Fat Joe has admitted that his beef with JAY-Z at the height of his career cost him a lucrative sneaker deal with Reebok.
The pair’s discourse began on the basketball court back in 2004, when Hip Hop artists and basketball stars used to get together for tournaments at Harlem’s Rucker Park.
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Both Hov and Joey Crack had teams that made it to the championships that year, but the former never showed, forfeiting the game to Joe’s team. After the win, he took a shot at the Roc-A-Fella co-founder on the single “Lean Back.”
“I don’t wanna speak about the Rucker/ Not even Pee Wee Kirkland could imagine this/ My n-gga didn’t have to play to win the championship,” Joe raps on the classic anthem.
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While the pair let bygones be bygones years ago, Fat Joe told Rap Radar on Friday (August 25) that the feud cost him some serious business opportunities.
“I learned the hard way, I never complained and I never said it publicly but you know I had beef with 50 Cent and JAY-Z,” Joe began around the 53:47 mark. “The two most fucking powerful dudes in the world. Reebok was gonna give me a sneaker deal and they [were like], ‘Oh you have beef with JAY-Z and 50 Cent,’ Jordan too, ‘We can’t give you the deal.’ You know how much money, shit was like an embargo.”
He continued by relating it to Melle Mel’s recent insult aimed at Eminem, which Joe said he spoke to the Grandmaster about.
“I’m not saying purposefully they was doing it, but Mayor’s not doing a deal with you if you got beef with Fat Joe,” Joey continued. “So that’s the whole point I try to teach [Melle Mel] from my mistake. I said, ‘Yo bro, you don’t wanna diss him’…What I’m saying is don’t block your blessings.”
Joe had previously spoken about the feud with JAY in a separate interview with Math Hoffa, and personally took responsibility for the role he played in the situation.
“One of the greatest friendships, admiration and love, I played myself,” he said. “With everything that happened with us and Roc-A-Fella and all that was Fat Joe’s doing, and I played myself, and I was wrong.
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“I wasted 10, 15 years we could have got money with each other. I ain’t going lie, ever since I started fucking with JAY-Z, I’ve been getting paid.”
JAY-Z and Fat Joe made amends years ago and later collaborated on the 2016 remix of the latter’s Grammy-nominated hit “All The Way Up.”
