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Biography
Latino rapper Fat Joe (aka Fat Joe da Gangsta, Joey Crack, and his real name Joe Cartagena) was raised in the South Bronx area of New York. It was through an older brother that Cartagena learned the ways of the street, as well as discovering rap music via the sounds of such groundbreaking artists as Theodore, Funky 4 + 1, and the Furious Five. Eventually going by the name of Fat Joe, the rapper secured a recording contract with the Relativity label in the early '90s, resulting in the release of his full-length debut, Represent, in 1993 (which spawned the single "Flow Joe," peaking at the number one spot on Billboard's Hot Rap Singles chart). Two years later, Fat Joe issued his sophomore effort, Jealous One's Envy, which included a cameo appearance by KRS-One as well as production contributions by the likes of DJ Premier, LES, and Domingo. Around the same time, Fat Joe appeared on LL Cool J's big hit "I Shot Ya" (along with Foxy Brown and Keith Murray) and collaborated with the Wu-Tang Clan's Raekwon on a track from the "Envy" single, called "Firewater." By the late '90s, Fat Joe had switched record labels (signing on with Atlantic) and tried his hand at other non-musical career ventures such as opening a clothing store called Fat Joe's Halftime, a barber shop, and a fashion line, FJ560. In addition, he signed a production and distribution deal with Atlantic Records and Mystic Entertainment (which he runs along with a partner named Big Greg). 1998 saw the release of Fat Joe's debut for Atlantic, Don Cartagena, which featured cameo appearances by the likes of Puff Daddy, Nas, Raekwon, Big Pun, and Jadakiss (L.O.X.), following it up in 2001 with Jealous Ones Still Envy (J.O.S.E.), which included contributions from Ludacris, Petey Pablo, M.O.P., R. Kelly, and Remy. Loyalty followed in 2002, and All or Nothing arrived three years after that. ~ Greg Prato, All Music Guide History : After Joe's rap partner, the similarly large, Puerto Rican, Bronx-based rapper, Big Pun, broke into the mainstream with his duet with the O'Jays, "I'm Not A Player" and its more popular remix, "Still Not A Player," featuring R&B singer Joe, Fat Joe began to make his move into the mainstream. His 1998 single, "Bet Ya Man Can't" which featured Big Pun, as well as other members of their Terror Squad clique, such as Cuban Link and Triple Seis, was a small hit. Shortly before Big Pun's death, Pun and Joe had a hit with Jennifer Lopez on a track off of her debut album, On The 6, called "Feelin' So Good". With 2001's release of J.O.S.E. (Jealous Ones Still Envy), Joe scored two back-to-back hits with "We Thuggin'," which featured R&B superstar R. Kelly singing the chorus and "What's Luv," which featured up-and-coming R&B/pop star Ashanti on its chorus, and would go on to become one of 2002's biggest pop hits. In late 2002, Joe released the album "Loyalty" and had a couple of minor hits with "Crush Tonite" (featuring Ginuwine) and "All I Need". The rapper has appeared in several films, including the 2002 movie Empire with John Leguizamo and Peter Sarsgaard. Fat Joe is also a member of Terror Squad, which released their first, self-titled, album on September 21, 1999. After several roster changes (including original members Triple Seis's departure and Cuban Link's expulsion), the clique released a sophomore album, "True Story," in July of 2004, with the summer hit "Lean Back," later remixed by Lil' Jon, with a new verse from Fat Joe, and featuring Eminem, Ma$e, and Lil' Jon. In September of 2004, a former bodyguard for Fat Joe was arrested and charged with a 1994 murder which the rapper allegedly witnessed. According to the "New York Times," Jose Mulero, 38, was charged with murder, tampering with evidence and weapons charges, after being accused of shooting Ernesto Rivera, 16, on April 15, 1994. Fat Joe was investigated for ties to the shooting, but eventually cooperated with authorities which alienated many of his fans who believed that Joe had become a police informant. In late 2004, Fat Joe scored another radio hit with his verse on Ja Rule's "New York," also featuring Jadakiss and a hook taken from KRS-One's "100 Guns". This, however, led to awkwardness after 50 Cent decided that all emcees who collaborated with his nemesis, Ja Rule, were setting themselves against him. Fat Joe's new solo album, All or Nothing, originally scheduled to be released in spring 2005, was been pushed back several times (supposedly due to sample clearances, though also perhaps by Interscope executives interested in not having Joe's album compete with 50 Cent's release), but was released in July 2005. The first single, "So Much More", was released to radio and video rotation. The video features appearances by DJ Kay Slay, who has also called himself the "black Fat Joe." The video's second half also includes a portion of the song "The Incredible", also from All or Nothing. The second single, "Get It Poppin'", features Nelly of the St. Lunatics, and is also in radio and video rotation. Beef with Cuban Link: Article from Rap News Direct: Grammy nominated Fat Joe clashes with former member of his own crew. Will this be the next Biggie-Tupac scenario?
