Fat Joe & Jadakiss' BEST DEBUT RAP ALBUMS: Biggie, Nas, Jay-Z, DMX, 50 Cent, N.W.A., OutKast & MORE

Summary

Joe and Jada Podcast Summary

Episode: Fat Joe & Jadakiss' BEST DEBUT RAP ALBUMS: Biggie, Nas, Jay-Z, DMX, 50 Cent, N.W.A., OutKast & MORE
Date: October 14, 2025

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Overview

In this electrifying, nostalgia-fueled episode, Fat Joe and Jadakiss, two icons with deep personal roots in hip-hop’s evolution, dig into the pantheon of rap’s greatest debut albums. With no guests, just pure barbershop energy, they recount the seismic shifts these albums created—recalling personal stories, industry impact, and those moments when hip-hop culture jumped forward. The conversation covers East and West, legends and regional pioneers, and even extends to essential debuts from women MCs. If you care about hip-hop history or the ongoing debates about who did it best, this is an episode you can’t miss.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

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Setting the Tone & Why Debut Albums Matter

• Chemistry and Podcast Philosophy
  "Every show legendary, every show iconic. This is the evergreen version of both of those." —Jadakiss [01:16]
  Joe and Jada reflect on the authenticity of their show, likening their voices to legendary NBA commentators—real veterans with a firsthand lens.
• What’s the Big Deal About Debuts?
  Debut albums set the bar, define legacies, and spark endless arguments. “Even when I was in the streets, we would break night just arguing about who’s the greatest rapper, who got the best bars…” —Fat Joe [04:23]

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Early Trailblazers & Golden Era Debuts

Run-DMC, Boogie Down Productions, and the Birth of Street and Conscious Rap

• Run-DMC: Pioneers of Hip-Hop Swag
  Both agree Run-DMC's debut (King of Rock '84) was game-changing. It “taught us how to dress…They took this game to the next level.” —Fat Joe [06:21]
  Joe recalls witnessing their power at a junior high talent show:
  “When that shit came on, I watched all the kids in the whole junior high look at each other like it was like an alien…These are the new kings of hip hop. It was one play…It was over.” [08:17]
• Boogie Down Productions’ Criminal Minded
  Jada calls out “Criminal Minded,” and Joe dives into its street power and political consciousness:
  “First time I ever heard consciousness in music was Criminal Minded…for me, I was willing to die for KRS-One and didn’t even know him.” [10:03]
• Public Enemy’s Yo! Bum Rush the Show
  They recognize PE’s invention of the militant/fun dynamic—Chuck D’s sermons balanced by Flavor Flav’s antics. “It’s almost like Fat Joe and Jada…somebody could have looked at this podcast to begin with and say, oh, no, it’s not gonna work. But somehow the chemistry is perfect.” —Fat Joe [12:23]

Eric B. & Rakim, N.W.A., De La Soul and the Rise of the Lyricists

• Eric B. & Rakim — Paid In Full
  “We can stop right here. Paid in full.” —Fat Joe [13:58]
  They unwrap Rakim’s lyrical dominance and Eric B’s record-deal hustle. Fat Joe credits Eric B’s “ice grill” for teaching rappers stoic street presence. [15:23]
• N.W.A.: Straight Outta Compton
  The discussion traces how NWA’s debut (1988) rewrote the rules.
  “I was in Dapper Dan…The whole place stopped in silence and looked up at the screen...They let me know you could rap about anything. Fuck the police, don’t matter just don’t bite.” —Fat Joe [17:05]
  NWA influences a family tree: “No Dr. Dre, no Eminem, no Dr. Dre, no 50 Cent, no Game...”
• De La Soul’s 3 Feet High and Rising
  Jada notes being from a younger generation but respects their “preppy college Daisy Age,” which redefined hip-hop’s image. Fat Joe calls them the beginning of the “native tongue” movement, highlighting positivity and diversity. [19:46]

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1990s Expansion: Regional Stories, New Flavors

A Tribe Called Quest, Ghetto Boys/Scarface, Tupac & UGK

• A Tribe Called Quest: People’s Instinctive Travels…
  “I might have played that album 1000 times, bro…producers study that first album.” —Fat Joe [24:09]
• Ghetto Boys & Scarface
  “He’s every rapper’s favorite rapper. He’s Jay Z’s favorite, if we asked him.” —Fat Joe [25:32]
  Joe shares his early connection: “I took Scarface in the Bronx. He was like, you guys live like this? Cause, you know, Texas, even to this day, is all spread out.” [26:41]
• Tupac: 2Pacalypse Now
  Recognized more for potential than immediate impact: “We talking about the greatest debut albums…All Eyes on Me, all that other work was more prolific.” —Fat Joe [29:27]
  "Brenda’s Got a Baby" is acknowledged as a resonant, real-life narrative. [29:49]
• UGK: Too Hard to Swallow
  Fat Joe brings a wild ATL story of Pimp C (choppers at a boxing match), emphasizing UGK's certified street legacy. [32:03]

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Defining Debuts of the Modern Era

Slick Rick, Gang Starr, OutKast, Juvenile, Mobb Deep, DMX

• Slick Rick: The Great Adventures…
  Fat Joe credits Slick Rick’s debut with helping him survive the hardest times in his youth:
  “All I’m playing is Slick Rick music in my headphones to get me through the night.” [33:37]
• Gang Starr, OutKast, and Juvenile
  • Guru “[was] like a Malcolm X of hip hop—talking that consciousness, but in a slick tone.” —Fat Joe [35:48]
  • OutKast’s “Southernplayalistic...” marked the expansion of ATL’s influence and the South’s hip-hop rise. [36:42]
  • Juvenile’s 400 Degreez: “That album’s crazy. That whole movement, when they came out, just took the world by storm.” —Jada [36:56]
• Mobb Deep
  Correction: Their real debut was “Juvenile Hell,” but Joe and Jada agree “The Infamous” is what shifted the culture, calling it the “holy grail.” [37:48]
• DMX: It’s Dark and Hell Is Hot
  • Jadakiss describes how DMX was already a local legend—his debut “went five million with old rhymes,” and stories of epic early battles are shared. [39:11]
  • “When he come through, it was…he can put on. …That was part of…it was history.” —Jada [39:17]

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Late ‘90s/Early 2000s: The Blockbuster Era

Big Pun, Wu-Tang, Brand Nubian, 50 Cent

• Big Pun: Capital Punishment
  “Lyrically phenomenal…first soloist, Latino artists to sell 2 million records...Everywhere we went, it was a platinum party.” —Fat Joe [41:19]
  “I knew Pun was my…you know, we had…Pun was that man…he used to be snapping on you, snapping on DJ Iraq. Pun was crazy.” —Jada [42:24]
• Wu-Tang Clan: Enter the 36 Chambers
  “Nine dudes from Shaolin…different slang…they just took over the world…nothing like that’ll ever be done ever again.” —Jada [45:29]
  “They all went on to sell millions of records solo…to this day, I got people who argue about Ghostface…” —Fat Joe [46:15]
• Brand Nubian
  Both hosts recall the power of Grand Puba: “He had mean bars with the voice, with the cadence…watched everybody go to the speaker, stop dancing just to hear what he was gonna say.” —Jada [47:42]
• 50 Cent: Get Rich or Die Tryin’
  “That probably might be arguably one of the best debuts. That’s like up there with Snoop. 50 is up there with doggy style if you ask me.” —Jada [52:02]
  “That album could have really been three albums. Four albums. …It was too easy for him. I don’t know what kind of zone he was in, but everything was too easy.” —Fat Joe [53:29]

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Ready to Die: The Benchmark

• The Impact of Biggie’s Debut “Ready to die…he came in and switched the old way…Biggie Smalls changed the whole entire rap game.” —Fat Joe [59:44] “His flow. His cadence to this day don’t make sense… He only did two years of damage, and it’s fucking phenomenal.” —Fat Joe [60:05] “There’s not a day in my blessed life…that I do not hear Biggie Small song.” [60:32]

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Love for Bars: Black Thought, Lauryn Hill, and Female Hip-Hop Debuts

