S. Samuel
Terror Squad leader Fat Joe has inked a blog posting speaking on the thin lines between reality and fiction rap.
Joe says rap fans should not take every lyric they hear as truth when listening to their favorite artists.
“A lot of rappers live in mansions in the suburbs talking about they on the corner doing this and that, which is not true,” he wrote. “As far as reality rap, there are a few of us who speak reality in most of our music but I’d be lying to you if I tell you every lyric I ever said was the truth. It would be a lie, because at the end of the day, we’re poets. We’re authors and we should be held to that. I’m by far one of the realest rappers if you check my history and what I’ve done or wherever I come from. I have a justifiable story. But when you look at it in the bigger perspective, no rapper should have to be held to those standards of if you’re a rapping gangsta then you have to walk around with a gun, you have to shoot somebody or get caught hustling. That’s not the truth. You’re a poet, you’re an author, you’re allowed to make any kind of music you want as long as it’s dope.” (VIBE)
Fat Joe is currently working on his next solo album, The Dark Side, on E1 Music.
“I’m just trying to go hard. I need the right team,” Joe said in an interview. “The right promotion is right for me. I ain’t have no team to really promote my stuff. It was important for me. I had a couple of offers on the table, but I went with who I know really knows how to roll up their sleeves and work and really get it done…It was a matter of getting the right deal structured. With me, it’s all about owning my masters. If I don’t have ownership of my music, I don’t really wanna do it. A lot of labels ain’t comfortable giving people the ownership of their masters. Basically, I wanted my cake and eat it too. I wanted to own my masters, plus I wanted the illest team that works radio and works video harder than anybody…And I got it.” (MTV)
Joe confirmed the move to E1 via press release earlier this month.
“It’s been a long time coming,” he stated. “I have a long history with Alan Grunblatt and everyone at E1. Although it’s a small label, they have the best marketing and promotion staff in the hip-hop game and I’m looking forward to working with them on my new album, ‘The Dark Side.'” (E1 Press Release)
Last February, the rapper said artists like Trey Songz, R. Kelly and Young Jeezy will be featured on the album.
“The dude Scoop DeVille, the guy who produced the Snoop Dogg [‘I Wanna Rock’] joint,” Joe said referring to his “Slow Down” single. “We coming with that album, The Dark Side this summer. Early June, whatever the case may be. The album is crazy — I got this crazy joint with me and Trey Songz and we got me and [R. Kelly] after that. They hard, they hard. Basically, I don’t want to say what they are on the radio but they hustler anthems…we gotta a couple more announcements to make, you gonna see the movie unfold.” (“Jenny Boom Boom”)
Fat Joe’s The Dark Side comes out Tuesday, June 29th.
Check out a past Fat Joe interview down below:
