knew who this little skinny White boy was. Same thing when Lord Finesse brought out Big L. Same thing, when Biz Markie brought out Big Daddy Kane. I was at all these events as a fan. These were priceless things.
Q: You explore a lot of traumatic events in your life, including losing friends to gun violence, bullying, domestic violence, police brutality and coping with depression. How did it feel to revisit these experiences?
Share this articleShareA: I wouldn’t say therapeutic because there’s a lot of trauma in my book, in my life. I dealt with depression. A key thing for me is to push out the darkness and go toward the light. I had to go back in there, in the lion’s den, and talk about different moments such as the moment I got the news that my son had Down syndrome, or my mother told me she was diagnosed with cancer, or my best friends dying. It’s just so much trauma in this book that I had to relive.
Q: Your work with the late Puerto Rican rapper Big Pun made waves in the late ’90s and early 2000s. How do you think you two impacted hip-hop as Latino hip-hop artists?
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A: You gotta realize at that time reggaeton wasn’t even big. So [Latinos] needed somebody to champion them. We accepted the opportunity and the position representing Latinos. [We’re] proud Latinos. We took it to that level and made sure we represented the Latinos in the right way. We never used the fact that we were Latinos in the rap game as an excuse. We just had to be greater and had to be better, and make bigger hits.
Q: You’ve been working with Jay-Z, Meek Mill, E-40 and others to get laws passed to protect hip-hop artists from having their lyrics used against them as evidence in criminal trials, like with Young Thug and Gunna’s current RICO case. Why is this legal practice dangerous?
A: [Rappers are] just being creative. They’re being artistic. Imagine you grab one of these kids and take a song where they said they robbed a bodega and you put them in jail for the rest of their life saying that that’s real what [they’re] rapping. It’s a very dangerous position for any genre of music — not just rap. Country, anything … This is even bigger than Young Thug and Gunna. This is for everybody. They’re using rap lyrics that kids are doing — their demos and stuff — to jam them up for the rest of their lives. And these kids aren’t even saying the truth. They’re just being creative and using their imagination.
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Q: You reinvented yourself during quarantine as a talk-show host on your Instagram Live show where you hosted interviews with guests such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Dr. Anthony Fauci and Allen Iverson, talking about everything from the 2020 election to covid. How did this come about?
A: Covid came. I was terrified. I’m prediabetic so I was scared to catch it. I stayed at home for a year and four months, just me, my wife and my daughter. And my daughter one day said, “Hey Dad, you should go on Live.” I didn’t even know what it was. We clicked it on and when we did it everybody came on — thousands of people. And then, the next day, my daughter was like, “Why don’t you do it again?” And by the third, fourth day it became like an Instagram TV show where we was coming on every day at 7 o’clock at night. Everybody was stuck home, so one night I click on, it’s Mike Tyson. One day, I click on, it’s Alicia Keys. One day, I click on, it’s Dr. Fauci. I mean, you name it, they came on the show.
Q: Many rappers and DJs have started their own podcasts or radio shows to discuss current events and interview other artists. Hip-hop artist N.O.R.E. recently drew criticism for not taking Kanye West to task when Ye shared antisemitic remarks about Jewish people and false comments about George Floyd on N.O.R.E’s podcast. As a host yourself, what responsibility do hip-hop artists with an interview platform have to hold guests accountable?
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A: N.O.R.E.’s definitely a journalist. He’s just a, like, “fun time” journalist. His platform’s one of the biggest platforms on Earth: “Drink Champs.” N.O.R.E.’s talking about having a good time, having fun. I think he just wasn’t prepared for the type of stuff that Kanye said on there. I just don’t think that was the right place for both of them. There’s been many times people have come on [my show] and start[ed] talking about something and I’ll be like “Yo, yo, yo, chill.” I actually protect the artists. “Chill. Nah. That ain’t it. Not here.”
Q: What will the format be for your interview show on Starz?
A: It’s going to be more personal. It’s going to be more going into people’s homes. I want to interview Drake on his plane. I want to get lost with [DJ] Khaled on a Jet Ski somewhere in Miami and interview him on a dune or something. I want to get Kendrick Lamar. I want to walk through Compton with him and him show me where he grew up and all that. I want to take it there. Anthony Bourdain-slash-“Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.” They joke around and they called me “Joprah,” but I really want to be Joprah Winfrey of 2022.
Q: Who do you envision playing you in the TV version of “The Book of Jose?”
A: I think it [will] be a newcomer. Somebody we’ve never seen before. He’s obviously fat with green eyes. All the heavyset men with green eyes — get ready.
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