Black Thought, Lauryn Hill, Lil Kim, Foxy Brown, Cardi B

• Black Thought
  “Superiorly nice.” —Jada [64:54]
• Lauryn Hill: The Miseducation…
  Both call her debut one of the most classic albums ever. “She would have had four or five classic albums… Lauryn Hill’s in a fucking lane of her own.” —Fat Joe [66:37] “I got the same birthday as Lauryn Hill...and Three Stacks…Need I say more?” —Jada [65:15]
• Kim, Foxy, The Brat, Cardi B
  • “Lil Kim, first album was crazy. Hardcore, everybody. That shifted…the way females wanted to present themselves.” [66:43]
  • “Foxy first album, Il Na Na… Missy Elliot…I can’t stand the rain. The Brat…funkified.” [67:11]
  • “Recently…I listened to that Cardi B album about 10, 20 times. Cardi B, she got some bars in there better than dudes…not comparing the album to Lauryn Hill or Foxy or Kim’s debut... But …her album right now is better than most guys in 2025.” [67:02; 68:38]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

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• “If we listen to your record, it’s your new single. If we talk that shit, it is what it is. Viral mania, man.” —Fat Joe [02:07]
• “It was just one play…It was over. These are the new kings of hip hop.” —Fat Joe on Run-DMC [09:02]
• “He was the Hercules of the Bronx and South Bronx.” —Fat Joe on KRS-One [10:03]
• “Eric B’s the first nigga that was dead serious in hip hop. It’s the ice grill.” —Jada [16:06]
• “You got Chuck D. talking that shit. And then you got Flavor Flav, who’s really a bug out and…we love him.” —Fat Joe [12:37]
• “We don’t play that. We don’t.” —Fat Joe on beef with 50 Cent [53:14]
• “To this day, I think producers study that [Tribe Called Quest’s] first album…” —Fat Joe [24:09]
• “Lauryn Hill’s in a fucking lane of her own. Nobody.” —Fat Joe [66:37]
• “It’s very hard for a man to really be bumping a girl’s album like that… and you got Foxy, you got Kim. …Cardi B got that right now.” —Fat Joe [67:13]
• “Every verse Biggie ever spit, we would analyze it immediately and be like, yo, he did a song with total, you know, everything. You be like, damn, embodied that shit again. It’s not easy to body every single verse.” —Fat Joe [63:18]

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Timeline of Important Segments

• Start of Authentic Conversation / Swag Talk – [01:13–03:20]
• Defining Why Debut Albums Matter – [04:21–05:04]
• Run DMC Memories & Impact – [06:19–09:20]
• Criminal Minded & BDP – [09:50–11:27]
• Public Enemy’s Dynamic & Influence – [11:27–13:20]
• Rakim & Eric B’s “Ice Grill” – [13:58–16:09]
• NWA’s East Coast Introduction – [17:05–19:28]
• De La Soul, Native Tongues Era – [19:46–21:04]
• Tribe Called Quest / Quality of Production – [24:01–25:17]
• Ghetto Boys/ Scarface Stories – [25:32–28:50]
• Tupac's Debut & 'Brenda’s Got a Baby' – [29:19–31:47]
• UGK, Pimp C Story – [31:47–32:44]
• Slick Rick’s Debut & Joe’s Personal Story – [33:23–35:10]
• OutKast, Juvenile & the South – [36:42–37:14]
• Mobb Deep “Not the Debut,” Infamous Praised – [37:21–38:19]
• DMX Local Legend / Battle Stories – [39:11–40:15]
• Big Pun’s Capital Punishment – [41:18–43:14]
• Wu-Tang Clan’s Debut Impact – [44:46–46:15]
• Brand Nubian, Grand Puba Stories – [47:08–49:36]
• 50 Cent, Get Rich or Die Tryin’ Debate – [51:45–53:49]
• Jay-Z’s Reasonable Doubt Opens Joe's Mind – [54:46–56:26]
• Onyx & Street Influence – [56:26–57:56]
• The Game – A West Coast Debut with NY Bars – [57:12–59:36]
• Biggie’s Ready to Die: The Standard – [59:36–60:57]
• Bone Thugs, Black Thought, Lauryn Hill & the Best Female Debuts – [60:57–68:38]

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Tone & Final Takeaway

Spirited, loving, and brutally honest, Fat Joe and Jadakiss bring generational knowledge and firsthand anecdotes to the table. Their choices aren’t just based on stats; they’re rooted in lived experience—from basement parties, street corner arguments, and studio battles to the moments debuts made them rethink what hip-hop could be. For them, the best debut rap albums don’t just shift the charts—they shift culture, communities, and the very language of hip-hop itself.

Transcript

[Fat Joe]

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[Hunter]

Short on time, but big on true crime. On a recent episode of the podcast Hunting for Answers, I highlighted the story of 19 year old Lachey Dungey. But she never knocked on that door. She never made it inside. And that text message would be the last time anyone would ever hear from her. Listen to Hunting for Answers from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Fat Joe]

Yeah, yeah. What up, y'? All? This is Fat Joe.

[Jada]

It's your boy, Jaden. Kiss. You know what it is, The Joe and Jada Show. Every show legendary, every show iconic. This is the evergreen version of both of those.

[Fat Joe]

Let me tell you something. We the biggest in the motherfucking globe. Don't let nobody fucking tell you anything else. We got everybody backpedaling, everybody changing up. How they doing? You know, these podcasts, they changing up, telling stories now about the time. Like they changing the whole swag of they shit. But they still got dingy black T shirts on. They ain't got the fly shit on. Sure, they ain't throwing that on. Jada, I ran. I ran into you on fifth Avenue the other day. The cars just passed.

[Jada]

You know, he was doing a little browsing. Spend a couple thousand.

[Fat Joe]

I love that shit. You love it, huh? I love it, too. Every time I got a little extra dollar, I just want to go, you know what I'm saying? Get fly, get fresh. You know what I'm saying? That's my shit right there. Joe or Jada, we dictating the whole podcast game. If we listen to your record, it's your new single. If we talk that shit, it is what it is. Viral mania, man. I mean, it's what it is. We I just like to be relevant, talk about shit that means something to somebody. When you got top dead, alive, top five, dead or alive, and you got Joe Crack here.

[Jada]

You fucking can't lose.

[Fat Joe]

You can't lose. And so today we want to do an evergreen, meaning, you know, we don't need a guest, we don't need none of that. Tell you the truth, some of our. Well, we love all our guests, but some of our greatest shows have been just me and you discussing hip hop. Cause we've been around since day one. You know, I was, you know.

[Jada]

You've been around since day one.

[Fat Joe]

Nah, nah, I've been around.

[Jada]

I've been around since day three or four.

[Fat Joe]

You've been around since. I've been around since day two.

[Jada]

Think day two, right?

[Fat Joe]

Day one. I was just a kid, a baby, watching him do it, but I watched him do it. Ruby D grew up around the corner. First Latino MC shot down the block. No, no, he was in fantastic, romantic five shot rock. The first female mc.

[Jada]

What's the name of the legendary movie man? Wow Style.

[Fat Joe]

Wow style. Movie D is in there and they battling with Charlie Chase and. And Cold Crush, Grandmaster Kaz and them. Yeah, Ruby D's in there. But what I'm trying to tell you, my neighborhood, Melly Mel, Grandmaster Flash, all of them. You know, I felt like guys wasn't doing this right? Like we, you know, when. It's the reason why. When we watch tnt, you see Charles Barkley, you see Shaquille o', Neal, you see Kenny Smith. These are all legendary figures that been through everything in the basketball game. So I said, yo, me and Jada got to get into this. The subject we came up with today, it's a legendary subject, is artists.

[Jada]

Another religious argument.

[Fat Joe]

Another religious. Hey, that's what it's about. You know, me growing up even more than growing up. Even when I was in the streets, we would break night just arguing about who's the greatest rapper, who got the best bars, who got Shout out. My boy Sha. We used to go to 148 and he used to like Dane to Dane. I used to like Slick Rick. That's just normal shit in the hood. So today I don't think it's a debate or nothing like that, but we thinking about the best debut albums from an artist.

[Jada]

Whoo. Best debut albums from an artist. Not groups, artists, not artists.

