Music Artist Fat Joe

Fat Joe (born Jose Antonio Cartagena on August 19, 1970 in The Bronx, New York) is an American rapper of Puerto Rican and Cuban heritage. Joe was popular in the underground hip hop scene during the early and mid-1990s. He was also a member of the D.I.T.C. Crew ("Digging in the Crates"), along with well-respected rappers Diamond D, Lord Finesse, O.C., Showbiz and A.G., Big L (deceased), and Big Pun (deceased). The name of the group refers to DJs who "dig in the crates" of used record stores to find rare or novel records that they could use for songs or in performances. Joe was also affiliated with fellow Bronx native KRS-One, as they are both committed to the art of drawing graffiti.

History
After Joe's rap protege, the similarly large, Puerto Rican, Bronx-based rapper, Big Pun, broke into the mainstream with his duet with the O'Jays, "I'm Not a Player" and its more popular remix, "Still Not a Player", featuring R&B singer Joe, Fat Joe began to follow suit. His 1998 single, "Bet Ya Man Can't", which featured Big Pun as well as other members of their Terror Squad clique, such as Cuban Link and Triple Seis, was a small hit. Shortly before Big Pun's death, Pun and Joe had a hit with Jennifer Lopez on a track from her first album, On the 6, called "Feelin' So Good".

With 2001's release of J.O.S.E. (Jealous Ones Still Envy), Joe scored two back-to-back hits with "We Thuggin'", which featured R&B superstar R. Kelly singing the chorus and "What's Luv?", which featured up-and-coming R&B/pop star Ashanti on its chorus and went on to become one of 2002's biggest pop hits.

In late 2002, Joe released the album Loyalty and had a couple of minor hits with "Crush Tonite" (featuring Ginuwine) and "All I Need". The rapper also has appeared in several films, including the 2002 film Empire with John Leguizamo and Peter Sarsgaard.

Fat Joe is also a member of Terror Squad, which released their debut self-titled album in September 1999. After several roster changes (including Big Pun's sudden death and Cuban Link's expulsion), the clique released a second album, True Story, in July 2004. The single "Lean Back", which featured only Fat Joe and new member Remy Ma (formerly known as Remy Martin), was an enormous smash hit, reaching #1 on Billboard Singles Chart. The song was later remixed by Lil' Jon, with a new verse from Joe and featuring Eminem, Ma$e, and Lil Jon.

In September 2004, a former bodyguard for Fat Joe was arrested and charged with a 1994 murder which the rapper had allegedly witnessed. According to the New York Times, Jose Mulero, thirty-eight, was charged with murder, tampering with evidence, and weapons charges, after being accused of shooting Ernesto Rivera, sixteen, on April 15, 1994. Joe was investigated for ties to the shooting.

In late 2004, Fat Joe scored another radio hit with his verse on Ja Rule's "New York", also featuring Jadakiss and a chorus taken from KRS-One's "100 Guns". In his verse, Ja Rule takes thinly-veiled potshots at 50 Cent, adding another chapter to their well-publicized fued. However, this led to further controversy as 50 Cent assumed that by collaborating with Ja Rule, his enemy, Joe and Jada were now ailigning themselves against him and included them both in his new diss track, "Piggy Bank" (See Conflict with 50 Cent for further details).

Fat Joe's new solo album, All or Nothing, originally scheduled to be released in Spring 2005, was pushed back several times. It was released in July 2005. The first single was "So Much More". The music video features an appearance by DJ Kay Slay, who has also called himself the "black Fat Joe". The second single, the Scott Storch-produced "Get It Poppin'", features Nelly. It was used as the theme song for WWE 2005 SummerSlam.

Music Videos
Holla At Me Baby Music Video Holla At Me Baby is currently ranking at the top of the charts in the south. This video features DJ Khaled, Cool & Dre, Fat Joe, Lil Wayne, Paul Wall, Pitbull, and Rick Ross.

Conflict with 50 Cent
50 Cent attacked Fat Joe in his 2005 song "Piggy Bank", from The Massacre. Angered by Joe's collaboration with Ja Rule, 50 said "that fat nigga thought 'Lean Back' was "In Da Club"/My shit sold 11 mil, his shit was a dud". (Ironically, 50's mentor Eminem performed on a remix of "Lean Back" and also Fat Joe has appeared in the music video for "Fight Music" by D12 which was made before the beef between Joe and 50 came along.

Fat Joe went on record as being confused by 50's anger towards him, but also stated that he would not stand by idly while being slandered. He also suggested that he and 50 Cent meet in New York and have a fistfight. Most interestingly, he attacked 50's street credibility, claiming that 50 had never literally appeared "in the club", while Fat Joe has built his reputation on live club performances. He offered one thousand dollars to anybody who would come forward with a picture of 50 Cent in a nightclub. No attempts have been publicly made towards taking the $1,000 prize. Within days of "Piggy Bank" leaking, an untitled response from Fat Joe had appeared online with the chorus being sung to the tune of The Flintstones's theme song. Mp3 versions were variously titled "Fake Gangsta", "Fuck 50", and simply "Fat Joe 50 Dis Track". It was finally officially released as "My Fofo" (referring to a .44 Magnum) as a bonus track on All or Nothing, along with the "Lean Back" remix featuring Eminem.

2005 MTV Video Music Awards
Fat Joe had stated that after releasing "My Fofo", he would not bring up the topic of the beef with 50 Cent again. Even though things cooled down, at the MTV Video Music Awards, Fat Joe made a disparaging comment about G-Unit shortly before presenting an award to Missy Elliot, stating: "I'd like to tell the people at home I feel so safe tonight with all this police protection courtesy of G-Unit". 50 Cent tried to get on the stage to confront Fat Joe, but was stopped by security. Several minutes later, 50 retaliated with an obscenity-laced tirade during his performance featuring Mobb Deep and Tony Yayo. His whole rant was censored by MTV in the re-runs, however the original had 50 Cent giving a negative shout-out to Fat Joe [all bleeped out].

Personal information
Fat Joe is half Puerto Rican and half Cuban. Even though he is bald, he used to have hair when he started his Hip Hop career, according to his music video "Flow Joe." Fat Joe Was Playgirl's man of the month in 1993. [citation needed]

He was friends with Big Pun, who he always referred to as "Twinstio." Fat Joe paid for the funeral of Big Pun. He stated that Jennifer Lopez was the first one to call him, after the tragic death of close friend, Big Pun. He has said of Big Pun, "I'm used to young people dying by gettin' shot. Ya know, a lot of my friends have died by gettin' shot, killed, or an accident. But I've never seen a young nigga die 'cause he was fat."

Joe has beefs with Cuban Link, and 50 Cent.

In 2005, he overcame his fear of flying when he traveled by plane for the first time[citation needed]. Also in 2005, he gave his old Bronx elementary school twenty computers and a media lab.

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