Fat Joe has had one of the most illustrious careers in hip hop. The Bronx rapper has tons of hit records under his belt. Despite years of success, Fat Joe still hasn’t won a Grammy Award. While he was nominated several times, it was the 2017 ceremony that Joe is still disappointed about.
During a recent interview with GQ, Joe opened up about losing the Grammy for Best Rap Performance to Chance The Rapper’s “No Problem” that year. “‘All the Way Up’” was bigger. Not only that, if people understood the culture, Remy and I were like Robin Hood and Cinderella,” he said.
Read More: Fat Joe Celebrates 29 Years Since His Debut Album Was Released
Joe says that Chance is a “cool guy.” But still believes he and Remy should have won. “They gave it to Chance the Rapper—and for what? I’m not going to be disrespectful, but they gave it to him for a record I don’t even know no more. This is my point. I don’t even know what he beat us with. Do you understand? Same thing happened to us with ‘Lean Back.’ We lost Best Rap Performance By A Duo Or Group in 2005 to, what’s these guys? What’s the guy with the girl, Fergie?”
Joe was referencing the Black Eyed Peas 2005 track “Let’s Get It Started.” “Come on, bro. I don’t know what song,” he added. “How does it beat ‘Lean Back’?” In the GQ interview, Joe also opened up about meeting Big Pun for the first time. “hen I met Pun for the first time, he was telling me his life story. I was just like, ‘Yo, why is this guy telling me all his fuckin’ business?’ That’s not what we do. But he just wanted to belong. He was a real dude, and he just wanted a crew.”
As for how he felt after losing Pun, Joe shared that he was “devastated.” “When you talk about Big Pun … that was devastating. It destroyed my world. I don’t even know how to explain it to you. So here we are, we brothers, we’re flying high, we get rich together. We made it!”
Check out Fat Joe’s full GQ interview here.