50 Cent, Guru and Shifting Those Pounds: Fat Joe Talks to TBJ

“Yo, leave that door open my friend, leave that door open, ‘cos I don’t like smokin,’ and y’all been smokin.’” Fat Joe doesn’t like smoking, we learned, as he settled into a shiny red leather sofa in a private room at Vics to face the assembled ranks of Beijing media a few hours before his show at the Gongti club last Friday night. We'd been waiting 45 minutes for Fat Joe to arrive, and were unsure what to expect. We had been told we had 5-10 minutes for a group interview with the rapper. Would we find an exhausted Joe keen to get in and out as soon as he could? Were certain topics off-limits? As he sipped on an iced soda water, massive diamond encrusted watch to match the stud in his ear, Fat Joe seemed at ease, happy to be here and holding court on topics ranging from 50 Cent to Guru, Wesley Snipes and weight loss.

The Beijinger: Who’s the best rapper alive?
Fat Joe: You know, I love Lil Wayne, I love Kanye West. I think it’s between them two. And Drake is on they ass too. That’s what I think.

City Weekend: You’ve worked with a lot of the biggest rap artists around the world. Who was your favorite person you’ve worked with so far?
FJ: Favorite artist I ever worked with would have to be Lil Wayne. There’s something too … too special about him, something crazy. When you see him working in the studio, when you see his work ethic, it’s like, you know … he’s just amazing, man.
I did Akon's "We Takin' Over" with him, and I might have took maybe three days writing this verse, and I thought that was the best rap a human being could do. So I went up in there and I played this song for Wayne, and he was like “alright – I gotta go, I gotta go under the rug, back to the classics. I gotta go underground!” I’m like “yo, I don’t know what the fuck he’s talking about!” So I come back a couple hours later and he’s going “I am the beast! Feed me rappers or feed me beats!” I was like “what the fuck!" This nigger killed me on this record!

Africa magazine: On your album Jealous Ones Still Envy 2, what’s the best song?
FJ: My favorite is “Congratulations.” We didn’t release that as a single, but I think that was a mistake not to release it as a single – that’s a real timeless, dope song. I also love “Hey Joe.” I’m into hardcore, so “Hey Joe” is a favourite. I make all types of music – music for girls, music for clubs and everything – but my true love is just making hardcore gangsta music.

Global Times: What would you say if 50 Cent walked into the room right now?
FJ: Chances are, if he heard Fat Joe was in here, he wouldn’t walk in.

Africa: How do you feel coming to China to perform?
FJ: Listen, I’m excited. For a long time I was afraid to fly, so if you’d asked me a couple of years ago if I would ever come to China, I would have bet my whole life that I wasn’t coming. It’s an honor. It’s the last continent that I needed to come and conquer, so tonight we’re going to kill this shit. It’s a lot more modern than I expected, you know? Maybe it’s just Beijing, but this is like New York City to me, you know what I’m saying? I thought it’d be a lot different. I’m enjoying myself.

Clubzone.cn: We heard you went shopping today. What did you get?
FJ: Yeah, I went down to the bootleg spot. I wanted to see what they was up to, see if they had some crazy shit. But I didn’t get to buy nothing, but you know, that’s the real shit. You come to China, you go anywhere, you got to experience the real shit, not just what they want you to experience as a tourist. Everybody’s like “yo, let me take you to here, to there” – I’m like “I want the real shit.” I wanna argue with a lady for no reason about some shit – “TEN R-M-B!” “HUNDRED!” You know, I just wanna argue or some shit, get that "Chinese culture" going ...

Africa: You’re one of the legends in the game – what’s your advice to young rappers coming up in Beijing?
FJ: You know, China and Asia’s a very big market, and no-one has really blew up from Asia. But you see Akon’s from Africa, Senegal, Drake’s from Canada, so sooner or later somebody’s gonna make it from China and become a huge sensation, or from somewhere else in Asia. But there are so many Asian people around the world, and they’d love to have a hero. There wasn’t no big hot white rapper – Eminem came on the scene, and he ain’t never let it go. There’s always somebody gonna come, somebody who’s just amazing that’s gonna blow everybody’s minds.

