Fat Joe

I think I weighed about 450/460 at my heaviest. That's huge! That's Fat Joe. And you know, I always took pride in being fat.

Biggie has been the logo for success, the logo for doing it big - from popping champagne, the ladies, the fashion.

For artists, the majority of the money we make comes from us being on the road and touring.

I love owning my masters.

When I introduce you to somebody, his name is Big Pun. When I introduce you to somebody, his name is DJ Khaled. When I introduce you to an artist, her name is Remy Ma. If I introduce you to somebody, it's Cool and Dre or Scott Storch - people who change the face of the game.

During my successes or my failures, I put it on me.

There are 3.5 million Americans in Puerto Rico. So, just like we're quick to go everywhere else and help, we expect that same of America for Puerto Rico. These are U.S. citizens!

Hector Lavoe is the greatest of all time. Marc Anthony is the second greatest.

I was scared to fly for a long time.

I beefed with 50 Cent for seven years.

Puerto Rico is a powerful island.

Culturally, the arts of Puerto Rico is really unmatched by any other island.

Latinos been a part of hip-hop culture and every other culture; we've been influential in every aspect of life.

We gotta be proud to be Latino. It's almost like we cheating because we're American and we live by American customs, but at the same time, we got that Latino culture. We cheating; we double dipping.

If you look at history, at the first time hip-hop was invented, there was a Latino right there. How they got erased, I don't know how that all came about.

I stay around the young boys in the studio; I want to learn from them, and at the same time, I have a lot to offer them.

Any time Khaled comes to your video, it just steps it up that much more. He's so fun; people love him.

I collaborate with Tidal because they're for the artists - the up and coming artists and the O.G.s in the game. It's like a home, the only place we have for the artists to find support.

There's no such thing as too much. If there's too much, then that's a great thing.

KRS One and LL Cool J are the biggest influences in my rap career, along with Heavy D.

I grew up pretty much with nothing.

Nobody in my family before me ever had anything.

We took Big Pun, a 700-lb Spanish guy, one of the greatest rappers ever, and made him a sex symbol. Women would wait on line to kiss him.

I always loved being fat, obviously. I'm Fat Joe.

If I could gain 1,000 pounds and be healthy, I would love to do that.

The biggest killer of people is food.

This world is too hard for me to leave my kids, without me supervising and being there for them.

All rappers exaggerate.

My parents are overweight, and I think the biggest problem we have in America is a lack of education. The place to start is with parents and teaching them to cook healthier.

I'm addicted to food, so if you bring the cake and stuff to my house, I might walk by and take a swipe of icing and keep it moving. So what happens is I try to not keep it around.

I used to watch Oprah Winfrey, and whenever she used to lose weight, I used to be like, 'How's she losing it? What is she doing?' But it's all about education and knowledge, feeding yourself and knowing that too much carbs is what gets us fat.

My coldest days, my darkest days, ain't no sun out, all I got is my fans. They the only people I ride for. Believe it or not, if you're a real Fat Joe fan, a Terror Squad fan, I do it for ya'll.

Fat Joe is signed to Fat Joe. I have a distribution deal for my label. I'm independent. I'm very happy with that.

Your man Daddy Yankee, some black and white people who know what's going on in the 'hood and the clubs are supporting him and loving him. But he's speaking Spanish, and he's speaking directly to the Latino people, and the people who know the language really dig it.

Latinos finally have a genre of music that represents them, and they're supporting reggaeton in such huge numbers that people can't help but notice there's a revolution going on.

I love Lil Wayne; that's like my little brother. He's just the coolest dude on Earth.

DJ Premier, this guy is like a god, a walking god. Guru, he put it down legendary.

It feels like Gangstarr is the purest group in hip-hop. They was shooting videos on the beach in the winter when the water was ice. Razor-blade music.

Who you know, 10 albums later, get better than he's ever been before? It's hard. To come from all this huge success like a 'What's Love,' and a 'Lean Back,' then take it back to the street with 'The Darkside.'

We're just trying to make 'The Darkside' its own brand. It's Fat Joe, but it's 'The Darkside.' We come with 'Vol. 2,' make it crazier than 'Vol. 1.' By the time 'Vol. 3' come, we got a problem on our hands.

The formula for a hit is saying what people want to hear.

When it's all said and done, I want to look back on my career and say I did numerous things.

I'm trying to get in where I fit in and take it to the next level.

It feels like we all win when Joe wins. People know the struggle, everything I had to overcome. People feel like that's them winning. If Joe could do it, they could do it.

The 'hood don't really wanna hear it, but you need brown rice, you need wheat bread, stuff like that.

After the success of my first album and the success of 'Flow Joe' kind of faded, I was struggling to make some money and make ends meet.

'Envy' was a bit of a challenge for me. It was smooth.

I was really from the streets, and I really did hustle in a major way. When I got my record deal, I left the streets alone as far as hustling. I never, ever hustled again. I said, 'I'm gonna change my life, I'm going legit. This is where I'm at.'

I would bump A Tribe Called Quest in my car all day.

I realized, at a certain point, all my big people were dying. I couldn't see a clearer picture: what's the difference between me and him, of me being in a casket?