Fat Joe is facing social media’s wrath for comments he made about the origins of Hip Hop culture during a recent Instagram Live.
It all started on Friday (August 26) when the Terror Squad captain shared a video that paid homage to Latino Hip Hop pioneers. He wrote in the caption, “Thank you Thank you Thank you for your contribution to Hip Hop.” The following day, he hopped on Instagram Live to not only big up DJ Khaled’s new God Did album but also address some of the negative comments he was seeing about the post.
“I tell you I never really fuck with Twitter, but I go on there to see they always hating on me and shit,” he begins around the 52-minute mark. “Lately, they’ve been talking about, ‘Latinos wasn’t in rap.’ These guys are fucking delusional. We’re from the Bronx, New York. Shit happens. This is where Hip Hop started. It’s Latino and Black, half and half.
“But they going at me ‘cause I’m like the only Spanish dude with a big voice. Like, ‘Fuck that. Latinos wasn’t there. You was invited. You are a specimen.’ I don’t know what the fuck is up with these people that don’t know their facts.”
Comments addressing Fat Joe’s video started pouring in on Twitter as it made the rounds.
One person claimed, “DJ Khaled is arguably the biggest culture vulture in hip hop & we have Fat Joe (another culture vulture) to ‘thank’ for that,” while another said, “I’m not here to sh*t on Fat Joe or tear down his legacy. But his rhetoric needs to be addressed and checked. If he avoids this conversation he will be destroying his own legacy. I’m also more surprised at the guys around him that aren’t saying anything. Silence means complicit.”
DJ Khaled is arguably the biggest culture vulture in hip hop & we have Fat Joe (another culture vulture) to "thank" for that.
— Free R Kelly. Them hoes be lying (@_ReeMiddleChild) August 24, 2022
I’m not here to sh*t on Fat Joe or tear down his legacy. But his rhetoric needs to be addressed and checked. If he avoids this conversation he will be destroying his own legacy. I’m also more surprised at the guys around him that aren’t saying anything. Silence means complicit.
— Mike Baggz (@MikeBaggz) August 26, 2022
Others were even more aggressive with their thoughts. Another person who goes by Pharaoh Jones called Fat Joe “racist” and suggested he was stealing Hip Hop music.
“RACIST WHITE LATINO FAT JOE is trying to STEAL HIP HOP FROM BLACK AMERICANS by saying that Hispanics created Hip Hop! CANCEL THIS CULTURE VULTURE!!!”
RACIST WHITE LATINO FAT JOE is trying to STEAL HIP HOP FROM BLACK AMERICANS by saying that Hispanics created Hip Hop! CANCEL THIS CULTURE VULTURE!!! #FBA pic.twitter.com/QSOJUkYvph
— Pharaoh Jones (@PharaohJones3) August 27, 2022
That wasn’t the end of it though. Another Twitter user came with a history lesson for Fat Joe, sharing a black-and-white clip from the 1950s illustrating the early origins of breaking. They wrote in the caption, “BLACK AMERICAN DANCING STYLES: This is where break dancing originated from TAP/SWING DANCE. 1800s-1950s. Black American Teenagers performed it to SOUL and FUNK records breaks in 1967 to 1974 to present – Educate Kids.”
🇺🇸BLACK AMERICAN DANCING STYLES: This is where Break dancing originated from TAP/SWING DANCE. 1800s-1950s
Black American Teenagers performed it to SOUL and FUNK record breaks in 1967 to 1974 to present – Educate Kids.
[TBAE] The Black American Experience.-Culture and History. pic.twitter.com/yeq8dRX6zM
— Cornbread Mafia! 🇺🇸 ✊🏿✊🏾✊🏽 (@AllSoul1865) August 25, 2022
The birth of Hip Hop has been commemorated every year on August 11, the day Jamaican DJ Kool Herc and his sister Cindy Campbell threw their famous Back To School Jam at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx on August 11, 1973. Hip Hop has always been a melting pot of different cultures and will celebrate its 50th birthday in 2023.
“[If] you talk to Grandmaster Flash, Kool Herc or Afrika Bambaataa or any of the early DJs they all talk about the breakers, who in the ‘70s and ‘80s were mainly Latinos, and keeping them happy on the dance floor,” Hip Hop historian Nelson George wrote in the book Latina. “If you talk about some of the famous break crews who really broke through and got known by the early ‘80s, the majority were Latino dancers like Rock Steady Crew’s Crazy Legs. So if the idea of the Hip Hop DJ is predicated on keeping dancers dancing, then the Latino aspect is crucial. Their aesthetic, their taste, their ability to dance, all affected what was played and how it was played.”
