New York native rapper Fat Joe sat down with “The Breakfast Club” Tuesday, Oct. 4, and discussed his reasoning behind saying the N-word although he identifies as Latino.
Fat Joe began defending his N-word usage by giving Charlamagne Tha God, Angela Yee, and DJ Envy a history lesson on the demographics in his Bronx neighborhood he grew up in.
He stated, “First of all, my projects is 90 percent — I’ll give you 80 percent — Black. My grandmother’s project is 99.9 percent Black, to be clear. So, I’m Spanish. I knew I was Latino, but the whole time I thought I was Black. So my moms lived there 40 years before I was born.”
Fat Joe continued, “I’m born blond-haired, green eyes — I mean, that s– crazy. She brings me there the first they go look, ‘Oh look at this n— Joe he got green eyes. The minute I’m walking the guys from the building are like, ‘Yo look at that lil n— Joe, little fat Joe.’ That’s all I knew my whole life before even elementary.”
The “All The Way Up” rapper suggested that social media was a factor that played a part in why he has received flak for using the troublesome word.
“It’s a lot of woke society or something going on these days and Twitter and all that, that um I guess they don’t understand where I come from or where I was born or how I was raised or how I lived my whole entire life.”
Fat Joe confessed he wished nobody used the word in general and shared how hard it is for him to stop saying it due to the fact it has been embedded, “in his DNA.”
“I’ve been saying it since I was born, so I try the greatest level I can to try to understand if I’m offending anybody that’s cool.”
Social media blogs quickly got ahold of this clip and not long after, fans shared their own opinion concerning Fat Joe saying the N-word.
“If you are not black you cannot say the n-word, period”
“Once you become aware, you become responsible. Those New Yorkers allow that community to say and do whatever.”
“I honestly thought he was black my whole life”
Fat Joe recently received backlash for criticizing rapper PnB Rock’s tragic murder, but not his robbery on Charlamagne Tha God’s late night talk show Sept. 16. The 52-year-old admitted he was not against robbing somebody but noted the taking of Rock’s life was what bothered him.
While backlash seemed to be coming his way as of lately, he still continues to unapologetically stand behind what he says.
