Fat Joe Talks Picking The Right Single, Sings Like Beyoncé
Fat Joe has had a more successful rap career than most MCs. The Bronx native is prepping his 11th solo album, with “Another Round,” featuring Chris Brown, as the still untitled project’s lead single.
The man who used to write graffiti under the name Joe Crack has plenty of hits under his once sizeable belt (pause) including “What’s Luv?,” featuring Ashanti, “Make It Rain,” featuring Lil Wayne, and “We Thuggin,” featuring R. Kelly. According to Joe, picking the right single is one of his talents. “You gotta know how to make hit records,” Joes tells Hip-Hop Wired. “You gotta have an ear for it.”
Having a sharp ear for a single was also necessary for career longevity.
“How many times we heard Beyonce’s album like this one and we didn’t really really really think it was all that when we first heard it? But they had so much money behind it they kept pounding that joint in the paint pounding it,” explains Joe. “If this single ain’t go, we pounding the next one. And now it’s, ‘You may be young but you’re ready!’ Me, throughout my whole career, even in my biggest day, I never had that luxury. I had the record label…being that I’m Joe Crack they’re not going to lie to me, so they’re like, ‘Joe you have one video and one song to pick, if that ain’t the hit then there’s nothing we can do, that’s what the budget is.’ So I always had to pick a hit. That’s pretty much why I know what it sounds like. I can’t force the people to love it, but I’m right a lot of the time.”
