*Rapper Fat Joe, who is of Puerto Rican and Cuban descent, is defending his right to use the N-word.
The hip-hop star recently hit up The Breakfast Club to promote his new book “The Book of Jose,” and he explained that he started using the racial slur because he grew up around Black people, Rap-Up reports.
“First of all my projects is 90%–I’ll give you 80%–Black still,” Joe said. “My grandmother’s projects is 99.9% Black to be clear. So I’m Spanish, I knew I was Latino, but the whole time I thought I was Black anyway.”
He continued, “So my mom lived there 40 years before I was born, in this project, and I’m born blonde hair, green eyes. This sh*t crazy, right? She brings me there, the first thing they go, ‘Oh look at this little ni**a Joey, he got green eyes.’ The minute I’m walking, the guys in the building is like, ‘Yo look at that little ni**a Joe, little Fat Joe,’ that’s all I knew my whole life before even elementary.”
Fat Joe on Kaepernick taking a knee:
“I ain’t with protesting the National Anthem”Fat Joe on using the N word:
“Ain’t nobody gonna tell me what to say”He won’t stand with Black people against injustice, but wants a free pass to call Black people ’n*ggas’ pic.twitter.com/ZDxF46keKf
— Bishop Talbert Swan (@TalbertSwan) October 5, 2022
He went on to blame the “woke” movement for the criticism he’s faced throughout his career for using the N-word in his music.
“It’s a lot of woke society or something going on these days and Twitter and all that. I guess they don’t understand where I come from, where I was born, or how I was raised, or how I lived my whole entire life. We use it as love, but we know that the record states that this is a negative word,” the Bronx M.C. explained.
“I wish we never used it,” said Fat Joe about the N-word. “I try my best to try [to not use it]. It’s hard, bro. Seriously, I’ve been tryna stop, but I’ve been saying this since I was born.”
He went on to make clear, however, that he will not be bullied into removing the word from his lexicon.
“No one’s going to pressure Fat Joe into feeling or saying anything that he loves or he believes in. No one’s ever gonna do that,” he said. “You get one life and ain’t nobody gonna tell me what to say, tell me what to do, tell me what to think.”
“The Book of Jose” arrives in bookstores Nov. 15. Watch Fat Joe’s full conversation with The Breakfast Club below.
