The drama between Fat Joe and Big Pun’s wife continues. As HipHopWired previously reported, Liza Rios, the widow of Big Pun has accused the Terror Squad leader of practicing bad business and jerking her and her family out of Big Pun’s royalties. Fat Joe called into New York’s Hot 97 yesterday and spoke with DJ Cipha Sounds and Rosenberg in attempt to set the record straight and clear his name.
Joe stated:
“Big Pun made millions and millions of dollars while he was alive. He spent a lot of money… 10 Benzes, 10 motorcycles, whatever the case may be. I had no clue that he was broke. She steps to me saying Joe we broke, we have no money. I say people not gonna feel sorry for you because you’re Big Pun’s wife forever. I’m gonna get you some money now what do you do. So she tells me, ummm I like to do hair. I said why don’t you go to school for doing hair and maybe you can open up two, three beauty salons and continue to support your family because no one’s going to continue to pay your bills because you’re Big Pun’s Wife.”
Fat Joe also stated that no one got paid on Pun’s posthumous project Endangered Species and that the full advance went to Liza and that she received hundreds of thousands of dollars. Fat Joe added,
“I thought I did the right thing. She spent the money unwisely, right? She comes back and says Joe I’m doing bad again. We give her a check out of our pockets, we say yo we gotta take care…cause at the end of the day, Pun’s my brother. I take care of 30 other people for the last 15 years. Like 30 friends that gotta pay their family bills, they gotta pay they rents, they gotta pay whatever. Why wouldn’t I take care of Pun’s wife and Pun’s kids? You understand? So she comes back for another check, I look out for her, I write her a check. Now the controversy happens to where how could you expect to live off of Big Pun’s name being his wife when you putting out DVDs of him pistol whipping you, of you calling him an animal and calling him a beast. This is the problem I have with Liza Rios. At the same time as saying I’m Pun’s wife, take care of me, I’m Pun’s wife; she’s…. [ Ran his name through the mud.] Basically disrespecting his legacy. Like if you had problems at home which to everybody I don’t think no man should pick up they hands to no woman, in the universe and I’ve never seen him do that personally. So after this DVD she knows why my and her communication has stopped.”
Liza later called up to speak to the Hot 97 DJ’s. Denying any validity to what Joe was saying, she stated:
“ I never stepped to anyone’s door asking for a handout. Pun doesn’t get paid for any music that’s still being used. ITunes, ringtones. There’s an album that Sony is putting out now under Loud which doesn’t exist anymore but somehow is coming out under Loud/Sony and something else. They’re doing a soudndtrack to my documentary that I got coming out and Pun is not getting paid. So the fans need to know that when you go out and buy Pun’s albums and ringtones, it’s not supporting the family. That was my whole reason for saying this. This has been going on since 2001. The reason that I’m speaking about this now is because I’m tired of the fans thinking that I’ve been taken care of and I’ve gotten million. But I’m not a liar and I don’t want to mislead Pun’s fans and that’s not true. If he gave me all of that where’s the paper trail.”
The saga continues, take a listen at the interviews for yourself.
