Do you think you nailed it with this J. Holiday record?

Fat Joe: I mean it feels like a huge hit record, it’s top 20, and it’s been number 18 for about four or five weeks. And it seems to be growing and growing and growing. I just hope for the best. So at the end of the day, all you could do is hope people play the record and hope that people buy the record. This whole rap game is a crap-shoot.

Has the decline of the rap game affected any of your business?

Fat Joe: Uh-I don’t think so, you know I follow this standard procedure I go by. Just promote the same way, the budget is smaller but we’ve put more of a focus on the Internet for sure.

How do you judge success nowadays? 

Fat Joe: Success is about being relevant. People talking about you, people liking the music and an artist always having something hot out. Now there’s  a different way of judging success. As long as you make money, that’s what it comes down to. The game has changed. 50 Cent’s last album [The Massacre] sold 10 million, this one struggled to sell one [million]. The game’s changed.

Your rap style has evolved over the years. Who do you look to for inspiration these days?  

Fat Joe: Lil Wayne has always been inspiration to me. Young Jeezy, I love all the rappers. I always buy Fabolous albums, Styles P albums.

You’re a fifteen-year vet in the game. When was Hip-Hop most enjoyable for you?

Fat Joe: It was actually very enjoyable for me at the beginning when there were no type of egos involved, no type of competition. It was just camaraderie, artists getting together because they love music and rocking together. But my most enjoyable time would have to be the success of Big Pun. It was a very successful time for us, and we never witnessed anything like that.

Nowadays rap content is really under the microscope. How have you dealt with that?

Fat Joe: I really don’t care. It doesn’t really exist to me. Because most people that are watching the rap content are the people that don’t give a fuck about rap music anyway. Ain’t nobody who loves Hip-Hop watching you say “bitch” or “ho”. They just love Hip-Hop and have always been hearing that shit. It’s only someone like Oprah who doesn’t like Hip-Hop.

On Fugitive you take a stand against eliminating certain words from rap, what is your issue with censorship personally?

Fat Joe: You can’t censor rap. Rap is entertainment. First of all, lets just go at it real. The real is it’s entertainment. Because we’re poets, we’re painting a picture or portrait; we’re making a movie on wax. Because a rapper says you should be robbing a liquor store doesn’t mean you should go rob a liquor store. Because he ain’t robbing it. It’s just entertainment. We’re Scorsese’s. On the other hand you got your First Amendment and your freedom of speech. That’s the bottom line.

Are you ready to deal with the backlash from that song?

Fat Joe: Ready to deal with what? People don’t exist to me, this is what I’m trying to tell you. You know you could really be affected by some people existing, but these people don’t exist to me. They’re complaining about my lyrical content, they don’t like rap music anyway. It ain’t a Hip-Hop fan telling me I’m saying some shit. It ain’t a Hip-Hop fan saying, “I have a problem with that.” Yea, do you have a problem with the other 60 thousand motherfuckers?

As a Puerto Rican rapper, have you ever been criticized for using the N Word?

No absolutely not. Because blacks and Latinos anywhere you go in any hood, any ghetto, we’re right beside each other, and with each other all the time especially in New York City. They’ve been calling me “that nigga” my whole life. I go to Africa, and the Africans say “what’s up Fat Joe my nigga-ah?” So they don’t have a problem with it. It’s a term of endearment. Home // CELEBRITIES // WEB EXCLUSIVE // Fat Joe