1. Fat Joe was born Joseph Antonio Cartagena in the Bronx borough of New York City, where he was raised by parents of Puerto Rican and Cuban descent.
37 Facts About Fat Joe
1. 2.
Fat Joe admits that he was a bully in his childhood.
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One day while writing for the album at Chung King Studios, Fat Joe happened to find that his rap idol, LL Cool J was in another room with Trackmasters, working on the remix version of LL's single "I Shot Ya".
4.
The track is considered by Fat Joe to be one of his career highlights.
5.
In 1997, Fat Joe signed with Mystic Entertainment Group and The Warner Music Group's Atlantic Records through Craig Kallman's Big Beat Records.
6.
Former Terror Squad member Triple Seis went on record when asked who had written Fat Joe's lyrics, stating that he and Pun were Joe's ghostwriters for Don Cartagena, and asserts that Joe continues to hire ghostwriters.
7.
Fat Joe executive produced and was featured on Big Pun's 1998 album Capital Punishment.
8.
At the time of the album's release, Fat Joe switched management from Mick Bentson to The Squad Music.
9.
In 2003, Fat Joe was featured in the pop single "I Want You" by Mexican singer Thalia.
10.
Fat Joe then began recording material for Ivy Queen's debut English-language album Real in support of her goal to compete in the world of English-language hip hop music.
11.
Fat Joe portrayed himself and provided his own voice and likeness for the September 2004 video game, Def Jam: Fight For NY.
12.
Fat Joe subsequently attacked 50's street credibility and called him a "coward" on a phone interview with Kay Slay of New York City hip-hop radio station WQHT.
13.
Fat Joe did a freestyle cipher segment for VH1's "Freestyle 59" competition in October 2006 prior to the VH1 Hip Hop Honors featuring New Jersey emcee Neuse.
14.
In January 2010, Fat Joe announced that he was working on a new album, The Darkside Vol.
15.
On March 28,2010, Fat Joe signed a record deal with E1 Music.
16.
Fat Joe was featured on a remix to DJ Khaled's song "Welcome to My Hood", which features Ludacris, T-Pain, Busta Rhymes, Twista, Mavado, Birdman, Ace Hood, Game, Jadakiss, Bun B, and Waka Flocka Flame.
17.
Fat Joe went on to say he is working on an album which is yet to be named but the first single is called "Another Round" produced by Cool and Dre and Young Lad and features Chris Brown.
18.
In September 2012, Fat Joe featured in Grammy awards winner Alejandro Sanz's new album, La Musica No Se Toca in a music named Down.
19.
Via Hiphop Wired, Fat Joe revealed that he and Remy Ma were to release a joint album.
20.
In December 2020, Fat Joe appeared in the ComplexLand virtual event and talked about the best sneakers of the year.
21.
Fat Joe has been married to his wife, Lorena since 1995.
22.
Fat Joe has been back to his old school in the Bronx, New York to donate computers for students.
23.
At a "School is Cool" assembly in Public School 5 in Jersey City, New Jersey on June 11,2009, Fat Joe was a speaker.
24.
In March 2024, Fat Joe attended a roundtable discussion with Vice President Kamala Harris at the White House to discuss cannabis policy reform.
25.
On November 4,2024, the day prior to election day, Fat Joe spoke at a Harris presidential rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
26.
In 2011, Fat Joe unveiled his latest weight loss efforts in the video for his song "Drop a Body" after losing 88 pounds off his previous weight of 350 pounds.
27.
In 2022, Fat Joe said that he would not change his stage name from Fat Joe despite his weight loss, because it would not be a good marketing move.
28.
In 2024, Fat Joe revealed that he uses the GLP-1 agonist drug Ozempic to help maintain a healthy weight.
29.
In two murder cases, Fat Joe has been named a witness:.
30.
In December 2012, Fat Joe pleaded guilty to tax evasion for not paying income tax on over $3million from 2007 to 2010.
31.
Fat Joe began the sentence on August 26,2013, and was released on November 28,2013.
32.
Fat Joe continued his collaborations with Ja Rule on the latter's 2004 single "New York", prompting 50 Cent to release a diss track aimed at Fat Joe titled "Piggy Bank", a track on 50 Cent's 2005 album The Massacre.
33.
Fat Joe later responded with "My Fofo", a track from Joe's album All or Nothing, which released later that same year.
34.
Tensions boiled over during the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards when Fat Joe presented the award for Best Hip Hop Video, during which he told the audience "I feel so safe tonight with all this police protection courtesy of G-Unit".
35.
Murder Inc co-founder Irv Gotti later expressed anger at Fat Joe following his proposal to quell their longstanding feud with G-Unit in 2010.
36.
In 2001, Fat Joe got into an altercation with rapper SunKiss at a release party for Angie Martinez.
37.
Fat Joe mentioned that it is possible that he has done songs with gay rappers and that there are likely several gay people besides rappers in the hip hop industry who are in the closet, describing it as a "Gay Mafia".