Fat Joe has addressed critics who aren’t too fond of his use of the n-word, and he’s asking if they think he’s a racist once they learn of his story.
During a visit to The Breakfast Club, Joey Crack reflected on the controversy surrounding him being a man of Puerto Rican descent, freely using the n-word. The topic has been something that has followed him his whole career, and according to Joe, he wants to know if they really think he’s a racist while also admitting he won’t be pressured to do something.
“I want them to know no one’s going to pressure Fat Joe into feeling or saying anything that he loves or believes in, no one’s ever going to do that,” Fat Joe said. “You get one life, and no one is going to try to tell me what to say, tell me what to do, tell me what to think. I mean, do I look like a racist?”
Prior to his comments, Fat Joe explained his upbringing in New York City makes it hard for him to refrain from using the word as everyone around him used it, Black people included.
“My projects was 90 percent, I’ll give you 80 percent Black still. My grandmother’s projects is 99.9 percent Black, to be clear,” Fat Joe said. “I’m Spanish. I knew I was Latino, but the whole time I thought I was Black anyway. So my mom lived there 40 years before I was born in this project, and I’m born blonde hair green eyes.”
He continued: “The shit crazy, she brings me there, and the first thing they do is, ‘Look at this little n-gga Joey. He got green eyes.’ The minute I’m walking, the guys from the building are like, ‘Yo look at that little n-gga Joe, little fat Joe,’ That’s all I knew my whole life before even elementary.”
Fat Joe went on to explain that the current woke culture is failing to understand that his use of the n-word comes from his neighborhood and being a product of his environment.
“Now we use it as love, and we know the record states that this is a negative word, but unfortunately … I wish we never used it, and I try my best to try to like … but you know Fat Joe and his nose and green eyes, I’ve been saying this thing in my DNA. It’s hard bro. Really, seriously I’ve been trying to stop, you know, but I’ve been saying this since I was born.”
Fat Joe will be detailing that time in his life and more in an upcoming memoir titled The Book Of Jose, which will do a deep dive into the 51-year-old rapper’s tumultuous upbringing and eventual triumph.
According to a press release, the book will “explore how Joe overcame the drug- and violence-scarred South Bronx of the 1980s to blossom into one of the pre-eminent powerhouses of his generation.
The book will pull back the curtain on Joe’s challenging upbringing and give readers a look into his ascent to stardom, while candidly reckoning with the costs and rewards of that life: its tragedies, regrets, and glittering triumphs.”
Meanwhile, Fat Joe has revealed the backstory behind his iconic “Lean Back” dance moves in a new interview with HipHopDX.
The Bronx rap legend spoke about the track and its accompanying dance on the red carpet at the 2022 BET Hip Hop Awards last week, revealing the inspiration came from Jamaican music.
“The same time that I recorded it [was the first time I did the dance],” he said. “At the time, Jamaican music was really, really killing ’em. And I said, ‘I need something to rockaway, lean back.’ So when I made it, I made the dance for it. The same time.”
He added: “We knew off rip, that thing was outta here. Every now and then you make a song that’s like, ‘Oh no, this is gone. This is outta here.’ Yeah that was it.”
