You've gotta hand it to Fat Joe. For all intents and purposes, regardless of whether he intended to or not, the Terror Squad legend created a monster. Two Nick Cannon led posse-cut diss tracks later, the fallout of Joe and Eminem's collaboration "Lord Above" continues to be felt. In fact, damn near every headline seems to center around Em's revived beef with Cannon, which began a full decade ago, fueled by that alluring yet deadly combination of red wine and Captain Crunch. Suffice it to say, Fat Joe's Family Ties has been reaping the benefits of the unexpected promotional cycle, even if it did put two of his friends at odds on the public stage.
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"I didn't know it was going to happen," laughs Joe, speaking with Kay Adams. "First of all, I'm honored to get an Eminem verse. I'm keeping it real with you. He's one of the GOATS, meaning greatest of all time. He's a rap god. The fact that he was able to give me a verse and get on my album...He actually mixed and mastered the song, so it wasn't in my possession till the day before we put it on the album. So when I hear it, I'm like 'Oh My God, Nick's my guy, man, he killin' him!' But I was like, I need that Eminem verse!"
Acknowledging Eminem as "the greatest of all time," the pragmatic Joe understands that Nick wants to "bait" Eminem onto Wild N' Out, where he might hold a home-field advantage of sorts. "But you can't take that serious. Nick Cannon vs Eminem? That's impossible." Between his jovial body language and brutal honesty, you can tell that Joey Crack is laughing all the way to the bank. And why wouldn't he? Go stream that Family Ties and show some love to a hip-hop legend.