[Fat Joe]

It could be whatever, but it's really, it could be groups. You could be here forever. We can be here forever because Illmatic might be the best piece of art ever made in hip hop records. Nas, Illmatic. Pure hip hop that treats my life. What was it like for you?

[Jada]

Like it was written better.

[Fat Joe]

You know, I got Rich the Barber says the same thing. Rich the Barber says the same thing for that.

[Jada]

Well, Illmatic did something to my soul, but it was written. Did something to my bloodstream.

[Fat Joe]

That's the second album, it was feel.

[Jada]

Like it was written like it should be in the Google.

[Fat Joe]

To me, Illmatic just, just changed the whole game. Changed how everybody was rapping, you know, Nas coming from a. A legendary project like Queensbridge under MC Shan and Molly Mall and all these guys. And then it gave you a modern day glimpse at the time of what Queensbridge was about. And so to me, I, you know, well, that's crazy because you know, I got some friends who say the same thing you say, man, but I ain't.

[Jada]

Seen King of Rap, the King of.

[Fat Joe]

Rock debut album 1984. King of Rock Run DMC taught us how to dress. They with the blazers, with the Adidas, they had the first endorsement ever.

[Jada]

Leather, you know, doors that come back.

[Fat Joe]

You know what's crazy is I remember when we did the 50th anniversary in Yankee Stadium. I felt like they did them wrong. Cause they made them close. Even though it's run DMC because it was like late. They started like 2, 3 in the morning.

[Jada]

That showed after two days. And one day should have been one day. None by happened. I agree. Everybody gotta wait to audit. Know what I mean?

[Fat Joe]

Man, when Run dmc, I was on.

[Jada]

The Sprinter, watching it.

[Fat Joe]

When Run DMC came out and it was like the Kings of Rock, you knew that this was like U2, Rolling Stones, the legends of all legends, the blueprint that this boom, on and on. I was watching it like a little kid. I performed already. I went upstairs with my family. I was like, yo, this is unlike. I can't believe they made music like this. And I could tell you, I was in junior high school. And at the time, the Treacherous Three, they had that lights, camera, Axman, Kumo dx, Shun. Come on, come on. And everybody was rocking to that. At a talent show. I was at a talent show. You know, I sung John hall and what is it? John hall and Dowell Notes. I sung on stage. She only come out at night. The mean and now the eye Nothing could do. I seen this here before. Meanwhile, everybody's dancing hip hop. And three girls.

[Jada]

Holy crap.

[Fat Joe]

Holy crap.

[Jada]

Crack.

[Fat Joe]

You know, Junior high, junior high. I think you almost had to join the talent show.

[Jada]

I did a talent show?

[Fat Joe]

Yeah, yeah. I think it was part of the curriculum. And man, these three girls came on and they told the DJ to play. And they played that. It's like that. And that's the way I watched. Hundreds of kids in the Bronx created hip hop. I don't know any other way to explain it to you. They was not ready to give it to any other borough or whatever. When that shit came on, I watched all the kids in the whole junior high look at each other like it was like an alien. It was like AI with some new shit. Everybody looked at each other like, oh, it's over. These are the new kings of hip hop. It was one play. The whole auditorium was like, oh, my God, what's this? So Run dmc, definitely. They cracked in the whole. The whole. I don't think me and you have a tv. We don't have a podcast right now. If it ain't for Run dmc, I don't think we got nothing. They took this game to the next level.

[Jada]

It ain't from Run dmc.

[Fat Joe]

Who else you thinking about?

[Jada]

Boogie Down Productions. Man, criminal minded came 1987.

[Fat Joe]

You talking. I wasn't even going there like that.

[Jada]

Teacher staying in Bronx.

[Fat Joe]

Don't worry, Run DMC made it on a higher level. When you Talk about Street.

[Jada]

1987 was a crazy year, dude.

[Fat Joe]

It was crazy, right?

[Jada]

Holy.

[Fat Joe]

Criminal minded. Criminal minded. You know KRS1 sucked us in.

[Jada]

Oh, man.

[Fat Joe]

Of course he got us on the COVID looking like Malcolm X with a machine gun. But at the same time, he was kicking consciousness in the music. The first time I ever heard consciousness in music was criminal minded. You know, and him, Scott Larock, you know the story behind him. He was homeless. And then they became the biggest. And they representing my borough for me. I was willing to die for KRS1 and didn't even know him. Just felt like he was my idol. He was the icon. He was the Hercules of the Bronx and South Bronx. I remember I was in Cortland Avenue and the DJ came and said, we got a new artist and it was KRS1. He was this skinny. He had a Bob Marley T shirt on and a roster hat. And he did the South Bronx. By the time he did the South Bronx, he did it twice. By the time he did it again, the whole block party was going south. Bronze. South. South, bro. It was like a one listen and the next thing you know, that shit was crazy. Criminal minded to me. One of the greatest albums ever made in hip hop records. But of course, 1 billion percent, I'm biased.

[Jada]

We'll take it to Long Island. Yo, bum rush to show Public Enemy. Public Enemy, chuck flav, the S1W.

[Fat Joe]

Terminator X. Terminator X.

[Jada]

He should have had the first sunglasses deal. You wearing those glasses right now? Cause it Terminator X.

[Fat Joe]

You ain't bullshitting. Terminator X should have had the first glass deal. Well, I tell you who had the first everything. Flavor Flav, the first reality show. To me, Flavor. Flavor was just. It's so weird because Chuck talking all this black militant, all this. And flavor flavors. 91 1's a joke. Like, he's just. Flav was like the funny guy from the block. And the two. It's almost like Fat Joe and Jada. Like, nobody thought.

[Jada]

I ain't Flav, though.

[Fat Joe]

No, I'm not saying that.

[Jada]

I'm talking you Flav.

[Fat Joe]

I'll be Flavor. I don't got a problem. I love Flavor Flav. I'm only fighting the point. I'm saying to you is our dynamic. Somebody could have looked at this podcast to begin with and say, oh, no.

[Jada]

It'S not gonna work.

[Fat Joe]

No way. Jada Joe gonna work. But somehow the chemistry is perfect. You got Chuck D. Talking that shit. And then you got Flavor Flav, who's really a bug out and. But we love him. He got his own dance, his own shit. And so they just kicked in the door for black consciousness and they birthed. I think I wanna say they birthed everybody. Like the Paul Righteous Teachers. All the groups that came out after them preaching the message consciousness. But their beats was ridiculous. The Beats. Who did the beats again for Hank?

[Jada]

Shock Lee and the. Yeah ain't shocking.

[Fat Joe]

The bomb squad did Ice Cube's album too. After he had.

[Jada]

When he came over here, he came.

[Fat Joe]

Over here to Long island too much.

[Jada]

You're going too fast.

[Fat Joe]

I'm going too fast? I don't know what the.19 right now.

[Jada]

We skipped it and we just doing like tutorials of. We got away from what we was talking.

[Fat Joe]

You know what I think? I think you have a timeline and I'm fried. Like I'm fried.

[Jada]

No, look. 19, my 20.

[Fat Joe]

25, my 97. My.

[Jada]

All me and Rak Kim. 1987, man. Paid in full.

[Fat Joe]

We can stop right here. Paid in full. Do you know how credible that them pull Ups in that chair? Huh? Them Pull Ups laughing in that jail Pull Ups boy, they taught you, huh? You try to with them jail gym. The got you tortured right now. You got about a week fracture. You'll be good in a week, though.

[Jada]

Small Asian lady on my okay.

[Fat Joe]

Oh, all you hot rocks sound like.

[Jada]

The good need like that Hot oil. Hot rocks. Rescue.

[Fat Joe]

I need rescue fool.

[Jada]

Change the game. Tap it. Damn jackets. Big truck crazy that can lock the store up with ropes.

[Fat Joe]

Rolls Royce.

[Jada]

Rolls Royces. Yeah. Early when he thought that old fashioned Eric B.

[Fat Joe]

Had that Rolls Royces. Early they was doing. They had the whole Brooklyn with Him Killer Ben Fort Green supreme, magnetics, the real 50, the 50 Cent, the original stick up kid. I mean they came with.

[Jada]

That's crazy. I'll fifth end of that.

[Fat Joe]

Yo, they came with the whole package and the music.

