Fat Joe and Big Pun were inseparable when the rapper was alive. As a result, fans were wondering why Fat Joe was present during Big Pun’s street renaming ceremony in their home borough, The Bronx. This prompted Joey Crack to take to Instagram Live where he explained why he wasn’t in attendance.
For five minutes, Joe explained to his viewers that his pride stemming from personal issues with some of the people in attendance wouldn’t allow him to be present at the ceremony.
“If you don’t have good things to say about somebody, I rather you not say it,” Joe began. “So, me—I could not go over there because there were people over there that I just ain’t feeling and I ain’t never gonna feel. So when everybody DMs me or says your little thing and the whole Terror Squad, yo bro—I will never stand beside these people ever in life.”
Although Fat Joe didn’t specifically name the people at the ceremony that halted him from wanting to attend, Joe has had a very tumultuous relationship with Big Pun’s family since the rapper’s death.
Pun’s widow, Liza Rios, claimed that Fat Joe watched the family struggle financially while withholding royalties from the family. In 2014, Rios sued Joe for over $1 million in alleged royalties. Joe and his co-defendant music publisher John “Jellybean” Benitez were able to settle the case before it went to trial, but this hasn’t stopped the Rios family from hurling claims of financial misconduct at Fat Joe.
“I’m not standing beside nobody talking ‘bout ‘Yo, lets do it for Pun.’ No, I’m not,” Joe continued. “When you slander me and you slander word and make me look crazy for two decades in the ‘hood. I cannot stand next to you. I’m never standing next to you.”
Although his differences with Pun’s family persist, Fat Joe claims to have tried to extend an olive branch by giving Pun’s son, rapper Chris Rivers, an opportunity to showcase his talents.
“Last year, we did a tribute to Big Pun in the historical Radio City Music Hall,” Fat Joe said. “I invited his son who raps apparently to come and do Big Pun’s parts. He declined. … But we got to salute the one and only, Big motherf**king Pun. Big Pun Plaza. We love Pun until the day we die.”
Watch Fat Joe’s full explanation below.
