Fat Joe Biography

Latino rapper Fat Joe (aka Fat Joe da Gangsta, Joey Crack, and his real pronouncement, Joe Cartagena) was raised in the South Bronx area of New York.
It was through an older brother that Cartagena educational the ways of the street, as nimbly as discovering rap music via the sounds of such groundbreaking artists as Theodore, Funky 4 + 1, and the Furious Five. Eventually going by the declare of Fat Joe, the rapper secured a recording contract as soon as the Relativity label in the forward '90s, resulting in the pardon of his full-length debut, Represent, in 1993 (which spawned the single "Flow Joe," peaking at the number one spot almost Billboard's Hot Rap Singles chart). Two years highly developed, Fat Joe issued his sophomore effort, Jealous One's Envy, which included a cameo way of living thing by KRS-One as expertly as production contributions by the likes of DJ Premier, L.E.S., and Domingo. Around the same era, Fat Joe appeared upon LL Cool J's big hit "I Shot Ya" (along behind Foxy Brown and Keith Murray) and collaborated considering Wu-Tang Clan's Raekwon upon a track from the "Envy" single, called "Firewater."


By the late '90s, Fat Joe had switched lp labels (signing upon subsequent to Atlantic) and tried his hand at late accretion non-musical career ventures such as activate a clothing growth called Fat Joe's Halftime, a barber shop, and a fashion parentage, FJ560. In entire quantity, he signed a production and distribution peace following Atlantic Records and Mystic Entertainment (which he ran when a handbag named Big Greg). Fat Joe's debut for Atlantic, 1998's Don Cartagena, featured cameo appearances by the likes of Puff Daddy, Nas, Raekwon, Big Pun, and Jadakiss (the LOX), and was followed occurring in 2001 subsequent to Jealous Ones Still Envy (J.O.S.E.), which included contributions from Ludacris, Petey Pablo, M.O.P., R. Kelly, and Remy. Loyalty followed in 2002, and All or Nothing arrived three years along with. The raw Me, Myself and I from 2006 found the rapper upon his own Terror Squad imprint, which was distributed by EMI. His second album for the label, The Elephant in the Room, appeared in 2008. A year complex, Jealous Ones Still Envy arrived behind a star-studded guest list. In 2010 the "(Ha Ha) Slow Down," single announced the coming of that year's The Darkside. The album was the rapper's first pardon for the E1 label. ~ Greg Prato, Rovi