[Jada]

The.

[Fat Joe]

Some people think Rakim the best of all time.

[Jada]

They don't know that it was Eric B's record deal and they put him with Rakim. Eric B had the deal. That's why I never understood that. It's not Rakim and Eric B. Yeah.

[Fat Joe]

Well, the DJ was always Jazzy Jeff and Fresh Prince. Back at that time it was Grandmaster Flash and the Furious 5. You saying Eric B had to tell you?

[Jada]

What I heard from from them is Eric B had the record deal and they went and put him with rock.

[Fat Joe]

You know what I'm saying, man, they put him with the best.

[Jada]

Hell yeah. That's another one of them. Joe and Jada, they put, they put them make this work. And it worked fucking tremendously.

[Fat Joe]

You know, I think I got my whole ice grill from Eric B. When Eric B used to be like, no, I'm telling you, Eric B's the.

[Jada]

First nigga that was dead serious in hip hop.

[Fat Joe]

It's the ice cream. When I'm. I never forget.

[Jada]

I shot his expression, I shot Puns.

[Fat Joe]

First video, right Is raekwon me nori. And I threw on the sky blue suit and I stood behind Pun. Pun was rapping. You're my darling darling. And I got this ice grill and the whole time I'm telling them, I'm like, yo, this the Eric B. Remember? I got to be Eric B. You know, he used to stand with Ray Rakim. I had to be Fat Joe the rapper. When Pun rap, I could be Eric B. So I'm standing back there with the ice grill like darling, darling baby changed our lives. Who else you got on the list?

[Jada]

1988, Straight Outta Compton boys came. Fuck yourself. They came talking that crazy shit, man.

[Fat Joe]

You wanna know where I was at when I first heard NWA Compton? I was in 125th in Dapper Dan. And that came up on there on video Music Box. And when I tell you it was noisy, everybody was doing anything. The whole place stopped in silence and looked up at the screen. Was like an easy year. And the had the flame throwers and they run off, then they running for the cops. This anybody who was there to change their life right then and there. Me as a rapper. Around that time I was thinking about getting into rap. They let me know you could rap about anything. Fuck the police, don't matter Just don't bite. It is the world. Like, they was doing shit that nobody else was doing. So they, like, transformed me as a. I never forget. After I discovered nwa, I was in my aunt's. Not my aunt's, my grandmother's house in Washington. I wrote a rhyme, and the rhyme completely turned into fuck you. Suck my dick. Your mother. This, that, this, this, this. Like the influence. Cause we had never seen nobody running from the cops. We had never seen nobody saying fuck the police. We never. We heard stories like the Message. Grandmaster Flash and Furious 5. We heard songs like that. But we never seen somebody dedicate a whole classic album to that. And you see the careers that spawned off. You got Dr. Dre, some say the greatest producer of all time. You got MC Ren, you got Ice Cube, you got Eazy, E. All these guys. DJ Yellow, all these guys, they had DLC around that time. Boy, DLC was one of my favorites, man. Oh, my God, the formula. But, you know, they. We got Dre beats. Cause of that shit. You know what I'm saying? So the legs and the people they put in the game, you know, no Dr. Dre, no Eminem, no Dr. Dre, no 50 Cent, no game like that whole album just like Snoop Dogg pound Snoop Dogg pound Like Doggy Style. Doggy Style got to be on this list. I'm jumping ahead of time.

[Jada]

Yeah, you gotta. You in the time caps.

[Fat Joe]

I do not know your list, you.

[Jada]

Know, is ahead of Whitney.

[Fat Joe]

I'm going off the top.

[Jada]

This is a freestyle, straight out of Compton. Can't be next to Doggy Style.

[Fat Joe]

No, no, it's way earlier.

[Jada]

De la soul, man, 1989.

[Fat Joe]

Potholes in my lungs Refeeding rise Potholes in my lawn none of these is before.

[Jada]

I'm a little bit younger, so you know what I mean?

[Fat Joe]

Okay.

[Jada]

Kindergarten, something.

[Fat Joe]

Okay, so De La Soul had gangster guys like me that was running blocks that was doing all type of wild shit. Playing poom, poom, poom. Answering service officers, Surrogative and anybody like. I knew I was an asshole. I remember driving in the bends, looking at dudes, ice grilling them and playing Entering service like a saddle. Prerogative, they had to be. Yo, these guys is all the way loose. These guys is crazy. De La Soul started that whole preppy college Daisy Age. I believe they started all that. Queen Latifah, Moni Love, Q Tip, the native tongue thing, I want to say could be. It could be Tribe Called Quest. But I want to say that all brought all that shit together. The first time I seen kids being in classrooms and videos and being nice guys. And it wasn't just I got it made, it was De La Soul.

[Hunter]

Foreign.

[Jada]

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[Fat Joe]

You know I already downloaded the Hard Rock Bad joint.

[Jada]

I bet for real.

[Fat Joe]

Nah, he bet for real, yo.

[Jada]

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[Hunter]

I'm Hunter, host of Hunting for Answers on the Black Effect Podcast Network. Join me every weekday as I share bites and stories of missing and murdered Black women and girls in America. There are several ways we can all do better at protecting Black women. My contribution is shining a light on our missing sisters and amplifying their disregarded stories. Stories like Tameka Anderson as she drove toward Galvez. She was in contact with several people talking on the phone as she made her way to what should have been a routine transaction. But Tameka never bought the car and she never returned home that day. One podcast, one Mission Save Our Girls. Join the search as we explore the chilling cases of missing and murdered Black women and girls. Listen to Hunting for Answers every weekday on the Black Effect Podcast Network. IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast.

[Jada]

1990, Tribe Called Quest. There you go. People's instinctive travels in the paths of rhythm.

[Fat Joe]

Now, that right there was totally different. The production on that album, they probably had the best quality that we heard till that moment. They had the first, like, audio. Like them drums and snares was hitting. That shit was crazy, y'. All. I might have played that album 1000 times, bro. 2000. When Biggie says my tape pop, tell my tape pop that shit. That album was such a work of art. Q Tip. Fife Dog. Fife Dog was one of my favorite rappers. Although he was simple, he was one of my favorite rappers ever in the history and what they started Tribe Called Quest to this day, musically, I believe we should ask some producers that. To this day, I think producers study that first album and how they put that shit. They were so futuristic. They had guys doing the robot voices back then. This and this and that. They was far ahead of their time. Salute.

[Jada]

Q tip in 1991, man.

[Fat Joe]

Ali Shaheeb.

[Jada]

Scarface. Mr. Scarface. Who the fuck is Fred?

[Fat Joe]

So Scarface is before the Ghetto Boys because I got the album as the classic.

[Jada]

Oh, shit, I missed it. Ghetto Boys is 1989. Okay, rip it. On the other level, that ain't mind playing tricks.

[Fat Joe]

Sleep tossing. Nah, that's on that album. That first album, that song alone changed my life. It let us know that there was guys in the south kicking gangster shit. Everything cinematically, from the videos to the music was crazy. I remember. What's the video with? Scarface's. The girl's counting money, and he goes in her bra and pulls out the money like she stole the money. Know what I'm saying? In the video? I mean, Scarface is every rapper's favorite rapper. He's Jay Z's favorite, if we asked him. You know what I'm saying? Besides B, I gave Scarface him and the Ghetto Boys. Willie D. Bushwick Bill. I used to hang out with Bushwick Bill. Yes.

[Jada]

Where? Right. The Fever, man.

[Fat Joe]

I've been around a long time. Maybe the Fever. It might have been the Fever. I'm the first guy. I took Scarface in the Bronx. I took him to the projects. He was like, you guys live like this because, you know, Texas, even to this day, is all spread out. He couldn't believe that we had 20 floors of dudes living in the jacks. I took him to the Wedge, the Wedge in Hunts Point. I mean, I'm a ghetto. At that time, I was straight ghetto. So you wasn't gonna get nothing but ghetto from Me, I never forget. He asked me a Biggie song. Came on one of the first Biggie songs. He was like, yo, who's that guy, man? I like Biggie Smalls. It's like, yo, he's fired. He was like, yeah, that guy dope. You know what I'm saying? So the ghetto. The ghetto boys, you know, shout out J. Prince, you know, we always try to shout out Texas rap a lot. Definitely independent game.

