Fat Joe Biography

Fat Joe is an American-Latino rapper and the CEO of Terror Squad Entertainment.

Early Life

Joseph Antonio Cartagena was born in the South Bronx of New York on August 19, 1970. Growing up in public housing, he experienced a troubled childhood. However, rapping was introduced to him and he drew a lot of inspiration from Latino rapper Big Pun.

Career Beginnings and Success

Under the alias Fat Joe, Joseph was able to get a recording deal with Relativity label. Represent was released in 1993, which made the Flow Joe single a hit on Billboard’s Hot Rap Singles chart. Later followed the certified-platinum album Jealous One’s Envy and collaborated with Wu-Tang Clan’s Raekwon. Now under the Atlantic label, he revealed the 1998 album, Don Cartagena, then the 2001 Jealous Ones Still Envy (J.O.S.E.) which featured numerous collaboration from fellow rappers.  The Lean Back single was a major hit for his Terror Squad collective.

Terror Squad Entertainment

He founded the Terror Squad label and released his LP Me, Myself and I in 2006.  The second release under the same label was The Elephant in the Room in 2008, debuting at number 6 on Billboard Hot 100. Jealous Ones Still Envy was issued with numerous major collaborations. Following the 2010 The Darkside album, Joe was featured on DJ Khaled’s hit Welcome to My Hood. In the next years, Fat Joe focused more on releasing mixtapes. The single All the Way Up featuring Remy Ma and French Montana was nominated for a Best Rap Song Grammy award. The single was later featured on the joint Remy Ma album Plata o Plomo in 2017.

Photo credit: The Source