Prison or jail shouldn't be a place anyone aspires to visit, but Fat Joe's time in prison provided a sense of clarity for himself and his career.
During a conversation with The Breakfast Club, Joey Crack shared a lot of storied included tales from the four months he spent in prison for tax evasion. When asked what he learned from his time behind bars, Joe said he gained a sense of mortality that allowed him to end his beefs with 50 Cent and JAY-Z.
"It was crazy," he said at around the 19:30 mark. "This guy came to me and he was like, 'You going to join the basketball league?' and I was like, 'Basketball? I ain't playing no basketball' and he's like 'Yeah, it's the 40 and over,'" Joe said around 20 minutes into the interview. "And that shit was like ricocheting. I walked away like 'Oh my God. I'm 40.'"
"So that was great," he continued. "God gave me that opportunity because that never left no where. So when I went to my cell, I knew that my window was smaller... and I had to fix a lot of relationships. I knew when I came out of jail I had to squash my shit with JAY-Z. Squash my shit with 50 Cent and any loose ends I had out there."
He then went on to explain that making up with JAY-Z was harder than 50 Cent because people rarely see Hov and he's more stubborn than people realize. But it turned out to be fruitful when they teamed up for the remix of "All the Way Up," a potent anthem for NY.
Also by getting cool with 50 Cent, he might have rubbed his friends, Irv Gotti and Ja Rule, the wrong way.
"There might be small undertones there," Joe said at around the 36:20 mark when asked if Ja Rule and Irv Gotti might be upset by his new relationship with 50. "I love them. I show everyone I love, everybody in an individual way, and I'm just not about that no more. I'm not gonna beef with a guy for 20 years where it is not going anywhere."
Fat Joe also said that he almost ended the feud with 50 and Ja but Irv and Rule weren't ready to bury the hatchet.
"I almost had it," Crack claimed. "I almost squashed the beef... I was going to bring them both out to a concert... 50 was going to do it. And then [Irv Gotti and Ja Rule] went bad on me." You can watch the full interview above.
