My coldest days, my darkest days, ain't no sun out, all I got is my fans. They the only people I ride for. Believe it or not, if you're a real Fat Joe fan, a Terror Squad fan, I do it for ya'll.
— Fat Joe
Latinos finally have a genre of music that represents them, and they're supporting reggaeton in such huge numbers that people can't help but notice there's a revolution going on.
It feels like Gangstarr is the purest group in hip-hop. They was shooting videos on the beach in the winter when the water was ice. Razor-blade music.
The formula for a hit is saying what people want to hear.
I'm trying to get in where I fit in and take it to the next level.
I used to watch Oprah Winfrey, and whenever she used to lose weight, I used to be like, 'How's she losing it? What is she doing?' But it's all about education and knowledge, feeding yourself and knowing that too much carbs is what gets us fat.
There isn't a country I ain't touch in Africa. I just came back from South of France, I toured China, Japan, wherever you name, 60,000 people come out to see Fat Joe.
Donald Trump, you already know. We can't have that guy in office.
I was really from the streets, and I really did hustle in a major way. When I got my record deal, I left the streets alone as far as hustling. I never, ever hustled again. I said, 'I'm gonna change my life, I'm going legit. This is where I'm at.'
As long as you get your education and you stay focused, you can do anything.
I'm addicted to food, so if you bring the cake and stuff to my house, I might walk by and take a swipe of icing and keep it moving. So what happens is I try to not keep it around.
All rappers exaggerate.
If I could gain 1,000 pounds and be healthy, I would love to do that.
Nobody in my family before me ever had anything.
There's no such thing as too much. If there's too much, then that's a great thing.
I stay around the young boys in the studio; I want to learn from them, and at the same time, I have a lot to offer them.
Latinos been a part of hip-hop culture and every other culture; we've been influential in every aspect of life.
Fat Joe is signed to Fat Joe. I have a distribution deal for my label. I'm independent. I'm very happy with that.
I love Lil Wayne; that's like my little brother. He's just the coolest dude on Earth.
Who you know, 10 albums later, get better than he's ever been before? It's hard. To come from all this huge success like a 'What's Love,' and a 'Lean Back,' then take it back to the street with 'The Darkside.'
When it's all said and done, I want to look back on my career and say I did numerous things.
It feels like we all win when Joe wins. People know the struggle, everything I had to overcome. People feel like that's them winning. If Joe could do it, they could do it.
I was at a party New Year's Eve, and - no lie - at least 10 different people came up to me. One guy was like, 'I lost 30 pounds because of you.' So people just coming up to me. I don't know these people - random people.
I wish we had more diversity.
I realized, at a certain point, all my big people were dying. I couldn't see a clearer picture: what's the difference between me and him, of me being in a casket?
I would bump A Tribe Called Quest in my car all day.
Being that I always perform, I started working out with a trainer to get that endurance and stamina. Now, I guess you could call me a gym rat.
My parents are overweight, and I think the biggest problem we have in America is a lack of education. The place to start is with parents and teaching them to cook healthier.
This world is too hard for me to leave my kids, without me supervising and being there for them.
I always loved being fat, obviously. I'm Fat Joe.
I grew up pretty much with nothing.
I collaborate with Tidal because they're for the artists - the up and coming artists and the O.G.s in the game. It's like a home, the only place we have for the artists to find support.
If you look at history, at the first time hip-hop was invented, there was a Latino right there. How they got erased, I don't know how that all came about.
Culturally, the arts of Puerto Rico is really unmatched by any other island.
Your man Daddy Yankee, some black and white people who know what's going on in the 'hood and the clubs are supporting him and loving him. But he's speaking Spanish, and he's speaking directly to the Latino people, and the people who know the language really dig it.
DJ Premier, this guy is like a god, a walking god. Guru, he put it down legendary.
We're just trying to make 'The Darkside' its own brand. It's Fat Joe, but it's 'The Darkside.' We come with 'Vol. 2,' make it crazier than 'Vol. 1.' By the time 'Vol. 3' come, we got a problem on our hands.
I'm trying to work, be diverse and multi-talented.
The 'hood don't really wanna hear it, but you need brown rice, you need wheat bread, stuff like that.
There's nothing I really believe about 50 Cent.
What I do like about Donald Trump is that he's not bought by the lobbyists. He put up his own money, funded his own campaign. That means he's nobody's puppet.
'Envy' was a bit of a challenge for me. It was smooth.
After the success of my first album and the success of 'Flow Joe' kind of faded, I was struggling to make some money and make ends meet.
I think I weighed about 450/460 at my heaviest. That's huge! That's Fat Joe. And you know, I always took pride in being fat.
To be slandered the way I get slandered is really uncalled for, but life goes on.
The biggest killer of people is food.
We took Big Pun, a 700-lb Spanish guy, one of the greatest rappers ever, and made him a sex symbol. Women would wait on line to kiss him.
KRS One and LL Cool J are the biggest influences in my rap career, along with Heavy D.
Any time Khaled comes to your video, it just steps it up that much more. He's so fun; people love him.
We gotta be proud to be Latino. It's almost like we cheating because we're American and we live by American customs, but at the same time, we got that Latino culture. We cheating; we double dipping.
