Fat Joe Recounts How He Played a Role in De-Escalating East Coast vs. West Coast Beef

Fat Joe explained in a new interview with Big U how he was instrumental in helping end the brutal East Coast vs. West Coast beef of the 1990s.

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Fat Joe said in a new interview that he was instrumental in ending the brutal East Coast/West Coast beef of the ’90s.

The New York rapper stopped by the Checc’n-In Podcast with Big U and detailed how an arranged meeting between the two coasts at Minister Louis Farrakhan’s Chicago home ultimately led to him meeting Mack 10, who invited him out to Cali to film Thicker Than Water in 1999.

“You know what stopped the East Coast/West Coast Beef? Fat Joe,” Joey Crack said at the 7:40 mark above.

He told a story about how he and Doug E. Fresh were the only two East Coast MCs to show up to Farrakhan’s residence, which was allegedly full of West Coast rappers. Upon arrival, Joe said he started having a confrontation with Ice Cube, who was beloved in New York and had previously performed at the Apollo Theater.

“You shoulda been the n***a tryna bring the peace,” Fat Joe said. “That’s what I was trying to tell him...everybody love you, you coulda set this shit up and squashed this.” 

Joe then recalled Mack 10 stepped in to cool things down and the dialogue with the Inglewood artist turned into peace talks.

“Mack 10 was Ice Cube’s guy right? At the time. So me and Mack 10 hit it off and he was like, ‘Yo man, I fuck with you Fat Joe, everything I hear about you, this and that,” Joe recalled. “And I’m like ‘Yo, you know I fuck with all of y’all too,’ like you know what I’m saying? So he was like ‘Yo man, let’s show them that an East Coast and West Coast could do something positive, let’s work together, and we shot the movie Thicker Than Water out in L.A.”

Joe flew out to Cali to take part in the 1999 project, and over the course of two months of filming he became close with multiple West Coast rappers and affiliates.

“From there, that showed people that New York and L.A. could work together and we became a bond and we was doing videos together and working, and I would like to say that eased the tension between the East Coast and West Coast,” Joe said. “It needed something like that. A Fat Joe, Mack 10, and everybody start working with each other and showing brotherhood and unity.”

The 51-year-old rap star told a version of this story in October on his own program The Fat Joe Show, when Snoop Dogg and Doug E. Fresh stopped by as guests. During the conversation, Snoop was quick to give Joe his flowers.

“Y’all represented for New York, ’cause Doug E was the OG and you was the young generation and you spoke from the heart about how you felt about certain scenarios that was going down in that room to create peace,” Snoop Dogg said. “That’s what Farrakhan brought us there for so we could have a brotherhood conversation and not be distraught by internet or somebody reporting but us dealing with each other directly getting that understanding that we left that room with full understanding.”

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