[Jada]

Houston, Dallas.

[Fat Joe]

Houston, Dallas. I just came from Dallas.

[Jada]

Fort Worth, San Antonio, Austin. 1991. Then. Now is Mr. Scarface. 1991. Scarface is back. That's when that came.

[Fat Joe]

Scarface is back. What. What kind of impact Scarface had to you? Was you too young or it was around your.

[Jada]

Nah, we. I mean, heard of the ghetto boys first, then Face. And it seemed like he just gravitated to what I was doing and what I wanted to do, you know? I mean, he's some of the. Besides the ghetto boys. Some of the first shits we seen from Houston, for me, was Scarface video.

[Fat Joe]

He's legend of Mr. Mr. Scarface, huh? You know what happened with that album right there? I think it was the first time I went down to the atl and you remember, what is it, New Jack City? Remember the brown skin girl dancing to I wanna sex you up that shit never like, man, I fell in love with that song from that girl dancing. And she was like, Keisha from Belly, the girl. Remember they was fighting over her.

[Jada]

She had the red satin on, man.

[Fat Joe]

You remember that? I went into ATL strip club for the first time. And they was some girl up there dancing to that Mr. Mr. Scarface. I drove back to New York, I played that song 10,000 times just thinking about that girl dancing to that shit. And that's how influential. We watch videos and shit like that. You might love her a visual. And then you start to gravitate and love that song. Shout out to Scarface.

[Jada]

Another one in 1991. Tupac, Tupacalypse. Now, I don't really know too much about that one.

[Fat Joe]

Yeah, it was very early. You know, we talking about the greatest debut albums, you know what I'm saying? So Tupac, All Eyes on Me, all that other work was more prolific than. Than the first album. Now, I can't tell you much what. What was on the first album. Brenda's Got a Baby 2.

[Jada]

Apocalypse now is the first album.

[Fat Joe]

Brenda Got a Baby, you know, that was Legend.

[Jada]

Think I could have did that.

[Fat Joe]

Stop. You know, Brenda's Got a Baby was like, very. It resonated you know, in my projects, I've seen a lot of shit, man. I've seen.

[Jada]

Well, tell him you seen a baby in the garbage.

[Fat Joe]

What I'm gonna tell you is that I watched dudes jump off the roof on angel dust.

[Jada]

Oh, yeah, I seen that over there.

[Fat Joe]

You. No, other day somebody was on dust and jumped off the roof.

[Jada]

Yeah.

[Fat Joe]

Damn, he's still doing that.

[Jada]

How about this? Somebody in. Yo, what kind of day is this? Somebody went outside to smoke a cigarette. Somebody jumped off the roof and landed on Joe.

[Fat Joe]

Come on.

[Jada]

What kind of comment.

[Fat Joe]

Yo, yo, yo, that's yo, yo, yo, yo.

[Jada]

That's no cat. It is yo. So, yo, let me go. Tell me go blow a bogey with a purse.

[Fat Joe]

So he's done too, right?

[Jada]

Double dead.

[Fat Joe]

Double dead. No way. Holy shit. I heard everything. I think. You ever think about when they say the plane crash? That shit really fall down on somebody house and imagine you in your house and a plane falling. You gone. That's it. A plane. What kind of luck is that? Double dad. Uzi your hearse. Uzi your hearse. Leave you double dead, huh? I'm a bubble head. I never listened to nothing my mama said. Yo.

[Jada]

1992.

[Fat Joe]

But what I was going to tell you is that that was happening in the hood. Like girls couldn't come home, unfortunately. And tell their parents they were pregnant.

[Jada]

They would do abortions, dispose of the baby, huh? Leaving at the Chinese spot.

[Fat Joe]

We're not telling them to do that. We never said that was right. But they was doing that. That's what Brenda Got a Baby was about.

[Jada]

Poor Brenda. 1992, man. UGK too hard to swallow. Rest in peace, Pimp C. Shout out to my brother Bun.

[Fat Joe]

Man on B.

[Jada]

You got any UGK stories?

[Fat Joe]

Yeah, I was there when Pimpsy got locked up in the atl. He pulled the choppers out the Tron. He was about to shoot the place. And I was there at a boxing match. Yes, sir. Pimpsy was different. He was one of them guys just don't give a fuck. And if he felt the way about you, he'd tell you right to your face right then and now. He really. I used to really see him walking around with white furs and shit like that, like the video. He was like a pimp. He was Pimp C. Yeah, that's. And he was. And he's far from pussy. And if you fucked with him, he was gonna do what he had to do. What you got next, brother?

[Jada]

1992.

[Fat Joe]

Why are we going through the years, man? Just call out the most incredible chronic. First of all, you get a life flag. What I do now. Oh, my God.

[Jada]

He should be punished. The guy who sent it this stupid ass opinion. He only put his greatest debuts on there. That's why everything is up. Those are the songs that he believe is his greatest debut.

[Fat Joe]

Yeah. Why were y' all me touching that, man? Like I'm touching. No, no. Slick's Great Adventures Rick is definitely the.

[Jada]

Great Adventures of Slick. Rick is by far one of the greatest, greatest debut albums of all times. I don't give up in any genre of music. Not even just rap in music in general.

[Fat Joe]

I was living in a crackhead hotel. I came out, True story. Left my mother's house when I was like 14. Hustled the same day. So it was most disrespectful shit you could think of in the world. Imagine your kid leaves your house at 14. You look out the window, he's selling crack, dead ass. An hour later, he's outside like, little Joey is outside. And although I used to act tough for my age group, I had to actually sleep in a crackhead hotel. It was like $35 for the night. When I tell you they was busting dudes heads open with 40 ounces or all night, all you heard was the cops, they busting dudes heads open. I opened my hotel door and women were shooting heroin in the AIDS epidemic. Open the door, they shooting dope in my face. Meanwhile, I'm staying here by myself, and all I'm playing is Slick Rick music in my headphones to get me through the night. So he gave me the courage to even just make it to the next day and get back on my shit. So even though I was living that type of life, I was terrified. Slick Rick's music is what got me through that time. What else you got for me, brother? You don't even want to add nothing for me, huh? So I did Nas Illmatic way too early, huh?

[Jada]

F shit's out. I mean, it ain't. He made it a time. Ain't no timeline. Reasonable Doubt, okay? I want to say Buckshot, Shorty, fucking black moon into the stage is fucking crazy. What it did for me.

[Fat Joe]

The flows, the beats, the flows, anything.

[Jada]

Into the stage is one of the greatest debuts. Is his debut. Yeah, that's his first album.

[Fat Joe]

If we go in there, we gotta go to the original. We gotta go to Gangstar Primo. What's their first album?

[Jada]

Shit.

[Fat Joe]

Jesus Christ. Gangstar. Yo, Primo, one of the greatest producers of all time. Him Guru Guru, to me, was Like a professor. He was like a Malcolm X of hip hop. He was talking that shit, that consciousness, but in a slick tone, way ahead of his time. Let me tell you, I'm going to go back to the South. I'm going to say Outkast, Southern Playlistic. This is where we hear about Outkast and Southern Playlist. This is the first time I ever saw them videos in the backwoods and all that. We asked some brothers in the ATL putting it down, who love hip hop. That was like real pure hip hop too, as well. And that started, we think about all the shit that ATL brought. After that, they kicked that bitch off. Then we get the Goody Mob and everything else with Southern Playlistic. I want to go to juveniles, 400 degrees. You heard they mentioned the versus? Yeah, cash money and no limit juvenile, 400 degrees.

[Jada]

That album's crazy. That whole movement, when they came out, just took the world by storm. They pronunciation of words, this everything. They shifted shit. He shifted shit. Shout out to Jury. Jury's still active.

[Fat Joe]

I know I'm all over the place, but we gotta go Mobb deep. First album.

[Jada]

The first album is not the infamous. If you're a real mob Deep thing.

[Fat Joe]

It's not the first. The first.

[Jada]

That ain't their first.

[Fat Joe]

What was their first?

[Jada]

Juvenile Hell is their first album.

[Fat Joe]

Hell is that Little kids.

