Fame can be fleeting. This is especially true for rappers due to hip hop's obsession with youth. As such, credit must be given to rappers who achieve longevity -- rappers like Fat Joe, who set the streets aflame last year with his single "All the Way Up." Joe is now 46, twice as old as he was when he released his debut album Represent.
This article covers the first decade of Joe's career, from his 1993 debut single "Flow Joe" to his 2004 mega-hit "Lean Back." Click through the image gallery to read on.
"Flow Joe" (1993)
The genesis of Joe's debut single "Flow Joe" as told by Complex:
I started out in the Apollo Theater. That’s where I got my start. I won Amateur Night four weeks in a row. I met Red Alert, who was the number one DJ in New York. He worked on 98.7 KISS FM. He asked me to give him a promo, like a jingle.
So I went to Diamond D’s [crib], and he came up with the beat. He was like, ‘I just bought this vinyl off this dude on the train.’ And the minute he played it, [and I heard the sound he used for the sample], I remember Diamond started moving his head and doing the Diamond D.
I had never seen anyone produce a beat in front of me until that. He went in and just flipped it. He made it right in front of me, in his kitchen. He had his equipment in his kitchen, and he made the beat right there.
"Watch the Sound" feat. Grand Puba & Diamond D (1993)
Another raw Diamond D production, "Watch the Sound" solidified Joe's place in the Diggin' in the Crates crew, which was emerging as Bronx's best answer to Staten Island/Brooklyn's Wu-Tang Clan.
"Shit Is Real" (1993/1995)
The first iteration of "Shit is Real," produced by The Beatnuts, contains a rugged jazz sample, with the sort of thumping upright bass and sax fills to color the upper frequencies that appeared on lllmatic.
Two years later, DJ Premier released a cooler, breezier remix that color Fat Joe's Bronx tales in a more nostalgic light.
"Envy" (1995)
Hip hop producers have sampled Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing" over the years to varying effect. The best is probably the Jay Z/Marvin Gaye mashup "Hello Brooklyn" from 2007 -- the height of American's mash-up phase. Fat Joe's "Envy," produced by Nas' DJ L.E.S., is up there as well. Kygo's "Sexual Healing" remix is indisputably the worst.
"Firewater" feat. Raekwon, Big Pun, & Armageddon (1996)
The rap talent that emerged from New York in the '90s is mind-boggling. Big Pun made his first ever appearance on Joe's album Jealous Ones Envy, which was released two months after Raekwon's seminal debut Only Built 4 Cuban Linx. They united on "Firewater," a song that Joe released as B-side to his "Envy" single.
Big Pun - "Twinz (Deep Cover 98)" feat. Fat Joe (1998)
The genesis of Big Pun's legendary "Little Italy" couplet, as told by Complex:
I ain’t bug out when he first said the ‘Dead in the middle of Little Italy...’ rhyme. That wasn’t even a rhyme. He used to play around and say [that tongue twister], just like he used to walk around going, ‘Packin’ the Mac in the back of the Ac, packin’ the Mac in the back of the Ac.’ These were like jokes to him.
I had to argue with him to put ‘Dead in the middle of Little Italy...’ in the song. I was like, ‘That’s the hardest shit on earth.’ He was like, ‘Are you crazy? That’s a fuckin’ joke. Niggas will laugh at me. Are you serious?’ Then he did it, and it was the illest shit.
John Blaze
"John Blaze" feat. Nas, Big Punisher, Jadakiss, and Raekwon (1998)
Comics fans know that Johnny Blaze is the stunt motorcyclist who would ultimately become Ghost Rider. He inspired one of Method Man's alter egos, as well as this monster track from Joe's Don Cartagena.
"We Thuggin" feat. R. Kelly (2001)
"We Thuggin" peaked at #15 on the Billboard Hot 100 -- Joe's highest-charting single by far at the time. (His next-highest: "Envy" at #76) The chart performance can largely be attributed to the presence of R. Kelly, arguably the biggest R&B star on the planet in 2001, but even Kellz was not immune to wave-riding. His hook on "We Thuggin" draws a clear influence from Nelly's Country Grammar, which was released the year before.
"What's Luv" feat. Ashanti & Ja Rule (2002)
Joe's ear for radio beats, and is ability to inhabit them, had evolved considerably by this stage in his career. He was no longer a humble, hard-nosed street rapper from the South Bronx. He was becoming a radio fixture. "What's Luv" hit #2 on the Billboard Hot 100, his most popular song ever except...
Terror Squad - "Lean Back" (2004)
The seductive "Lean Back" beat gets its Arabian sound from Scott Storch's use of the double harmonic scale. Fat Joe explained how the song came together in an interview with Complex:
Being that he was doing all that stuff for Dre at the time, he had it sounding a little West Coast-ish. And I’m like, ‘Yo Scott, we can’t sound West Coast. I’m from New York.' So we flipped that beat.
That’s the only beat I ever had for two months that I was scared to rap to because it was so incredible. I didn’t know if I was going to rap towards a girl or what. So I said, ‘You know what? I’m just gonna go in there and rip that shit down.’ So I went in there, and lyrically just spit the hard shit. ‘We from the Bronx, New York, shit happens.'