Fat Joe is tired of people coming for him for using the n-word, and recently got some back-up from Talib Kweli as he defended his usage of the word.
The pair of New York emcees got together for an episode of Talib’s People’s Party podcast published on Monday (June 26). While addressing the topic of the n-word, Talib kicked it off by noting, “For those of us that grew up in New York City – Latino people who grew up in Black neighborhoods, they say n-gga just like Black people do.”
Fat Joe responded: “Explaining it to people at this point is like, mind boggling to me, ’cause it’s been like, ‘What’s up Fat Joe? You my n-gga!’ since I’m 2 years old. You taking it offensive, then what do I look like a slave owner to you? Or I look like the cop who killed George Floyd? I gotta think about you. ‘Cause you obviously know that you just said I’m the most important piece of Hip Hop. You obviously know I’m wit Black people all day. I fight for Black people, I fight for Latinos every day of my life.”
He continued: “I don’t try to let people make me second guess what I do because that’s not what Hip Hop was founded on. The origin of the word is foul anyway. I don’t know how we made it cool. If I’m driving right down the block and somebody’s doing something to the blackest lady in the world – I’m jumping out. I’m dying! So it’s offensive to me when people say, ‘Yo, why do you even say that?’ Like, don’t you know?!”
This isn’t the first time Fat Joe has addressed the topic. During a visit to The Breakfast Club in October, the Bronx rapper reflected on the controversy surrounding him being a man of Puerto Rican descent freely using the n-word. The topic has been something that has followed him his whole career, and according to Joe, he wants to know if they really think he’s a racist while also admitting he won’t be pressured to do something.
“I want them to know no one’s going to pressure Fat Joe into feeling or saying anything that he loves or believes in, no one’s ever going to do that,” Joey Crack said. “You get one life, and no one is going to try to tell me what to say, tell me what to do, tell me what to think. I mean, do I look like a racist?”
Prior to his comments, Joe explained his upbringing in New York City makes it hard for him to refrain from using the word as everyone around him used it, Black people included.
“My projects was 90 percent, I’ll give you 80 percent Black still. My grandmother’s projects is 99.9 percent Black, to be clear,” Fat Joe said. “I’m Spanish. I knew I was Latino, but the whole time I thought I was Black anyway. So my mom lived there 40 years before I was born in this project, and I’m born blonde hair green eyes.”
He continued: “The shit crazy, she brings me there, and the first thing they do is, ‘Look at this little n-gga Joey. He got green eyes.’ The minute I’m walking, the guys from the building are like, ‘Yo look at that little n-gga Joe, little fat Joe,’ That’s all I knew my whole life before even elementary.”
[via]