``They just came out of no where and the fat guy yelled over at the other guy and said “You think you’re going to get on now?”‘ Then he looked at the broken European glass tables, now sitting in the grassy swale on the side of the hotel, and then at the broken chairs, straddling the property line with another neighboring establishment ``Truthfully, we're scared. Even though there were no criminal charges, Chief Donald W. De Lucca from the Miami Beach Police stated that the county might be pressing charges against Fat Joe as the antagonist in the whole situation. But the dilemma for the workers and the tourist on the very nice street in South Beach was a scary event for them to experience. Apparently what sparked the chair throwing; table crashing event was the all the recent exposure that a former member (Cuban Link) of the Grammy nominated Fat Joe’s Terror Squad has been receiving from signing a record deal. Apparently Fat Joe has been trying to so call black list the AWOL rapper since their business dealings went sour shortly after Big Pun’s death in 2000. Although this had previously been all speculation in the Hip-Hop world, it was confirmed to me by several sources yesterday that Fat Joe apparently has made numerous phone calls personally to prevent the success of his ex friend and rapping cohort (Cuban Link). Evidently on Thursday December 11th, 2003 Cuban Link was scheduled to promote his tour at the show Mun2 (the Roof) when Fat Joe made a personal call to the Roofs executive producer Anthony Perez asking Mr. Perez to cease the Cuban Link appearance. Mr. Perez granted the rappers request and Mr. Cuban Link was not allowed to perform. Mr. Perez, although not available for comments send this message through his assistant, “The station felt that at the moment Mr. Cuban Link and his music were not the appropriate materials to have on our program”. JUST BE CAREFUL It's kind of an accepted practice, said Pop, director of operations for the South Beach hot spot Club Z-no’s, ``because there is no other outlet for these failing rappers to go they resort to extortion and blacklisting to prevent the success of others due to fear of their own demise. As Pops informed us they also put in a couple of death threats to his club going as far as, he believes, unsuccessfully torching the club last week. In the official police report the fire was classified as suspicious and is currently still under investigation. But the icing on the cake was after the show at Club Z-no’s at 1400 Ocean Avenue the Winter Haven Hotel. Badui Musa, 23, from Kendall also witnessed the event and gave this detailed synopsis of the events that occurred: “One minute I was asking Cuban Link for an autograph and the next I am watching a glass table fly into the street from the hotel lobby, I just ran inside when Fat Joe arrived”. It seems that Fat Joe pulled up, in a still disputable, entourage of SUV’s and got out of the car telling Cuban Link that he would never be able to resurface in the rap industry. Cuban Link seeing the man whom he accuses of cutting his face several times wasted no time in attacking the Grammy nominee and sprinted like a rocket towards him. The two men whom were both accompanied by their entourages incited the violent melee, which turned into a real live gang rumble. What Fat Joe didn’t expect was that the Miami Police has the nations largest Hip-Hop Police Unit which was already informed and ready for a situation like this one noting that they knew that both rivaling rappers were in town promoting shows. It seems that the Miami Unit had been monitoring both crews and had expected an event of this caliber to take place. No room for another Biggie-Tupac state of affairs to ensue. AN ISSUE OF TURF Much like the Ja Rule/50 Cent drama that has left the once successful Ja Rule struggling and the once struggling 50 cent as the most prominent rapper in hip-hop today, Fat Joe and Cuban Link have their issues to resolve. It very well seems that these two have much on the line, especially when a Grammy nominated rapper will go to the extremes of threatening club owners and television execs, and even making a personal appearance to put a dent in someone else’s career, have we not learned from the Biggie-Tupac incident, apparently not. Beef with 50 Cent: 50 Cent attacked Fat Joe in his 2005 song "Piggy Bank," off "The Massacre," due to Joe's ties with his rival Ja Rule (specifically, his collaboration on Ja Rule's largest recent hit, "New York," off "R.U.L.E."), saying "That fat nigga thought 'Lean Back' was 'In the Club'/my shit sold 11 mil, his shit was a dud". While the song took aim at Fat Joe, Jadakiss, Nas, Kelis, and Ja Rule, it was generally regarded as a lukewarm track and a publicity stunt, coupled with his recent expulsion of The Game from 50's G-Unit camp. Fat Joe went on record as being confused by 50's antagonism towards him, but also stated that he wouldn't stand by idly while being slandered; he also suggested that he and 50 Cent meet in New York and have a fistfight. Most interestingly, he attacked 50's street credibility, claiming that Curtis Jackson had never appeared "In da Club," juxtaposed to Fat Joe's well-known record of live performances, and offered one million dollars to anybody who would come forward with a picture of 50 Cent in a club. No attempts have been publicly made towards taking the $1,000,000 prize. Within days of Piggybank leaking, a disd song had appeared online, the hook being sung to the tune of The Flintstones's theme song. Original reports were confused as to the title of the track (mp3 versions were alternately titled "Fake Gangsta," "Fuck 50," and simply "Fat Joe 50 Dis track"), but it now appears that it will be called "My Fo Fo" (referring to a .44 caliber handgun), and will appear on All or Nothing. Fat Joe has stated that, after releasing this one song, he will be finished discussing the issue of 50 Cent's beef with him. As of the end of May, 2005, this seems to be true for the moment. |
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All original content , Copyright ©2004-2005 WestLord.com , All Rights Reserved |
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