Fat Joe Says Kanye West Didn’t Know He Wrote His Own Raps When Making “Pride N Joy”
Written by SOURCE on October 31, 2019
In a thoroughly entertaining conversation with L.A. Leakers, Fat Joe revealed Kanye West was unaware that he wrote his own rhymes while they were working on the 2012 track “Pride N Joy.” Fat Joe was on the show to promote his upcoming Family Ties album.
Fat Joe recalls that while trying to make the transition to music from the streets where he was being considered “New York’s Suge Knight,” he was being true to the craft. That meant sitting down and writing his own raps. Kanye was taken aback by the sight of someone who he thought was a mafia don actually putting pen to paper.
“I sat down to do a record with Kanye West, we did the joint ‘Pride N Joy,’ and when I pulled out my paper, and started writing he was like, ‘You write music?’ This was five years ago,” he said at the 27:15 mark. “He was like, ‘You rap?’ I was like what do you mean, we’re making a song together.”
“Oh, I just thought you were like a mafia don that they come give you different raps and you chose which one you say,” Fat Joe recalls of West’s response. “I’m like, ‘Get the fuck out of here. I’ve been rapping my whole life. What the hell are you talking about.’ I never had no help.”
Fat Joe also revisits the biggest regret of his life which was not signing Eminem despite receiving his demo on numerous occasions. He discussed that same mistake last week at a live event with Miami radio station 99 Jamz.
“Eminem out here in Miami, he gave me his demo like six different times,” he recalls. “Everywhere I went was this little white boy and he kept giving me his demo. He was like, ‘Yo, listen to my music, I’m telling you, I’m nice, I’m nice, I’m nice.’… I didn’t do it and now he’s the biggest guy in the universe.”
When talking with Justin Credible and DJ Sourmilk, Joe jokingly confessed that after realizing that he dropped the ball on signing “the biggest guy in the universe,” he was contemplating which way he would take his life. “I was like, ‘What choice of weapon should I kill myself with?’ ‘Is it a knife?’ ‘Is it cyanide?’ ‘Is it a gun bullet?'”
Check out the interview in its entirety above.
