Fat Joe Reflects On Beating Up HOT 97 And Being Banned From Radio [Video]
Written by djfrosty on July 20, 2023
Source: Johnny Nunez / Getty
Fat Joe is never short on stories. He recently shared he beat up an executive at HOT 97 and but it was his career that took the hit.
As spotted on HipHopDX the Bronx, New York native recently paid a visit to DJ Enuff’s GOAT Talk show and detailed the highs and lows of his story. He shared that early on his start he was booked to perform at Lehman College around the time of his first single “Flow Joe”. The “Lean Back” rapper admitted that he showed up to the venue with about a 100 people and was denied entry. “I’m like, ‘What do you mean? They came to see Fat Joe!’ Because they did come to see Fat Joe,” he explained. “So I beat the guy up, and the guy turned out to be one of the bosses of Hot 97.”
The incident caused all of his music to be pulled from rotation at the influential Rap radio station. Naturally the ban negatively impacted the performance of his debut album Represent. He went on to recall how he tried to rectify the situation. “He stopped playing my records. So my whole second album, almost third album, they wouldn’t play my records,” he continued. “So I kept coming back, begging him and kissing his ass and they’d be like, ‘Nah, I’m not ready to squash it with you.’ I used to have people tell him, ‘Yo, Joe is a good guy, he was young, he didn’t know.’”
Ultimately Joe turned his charm on by giving then Program Director Tracey Cloherty a huge teddy bear which apparently still remains at the HOT 97 offices. “That was part of bribing her to convince this other guy — I don’t want to say his name — to finally forgive me,” he said. “Years later, he finally forgave me and was like, ‘Yo, Fat Joe it’s all good.’”
You can see Fat Joe discuss the situation and the bear below.
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