Fat Joe has a better ear than anyone in the music business according to Steve Rifkind – who apparently signed the late Big Pun solely off of Joe’s co-sign.
The SRC Records founder was a guest on a recent episode of the Out of Office podcast with Rich Kleiman, where he spoke about signing legendary Hip Hop acts like Pun and the Wu-Tang Clan. When discussing the former, he revealed he hadn’t heard a single record from the late rapper before he signed him – solely trusting Joe’s ear.
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“I meet Joe over the phone. I’m in Chicago,” Rifkind began. “I must have gotten 25 calls not to even take the meeting with Joe. That he’s a killer, a drug dealer, an extortionist, this, that. And I said, ’As long as we’re straight with each other, we’re gonna be good.’ And I said, ‘When can I meet Pun?’ So I had a guy by the name of Matty C – who discovered Biggie. I get into the office and Matty’s already in the office. And I’m like, ‘What are you doing?’ He goes, ‘You have a meeting with Pun.’”
He continued: “I signed Pun without hearing one ounce of music because Matty showed up to that meeting. Joe thought I was full of shit. They walked in – ‘Pun, nice meeting you. You got a deal.’ And they said, ‘You haven’t heard any music!’ I said, ‘That’s your job to make the music. I’m not worried about that.’ And I believed in Joe. I said, ‘Joe’s the best A&R guy in the business.’”
Check out the full episode below.
While he may be a great A&R, it’s up in the air whether Fat Joe is the best at calling sports games – as he recently predicted the New York Knicks will get past the Cleveland Cavaliers and be able to take down the Miami Heat in a potential Eastern Conference Semi-Final battle if the Heat happen to eliminate the heavily-favored Milwaukee Bucks. The Heat eliminated The Bucks on April 27.
“We killing Miami if they come. Oh no we are,” Joe said to Stephen A. Smith on ESPN’s First Take. “I see them clicking on all four and what’s so crazy the fact that Randle get hurt, it let Obi and all the guys off the bench — Quickley — and they built this confidence. And it all started when we brought in [Josh] Hart.
“Brunson doesn’t get the credit he deserves. He didn’t make the All-Star Game. Brunson is MVP. The Knicks haven’t won in 20 years. All of a sudden we winning it’s because of his poise, his winning mentality.”
Fat Joe believes the Knicks will ultimately end up making the Eastern Conference Finals with the team’s first NBA Finals appearance since 1999 and first championship since 1973 within striking distance.
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“I got us at the third at the Eastern Conference Finals and you never know,” he said. “I know if Miami come our way because Giannis is hurt, we got them boys.”
