Rapper Fat Joe expresses his regrets about his past financial management and highlights how much he misused his funds when he was at one of the highest peaks in his career.
Rapper Fat Joe whose real name is Antonio Cartagena was born in the early 1970s in the Bronx, New York City began his music journey in the early 1990s during the Golden era for hip-hop with many influential rappers during the same era like Nas, The Notorious Big, Tupac Shakur, Jay-Z, Wu-Tang Clan, LL Cool J, Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg, Redman, Busta Rhymes amongst others.
Despite being in this era where the hip-hop industry wasn’t as rich as it is now, he made a name for himself but says he spent most of that flying private jets which almost put him on a financial deficit till he quickly realized himself… In an interview with Luc Bellaire, he [Fat Joe ] revealed all this. In his words,
“The most money I ever lost was flying private planes, the most millions of dollars annually. When I first flew, it was off… I took private planes like it was a cab, like a taxi cab. I just be like yo! We going to Connecticut to eat a meal, we’re going to Boston, like just anything- $70,000. And okay I’d have made 200 grands and I will be like well, not that much. And I will look at it as justified.
But one month, the guy had me like yo! Joe, you ain’t gotta have to pay, you can pay at the end of the month. And when that boy gave me that bill about six hundred and something thousand, that’s when I learned. That’s when it dawned on me I had been playing rough games with my money”.
Despite being in this era where the hip-hop industry was in a transformative phase, His genre was growing quite fast but hadn’t reached the commercial dominance it achieved in the 2000s, as it was still transitioning from being underground to more mainstream.
Artists too were beginning to sign record label deals but the genre was still enveloping compared to pop and rock. Big Record labels started recognizing the profit prospects of hip-hop but often structured contracts in ways that limited artists’ profits and growth hence giving more control to the Labels.
It also didn’t fetch as much as today, as revenues mainly came from record sales, merchandising, and live performances. Endorsement deals, brand deals, and influencing were far-fetched. So this directly didn’t translate to wealth for most rappers. Nevertheless, Fat Joe
had made a name for himself, especially with his 2001 album “Jealous Ones Still Envy” (J.O.S.E) which was his most commercially successful project.
Also, hits like “What’s luv?” featuring Ashanti and Ja Rule peaked at No. 2 on Billboard Hot 100. This song particularly gave him his biggest fame globally. And his next big project “Lean Back” ft. Remy Ma that earned him a Grammy.