[Jada]

Juvenile Hell. They was little. They was young.

[Fat Joe]

Well, they don't make the listing because ain't the first. Dude, I'm just going off your album.

[Jada]

Yeah, they debut album is Juvenile out. The debut to the world on the.

[Fat Joe]

So they can't make that.

[Jada]

But the infamous. Still the infamous.

[Fat Joe]

To the world. They thought that was the first holy grail of hip hop.

[Jada]

Infamous is holy grail.

[Fat Joe]

Some people say the best album ever made. Some people say that. I drove around like a couple of months ago with Rich the barber. He knew every word. And we just drove around. We ice grill people. We was on our. We felt tough.

[Jada]

Ice cream people.

[Fat Joe]

Yo, we felt tough. But that ain't they debut. So that's not what we talking about. We talking about the debut. We talking about your man DMX stalking.

[Jada]

Hell is hot, crazy. And a lot of that shit's all old. How about that? He came out sold 5 million with old rhymes.

[Fat Joe]

That's crazy because I. I get mad at people who want to bring back. Oh, like, I'd be like, yo, get in the studio work right now. He took records and rhymes that I heard.

[Jada]

We heard him before. Years before the world heard, and it still went five wasn't the same beats, was the same rhymes, though. It was not all of them.

[Fat Joe]

Just a.

[Jada]

A nice percentage of that first album. We heard it before in yo. It was still powerful.

[Fat Joe]

What was that like to see him? I mean, you know, you around people.

[Jada]

He was already a star for us.

[Fat Joe]

Y' all in the hood. He was.

[Jada]

X was already like. He was already a star in yo. In every hood. When he come through, it was. He can put on. Yeah, he used to do shows in School 12. And he had big battle. He had an infamous battle. He had two battles, but one of them is more better than the other with another iconic dude, rapper from yo, Bill Blass Mega Blast. Him and X had a big battle. It was crazy. That was over like five in the morning. Everybody spent the night at my house. I almost got my ass killed because my moms came.

[Fat Joe]

You was out there. You was watching.

[Jada]

Yeah, I couldn't miss that. That was part of. I never did anything and missed that. I don't care what the consequences was. You couldn't miss that if you was from yo accident. The get paint staff versus dmx, you know what I'm saying? Shit was dope, man. She was history in yo.

[Fat Joe]

You know, Big Pun, Capital Punishment, my executive producer debut. I feel like Pun was ahead of his time. A lot of those guys that we got featured on his album and all that was like, they came on the strength for me, they didn't even know who PUM was. But I also knew that the minute I pressed play and they started hearing the music that they were gonna wanna get on the album. So everybody you hear on that Capital Punishment album, they came. Most of them even thought they was doing songs with me. I was already. I already had two albums out. And when they came, I was like, nah, you gotta hear my man. And, man, that album was speaking for itself. Since the first day we went in there, it just kept getting better and better and better. And then the song the Dream Shatterer had an illa beat before. It was like a victory, like a. Like a biggie victory. It was like the beat was too fucking, you know, lot of manzanona stuff.

[Jada]

And it's.

[Fat Joe]

It was crazy. But it was just a beautiful joint effort. And, you know, first soloist, Latino artists to sell 2 million records. Change the game. I think we had 10,000 platinum parties. Everywhere we went, it was a platinum part they used to bring. I think Pun had the same people bringing the same platinum. Would be in the tunnel anywhere. Yo, it's platinum. They start reincarnating the fucking platinum shit. You know, he was. He was witty. He was incredible. Lyrically phenomenal. And he put some hits out the park, man, that Capital Punishment, when it sets off with that, I gave you fair warning. Beware and man. And you know what's craziest being that I'm part of this album. You know, it's hard for me to be from the outside in. I always wondered what rappers felt like when they heard Pun's first album. And you hear beware and what that felt like when you pressed Play on that thing.

[Jada]

No, I already knew what was going on with Pun. Me and Pun was on the first Me and Pun albums came out together. My first album in Capital Punishment. We was on a lot of promo together back then. They would. You know, the labels would. We was on planes together. That's the first time I seen somebody with an extra buckle, an extra seatbelt. Pun was the first person that he get on, they give him a stendo, and he sent out me. Oh, punk Jada. They gotta give me the thing. Me. That's some. That's. That's ill. So he get on, they hand him an extra stendo, seat belt buckle. But, yeah, I knew Pun was my. You know, I mean, we had. Pun was that man. I used to be there. He used to be snapping on you, snapping on DJ Iraq. Pun was crazy.

[Fat Joe]

Irock was the best. He's upstate. Your man Pun, we did the Apollo around this time, and we went and got. We went 5001. We got the match in furs. We had, like, the gray furs. And insider said, Big Pun, insider said, Fat Joe, I'm sure somebody got that somewhere. And I ain't gonna lie. The Apollo gave us, like, $20,000. That was a big deal. When I was doing Flo, Jo was getting 500 each. Show your man Pun, we get. That's the first money we ever got. Like that $20,000 brand pack. I never forget. E was there. Your man Pun, dig in his pockets and throw the whole 20 grand in the crowd, bro.

[Jada]

No.

[Fat Joe]

I wanted my 2,000. I wanted my 10%. I almost jumped in the crowd after the money. I was standing next to him. He's like, fuck that. He throw the money. We just spent 10,000 on furs. I'm like, yo, I tried to jump back in there and grab the money. It was over. He was a true rock star. Like, we seen the guy at the game yesterday. He was a Roddy Roddy Piper. He was a Ric Flair. He was a Roddy Roddy Piper. Real flair. He was an artist. Artist. You Know, he would pull up the DMX album signing in a limo and start throwing $100 bills at DMX's fans and his crowd. Like, he was just different. I'm gonna go. You know, I'm always all over the place. I'm gonna say Wu Tang. 36 chambers.

[Jada]

Yeah, that was that. That's another world shifter. Nine dudes from Shaolin.

[Fat Joe]

Damn, 29. I thought it was like 30 of them.

[Jada]

13.

[Fat Joe]

13 of them, right?

[Jada]

It's nine originals, might be 100. Add on dockets, bro.

[Fat Joe]

I almost smacked my son one time. He did get back, but this back in the days. He's a grown man now. But I asked him when he was like 14 or 15. Yo, give me all the members of Wu Tang. He couldn't say their name. Yo, I was about to spat. I was like, yo, my man, I smacked the out of you. You don't know all the members of Wu Tang?

[Jada]

Nah, that was very.

[Fat Joe]

They shifted the world off or something. Like, yo, I was dumb tight.

[Jada]

Nine members, Shaolin, different slang. Add another karate flicks. They just took over the world. The RZA production, that was like a breath of fresh air to. To the hip hop culture that. I mean, and then they just planted mad seeds with Meth, Ghost Ray, Dirty Jizza, RZA respected Deck that probably nothing like that'll ever be done ever again. How hard it is to make nine. Seven and a half, eight stars solo. But nine stars together, the new edition.

[Fat Joe]

Of hip hop facts, they all went on to sell millions of records solo. You know, to this day, I got people who argue about Ghostface. You know, he might be the greatest. His first album might be the greatest. I mean, you got the purple tape you got with Raekwon. You got anything method. Let me tell you something. I honestly used to think that the greatest record ever made was his Sin in Morning Blue. It took me about a good 15 years to get up off that, huh? You're all I need. It took me 15 years to figure out, like, all right, you know, this might not be the greatest song ever made. Like, I thought it was great. Yo, they playing that shit anywhere that shit came on, it was like the 10 chun. Like, this shit's number one.

[Jada]

What about the first brand newbie in.

[Fat Joe]

Debut that was knocked the brand newbie.

[Jada]

In shit was crazy.

[Fat Joe]

No, no, no. Grand Poobah was the best.

[Jada]

Beats was crazy.

[Fat Joe]

Grand Poo Bob was the best. Grand Poo Bob was the best. Grand Poo Bob's the only rapper I ever watched. A whole entire club, there's dancing Doing the real shit. It was that dance era that the DJ said, brand new Grand Pooba. I watched everybody go to the speaker, stop dancing just to hear what the fuck he was gonna say.