The Beijinger: You’ve been around for over 15 years – what have you got left to rap about after so long?
FJ: I just like to make good music, man. I just think I know how to make special music. Right now I just released a single, and I got an album coming out June 29. The single paralyzed New York City, you know what I’m saying? How do you rap 15 years and then drop a song and the whole fuckin’ city’s paralyzed like (adopts high-pitched, horrified tone) “oh my God, this is the new shit! Ahhhh!"
I’m blessed to come from the … oh, we gotta all write that I’m blessed to come from the Bronx. The Bronx is the Holy Land of hip-hop music. So you gotta understand that as a little kid growing up – I just realized this the other day, right – as a little kid when I was growing up, 95 percent of the hottest rappers in the game was from the Bronx. And this was all in my neighborhood. So I was watching them play basketball, see them playing softball, see them in my community. So much that I learned from watching KRS-One perform, watching Doug E. Fresh and Melle Mel perform. Unfortunately, the young rappers coming up in the game, they can’t get that culture, because that culture doesn’t even exist no more. So when they say “how do you know hip-hop like that?” it’s just I was born there.
I don’t know how to explain it. It’s like China – they make great fabrics, they make great – you know what I’m saying? Imagine if you grew up in – what’s that town? Guangzhou? Imagine if you grew up in Guangzhou – who the fuck gonna tell you about making sneakers? You’ve watched it your whole life! So I was born in the Bronx, it’s the birthplace of hip-hop, it was just around me, so I fell in love with it, and here I am.

Global Times: Are you a family man, Joe?
FJ: Yup.

Global Times: Are you married? Kids?
FJ: I’m not married, but I got two sons and a daughter. Daughter’s just had her birthday, she’s 4. Incredible. Having a daughter’s incredible. Sons, you can smack ‘em on the head. They get a new girlfriend, you give ‘em a high-five. Your daughter gets a boyfriend – god-damn. Different ball game.

The Beijinger: What sort of advice will you offer to your daughter’s boyfriends?
FJ: I don’t know man. Listen, as long as there’s a guy who’s gonna really love my daughter, who provides for her, make sure she’s good, make sure she’s living in a nice place, got something nice to drive, then that’s all I can ask, that he doesn’t disrespect her. Man on man.

The Beijinger: How do you feel about Guru?
FJ: Oh well, Guru was … I did a song with DJ Premier for my new album, and it’s like a sad beat. And I understood what Premier was going through. One of the lines, I say “I’m gangster – nah, fuck that, I’m Gang Starr … Tell Nas hip-hop’s dead now, my man’s gone.” When you talk about Gang Starr, to me they’re the purest hip-hop group ever, to be honest with you. They never bended, they never been commercial. Even Fat Joe’s guilty of making commercial songs. They never did that. They were the purest thing in hip-hop, so when Guru died, I felt almost like one of the most legendary, iconic people in hip-hop passed away. So I think we need to respect him, show him that love, and pay tribute to Guru. And he was my man. He was a beautiful person. I would stay till 8, 9 in the morning just talking shit with him, just hip-hop shit. And he loved Asian women – Guru loved Asian women. Every fuckin’ time. If it ain’t Wesley Snipes, it’s Guru, my man – every time I see these niggers, they with Asian girls.

Global Times: Have you ever rapped about China?
FJ: Rapped about China? I’m sure I musta’ said some shit. I musta’ done. I’ve rapped about everything.

Clubzone.cn: I read an older interview in which you said you feel that the hip-hop industry undervalues you. How do you feel now?
FJ: Underrating me? Oh, they’re gonna always underrate me, but I guess that’s why I keep doing it. You gotta understand, it’s very hard for me to describe myself without sounding very arrogant to you guys, so I don’t really go into details. But there’s more one-hit wonders in this world than there are people who ever made hits. You understand? How many people you heard make a hit record and you thought “oh, he’s gonna be here forever” and you never hear from him no more? Fat Joe been in the game 15 years, and every year I give you a smash hit record. Number 1 in America, number 3 in America, number 1 in America, number 2 in America. And then when I hear everyone talk about their favorite rappers, they never mention Fat Joe.
Now let’s not say you’re waiting for an Asian rapper – let’s say I’m the only Latino rapper for 15 years. Now hip-hop music started out black and Latino, and somehow they overlooked that. I could tell you about so much shit. According to Billboard – you can look it up – “Lean Back” was the number 2 song in the decade. Do you know how many records are made in ten years? Records that made it, didn’t make it, slipped through the cracks. “Lean Back” was the number 2 record in the decade. But still, you know, they don’t wanna give me my props. So that’s why I fuck ‘em. I come with missiles, man, I come with another hit – ‘nother hit – ‘nother hit … until they say “alright, that’s it Joe, you did it, we salute you, don’t worry.”

The Beijinger: How much weight would you have to lose before you just call yourself “Joe”?
FJ: Man, I been on the same diet for 12 years … still can’t shift this fuckin’ weight.

And with that, our time was up. We wished Fat Joe well, before being hurried out of the room, the door being anxiously forced closed against a group of young fans who had invaded Vics, eager to catch a glimpse of Fat Joe.

Thanks to our friends at Clubzone.cn for supplying photos from the show. Were you there? What did you think? Leave your comments here.