[Jada]

He had that mean bars with the voice, with the cadence, and he was told to slip one time. He tell you, ooh, let me, let me. Yes, that. Let me tell you a story. So you got him. My wife got two brothers from her father. They older and they had kids. And they know they move around and live well. One day, one of the nieces came with us. They came to our crib for the weekend, had a nice time. Now it's time to bring her back on Sunday. So it was like, Sunday evening, we get the new row. I'm like, nah, I'll walk in. It's dark, you know what I mean? I'll take her in. I ask her what door it is. They bring me to the door, hey, ding dong, open the door, It's Pulpa. The wrong door. Yo, Puma, we're having a kiss. What's up, man? Me, she lived with them. I got back in the car like, you didn't fucking tell me she lived with Grand Puma. When was you gonna tell me?

[Fat Joe]

His wife. That was his wife.

[Jada]

He was the guardian. I guess his girl was raising her. Yeah. Know what I'm saying?

[Fat Joe]

Oh, the guardian.

[Jada]

But they could at least told me, Pooh, but might answer the door when you go there. I took it. I'm like this, yo, what grandpa like, nah, she live here. Me, Pooh, yo, what's up? He like, what's up, my nigga? That shit was ill, though, you know.

[Fat Joe]

Grand Poobah took a chance with me. You know, My first album, Shout out to Denasia before that. And the man, he showed up, Jazzy J Studio 8. He kicked the verse with me in Diamond. I don't know how I met Pooba, but ever since we kicked it off, we was family, we was friends. He shot the video. He's in the Flo Joe video.

[Jada]

Grand Poobah, that's one of them niggas, especially from Westchester.

[Fat Joe]

Pooba.

[Jada]

Pooba's that nigga.

[Fat Joe]

All right, Once again, you're not. You're not really trying to hear me because I've been saying I said it like two, three times. And you really like almost ignoring.

[Jada]

I'm hearing you.

[Fat Joe]

Know the best. You know how there's some guys out there that argue with everybody? Talking about Jadakiss top five, Dead or alive. He's somebody's top five, Dead or Alive as he should. He was the best. Grandpa. Sedan X my brought that to the table.

[Jada]

Wow. Cowboys.

[Fat Joe]

Wow, cowboys. You made said X. He's one of my favorite rappers at the time. I remember when Pooba. Who was that? Dante Ross. Somebody signed him over there at a lecture. It's the biggest talk in the world. You know the brand new your man short. Don't be. You're wrong. That's what it's supposed to be.

[Jada]

Check it out now.

[Fat Joe]

Check it out now.

[Jada]

Shout out to Lord Jamal.

[Fat Joe]

Yeah, okay.

[Hunter]

I'm Hunter, host of Hunting for Answers on the Black Effect Podcast Network. Join me every weekday as I share bite sized stories of missing and murdered black women and girls in America. There are several ways we can all do better at protecting black women. My contribution is shining a light on our missing sisters and amplifying their disregarded stories. Stories like Tameka Anderson. As she drove toward Galvez, she was in contact with several people talking on the phone as she made her way to what should have been a routine transaction. But Tameka never bought the car and she never returned home that day. One podcast, one mission. Save our girls. Join the search as we explore the chilling cases of missing and murdered black women and girls. Listen to Hunting for Answers every weekday on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

[Fat Joe]

Come on. Don't go there now. Go there. Because if we go there too much, I'm gonna have to say 50 cent, get rich and die trying. We turning it up real quick, G unit. But we could get the drama popping. Nick.

[Jada]

That probably might be arguably one of the best debuts. That's like up there with Snoop. 50 is up there with. With doggy Style if you ask me. For the east coast, for the world coast. It had the same kind of effect as doggy style.

[Fat Joe]

Man.

[Jada]

That was everywhere when it came out. Some is semi everywhere. Both of them shits was everywhere. Everywhere you could think of white people everywhere. Every commercial, every spring break, every. When you open your door, your window, you saw that it Richard got trying doggy style.

[Fat Joe]

Imagine you got beef with him shortly after that and they playing that. We was beating up every DJ allegedly did not play this.

[Jada]

The beef wasn't the beef. When that beef with 50 was said give riches. I try. It wouldn't work bad.

[Fat Joe]

No, no, it was really bad. It was still the residue.

[Jada]

It was the other album and piggy bank. Yeah, it was down there. It cooled off a little. Not a lot, but a little. Enough to. Enough to be high. Yeah, that Was a different kind of force field.

[Fat Joe]

We don't play that. We don't.

[Jada]

That was crazy.

[Fat Joe]

And when you create music, 50 Cent was giving you, like, three songs in one song. Three different hit flows and hooks.

[Jada]

This shit's crazy, bro.

[Fat Joe]

That album could have really been three albums. Four albums. The way he was doing all that shit to you, we don't play around. He was like, yo, it was too easy for him. I don't know what kind of zone he was in, but everything was too easy for me. He had the bars, he had the beats.

[Jada]

He felt like my back right now was killing shit.

[Fat Joe]

It's a difference. There's a difference between street park bars at your leisure. You can have a nice pop. You come down. When we see him in the videos in the street bar, he can jump out, have a coconut. It's different when you in jail doing bars. In the bars.

[Jada]

I did the cause.

[Fat Joe]

That's what they did to him. He was trying to, like, compete with them.

[Jada]

And then.

[Fat Joe]

We ain't doing, like, Kim, don't do that two times.

[Jada]

Two times felon.

[Fat Joe]

You ain't doing boss like Jadakiss. Get out of here, babe. The doing. Where he going up like this. Doing all type of. You ain't doing all that. Don't. Don't stop, please. Just because you did jail time don't mean you know how to do the. They don't know how you pedal the bike. I'm not. Don't do that. Jay Z. Reasonable Doubt.

[Jada]

Crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy.

[Fat Joe]

He taught me, right? Because I was a street dude. What he tortured, man, I was a street dude. But I didn't really so much really get into, like, the business done drug dealer to, like, my second album. The first album was I stick you up, I smack you up, you know, all that type of shit. But that Reasonable who. Doubt showed me you could talk. Like I could live my real life music. I'm listening to his shit, and I felt like it was my life. I felt like, yo, you could rap about your life and music. So in videos, I'm wearing the army fatigues, but I'm going to my man's party with the sky blue suit on with the gators, with the this, this, this. Now we could rap about it and put it in the video and do that. I felt like Reasonable Doubt did that for me. And I remember driving back and forth from New York to Miami just playing that one album back to back to back to back. That's another one right after Illmatic. That kind of changed my life to where it was like, all right, if you gonna rap this way, you need to be. You need to talk more about your life. You need to talk that shit. You needed that. That pushed me more towards me being the Don Cartagena. Like, publicly, I was already the Don Cartagena behind the scene, but publicly it said, you can do this. And I don't know what the fuck. Onyx first album was with them, too. They changed Fat Joe's whole life.

[Jada]

Lame.

[Fat Joe]

Cause I was like, pick him up dead. One shot.

[Jada]

I was like, oh, back the fuck up.

[Fat Joe]

Onyx. Unsung heroes. Some of the greatest music I ever heard was Onyx.

[Jada]

Sticky just sent me something. I saw that right now, 2025. He sent me something. Are you listening to me? Sticky just sent me a song. That's crazy. Last week. Crazy.

[Fat Joe]

Knew how to pick beats, though.

[Jada]

The beat is crazy.

[Fat Joe]

They knew how to pick beats.

[Jada]

They had some mean one of them. Onyx. Think it's the second one. The beats on the second Onyx album is probably be some of the best.

[Fat Joe]

Might be trying to revisit those. Shit's crazy, yo. Huh? Fredro, nobody write Fat Joe rhymes. I seen you, my brother. I love you. I see you on the video, on the.

[Jada]

He said this?

[Fat Joe]

Yeah. He said, you know, Joe got ghost writers, this and that. Yo. You're delusional. Nobody could write my life, write my rhymes, nothing like that. And I love you, Phajo. Fred, Joe's a good guy. I've just bigged you up on another level. But I seen you the only person in history on the video talking about, yeah, Joe, we know. Joe got. Please, brother. You got me fucked up. 30 something years of doing this shit. I do this in my sleep. God. You know what I'm saying? But Fred Jo produced all that. Let me tell you something. He's a genius. Carolina Herrera, them guys. Them guys was different. And they changed my life. So, Fred Jo, when you look at my interviews about you, they always say, you changed my life. Dope documentary, the Game Crazy. Is that an album? Game is the first rapper. Then if you didn't tell me. But he says it a million times. But if you didn't tell me he's from Compton, I would think he's from New York. He was the first. You know, the west coast, they got their own sound heard.

[Jada]

He said he was the first young rap. Compton with a yonkish flow on the Bronx. A yonkish flow. Look it up. Compton with a Yonkers flow.

[Fat Joe]

I repeat, still New York. No, listen, I agree with him, yo. What you want me to do? Yonkers Locks are some of the greatest rappers ever lived. I'm not disrespecting that. Who said that? No, he said that he got a Yonker slope, okay? I'll give you that. What I'm trying to say is Martin Luther had a dream. Yeah, Dream. Hated to love it.

[Jada]

Crazy. He had nuclear missiles on. On both all of the documentaries to this day. The first one, the debut, though, is. Is a. Is a smoker. Nobody can. Nobody can front it. Did the numbers. The numbers prove it.

[Fat Joe]

Four or five million, right? I'm gonna save it.

[Jada]

No. Why ain't nobody saying ready to die? I think he's just over here playing around, like.

[Fat Joe]

Ready. I know. Just floating all over. Ready, Floating over.

[Jada]

We stop floating for a minute. Ready to die. He came in and switched the old way. Was rapping back then. Who bi.

[Fat Joe]

Biggie Smalls changed the whole entire rap game.

[Jada]

His flow was cadence, debut albums.

[Fat Joe]

His flow. His cadence to this day don't make sense. He died when he was like, 26, 27. He only did two years of damage, and it's fucking phenomenal. There's not a day, not a day in my blessed life that God has given me that I do not hear Biggie Small song. What he was able to do, to take rap underground music and commercialize it, changed my life and every other rapper's life. He was 24 years old when he died. A baby.

[Jada]

25. Or 26 or 24. 24. Pac was 26. Oh, was Pac.

[Fat Joe]

Pac was young too.

[Jada]

26. But, man, 25 and 24 is crazy, man. Pass in peace.

[Fat Joe]

He should barely get in the club. Ain't that some bullshit? But Biggie Smalls, to this day, his flows, his cadence, you know, I help get the song together with him and Bone Thugs in Harmony. That's another album. Look up the first Bone Thugs in Harmony. First album sold 30 million records. It's 1999. For the Love of money Gotta get that money, baby Money, baby Gotta get that money, baby Let me tell you something, boy. I miss my Uncle Georgia.

[Jada]

Call him George. Miss my Uncle Georgia. It's Uncle Charles.

[Fat Joe]

It's Uncle Charles.

[Jada]

I miss my Uncle Georgia. At least.

[Fat Joe]

Yo.

[Jada]

Uncle George, you know?

[Fat Joe]

Yo, listen. You know how you go to the AA meeting and be like, hi, I'm Joe. I'm an alcoholic. He's like, hi, I'm Fat Joe. I'm a up. I'm a bug out. I change all the words. That's why we're gonna have a problem.

[Jada]

Rich oh, he put it back, Rich. Do it back too.

[Fat Joe]

I can't even memorize my own Robin. So imagine memorizing your rhyme to somebody else's rhyme. I fuck everybody's shit up, but I got that bone and Biggie done Biggie hit me up said Joe, I want to rock with your mans. I know they your mans. We on the same label. I'm hanging out with them every day. They had a relationship with Pac. I had to really, really convince them. And I know to this day they're happy I convinced them. Steve Lobel brought him to the studio. The rest is history. With that bone in Biggie, Biggie boning and nobody in New York was thinking about Armin Dangerous. Ain't too many can bang with us. Sing up we know Angel Dust, Notorious, so called Beef with you know who this Nobody was thinking about that flow at that time. When he did it, it was like, you know, big with somebody that is like you. I mean, damn, man, we gotta bring this right over here. I actually salute the man. Biggie was like you in the very way of you never said a whack verse. So every time Biggie could rhyme on 112, he could rhyme on fucking a girl's TLC shit, whatever, commercial, anything that we would listen to him, we would listen to the new verse and be like, damn, Biggie did it again. He was super nice. He did this and this and that. It was crazy. You know what I'm saying? B I G that ready to die. That shit to this day is one of my favorite. You know me from the slave shits from the Same night in the 2 vault. Yo, Biggie, I had my homies total bust of shit every record. It wasn't just total. I don't know if it was a fan, but as a rapper, every verse similar to you, Every verse Biggie ever spit, we would analyze it immediately and be like, yo, he did a song with total, you know, everything. You be like, damn, embodied that shit again. It's not easy to body every single verse. You know, Jadakiss, you know, he's really good at that. You know what I'm saying? We listening for every verse. Like, oh, shit, Jada gonna spit that shit right now. Who else you put in that? In that category of every verse they ever spit, you would listen to it like, oh, shit, he about to spit that shit. Yeah. Huh?

[Jada]

Black thought. Black thought is superiorly nice.

[Fat Joe]

We all agree Lauryn's debut. Tell me about Lauryn Hill, brother. Cause I always the miseducation she's tired of me bigging all up like, you got this education. Do you know what I'm saying? Like lord him I got me and Lauren.

[Jada]

I got the same birthday.

[Fat Joe]

One is big up.

[Jada]

That's it. We won. We A Lights.

[Fat Joe]

Education is one of the most classic albums. They gave her the best album.

[Jada]

I got the same birthday as Lauryn Hill. Three stacks. Somebody called Lauryn Hill and three stacks me. And we all share the same birthday. Need I say more?

[Fat Joe]

We A likes Miss Entertainment and Lauryn Hill, groundbreaking album. Phenomenal because she could sing incredible and she got the bars. I felt cheated as a hip hop fan that she retired so quick. Like, I think we would have had multiple albums of greatness, you know, I think we got Rob from Lauryn Hill, you know, walking off the game because she would have had four or five classic albums. I can't see her making whack shit. And definitely where she left the game at that time, I could. She was. She just. Still to this day, all these girls are great. I love them all. You know, Remy gets a little upset because she wants me to cheat and say, remy's the greatest. Can't nobody fuck with Lauryn Hill. Lauryn Hill's in the fucking lane of her own. Nobody.

[Jada]

That's a fact.

[Fat Joe]

And so what Lil Kim's first album, are we talking about females? Hardcore. Crazy.

[Jada]

Lil Kim first album was crazy. Hardcore, everybody. That shifted. That shifted the way females wanted to present themselves at the little Kim. Foxy first album, Il Nana Crazy.

[Fat Joe]

You see, Elliot, I can't stand the rain. The Brat funk, the better numbers than everybody.

[Jada]

Funkified.

[Fat Joe]

Yes. The Brat was the first to crack open that gate. Her, she had real fans. Mind the platinum. But Foxy and Kim, man, that's like Brandi Monica. That was a time, you know what I mean? I think, you know, it's very hard for a man to really be bumping a girl's album like that. Driving in your car, like the whole album riding around like you think you playing the shit. And you got Foxy, you got Kim. Recently, I listened to that Cardi b album about 10, 20 times. Cardi B, she got some bars in there better than dudes. It's really incredible the way they put that album together recently. Cardi B's album is phenom. And the girls is eating it up. Hello. They going crazy to that shit on Instagram. I'm not comparing the album to Lauryn Hill or Foxy or Kim's debut. I ain't saying one, but I'm just saying you got that, you got that Uncle Grady eyes. You know what I'm saying? You got. You give me the eyes like. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. You're giving me that. No, I'm telling you, our album right now is better than most guys in 2025. Cardi B got that right. Now listen, this ain't that.

[Jada]

That ain't this.

[Fat Joe]

Crack and kiss, you bastards.

[Hunter]

Bitch. Short on time, but big on true crime. On a recent episode of the podcast Hunting for Answers, I highlighted the story of 19 year old Lashay Dungey. But she never knocked on that door. She never made it inside. And that text message message would be the last time anyone would ever hear from her. Listen to Hunting for Answers from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.