Fat Joe

Born on August 19, 1970, Fat Joe released a number of recordings which have lead to the explicit rapper attaining great success. He was raised by parents of Puerto Rican and Cuban descent, and was influenced by the Latino lyricist Big Pun in his early life; Fat Joe claimed he respected Big Pun for aiming to “represent our people”.

Between the years of 1992-1995, Joseph Cartagena performed under the show-name Fat Joe da Gangsta whilst being part of the Diggin’ in the Crates (D.I.T.C) rap collective. He released the debut album ‘Represent’ in 1993, which included the single ‘Flow Joe’; it gained Joe widespread recognition and forced people to start noticing his talents after it peaked at number one the Billboard Hot Rap Singles chart.

In 1998, Fat Joe released the album ‘Don Cartagena’ - featuring the likes of Nas, Diddy, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony and his own group Terror Squad - on Atlantic Records. It peaked at number two on the US R&B chart, and signaled the begging of prolonged success for the east-coast rapper.

In 2001, Fat Joe released ‘Jealous Ones Still Envy (J.O.S.E)’ - a production from Irv Gotti - which featured Busta Rhymes, Ludacris and R. Kelly. It included the hip-hop, club-classic single ‘What’s Luv’ featuring Ja Rule and Ashanti, which peaked at number four in the UK, at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and featured in the 2002 movie Juwanna Mann; the single has since sold over 4,500,000 copies. Fat Joe also featured heavily with Remy for Terror Squad’s single ‘Lean Back’ in 2004, which topped the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks, topped the R&B charts for over a month and won the Single of the Year award at The Source Hip-Hop Music Awards.

Fat Joe is comparable to Mase, Redman and Indo G, whilst the Puerto Rican enthusiast is commended for his charitable work, having visited his old school and donated new computers for students, whilst also speaking at a School is Cool assembly in Public School 5 in New Jersey US in 2009. He has performed at prestigious settings such as The Black Music Festival and BET Hip-Hop Awards 2012, and continues to demand respect from the hip-hop scene and beyond for a career decorated with credible accolades.

It seems that for all the esoteric and boundary pushing records that most musicians seem to gravitate towards later in life, it’s always going to be the music that they grow up with that will come the most naturally to them. This makes Frankie J quite lucky in a strange way, since he and his family moved to San Diego, California from Tijuana, Mexico when he was two. Because of that, the music that would shape him in his most formative years would be the Latin music that his family brought over and played when he was a kid, as well as the first waves of west coast hip hop that would spawn from his neck of the woods when he was a teenager.

The combination of the two has made him one of the most consistently succesful pop stars of the 2000’s, and is still going strong to this very day. By the time he was in high school, he was already singing in talent shows across his home state, encouraged to sing as much as he could by his family. By 1997 he’d signed with Hola Recordings as a Freestyle artist by the name of Frankie Boy. His brand of dance pop was released on three compilation records but a full length album was shelved, since in 1999, Frankie joined his first group, the Mexican Cumba sensations Kumbia Kings, as their co-lead vocalist. The group saw his first taste of true success, with the group’s first album selling half a million copies and earned a nomination for Latin artist of the year at the American Music Awards.

However, Frankie wasn’t satisfied with being one of the boys in the band. By 2003 he’d signed a solo contract with Columbia Records and in the same year his first and second solo records were released to great commercial success. May saw the release of his debut, “What’s A Man To Do” and the following July was when his first Spanish language solo album “Frankie J” came out as well. 2003 proved to be a banner year for Frankie, as his debut solo single went to number 19 on the Billboard Hot 100, and the first single that he featured on after his solo debut, Baby Bash’s “Suga Suga”, went into the top ten of the same chart.

Since then, he’s had a platinum record in the form of his second English language album “The One”, a number 3 hit on the Hot 100 with “Obsession (No Es Amour)”, and has toured with fellow Latin legends Jennifer Lopez and Enrique Iglesias. While he may not get the chart hits that he regularly scored in his earlier career anymore, Frankie J is an artist that doesn’t need figures or chart placements to back him up. He’s proved himself time and time again and will continue to do so with panache and fantastic songs. Highly recommended.

Since 1982, Too $hort actively produced and released LPs such as ‘Don’t Stop Rappin’, ‘Players’ and ‘Raw, Uncut and X-Rated’, before gaining widespread recognition and an RIAA Gold certification, along with a chart-spot of no. 50 in the US R&B listings, with ‘Born to Mack’. Too $hort’s initial success continued as the explicit rapper achieved numerous accolades throughout the 1990s. The albums ‘Get in Where You Fit In’, ‘Cocktails’ and ‘Gettin’ It (Album Number Ten)’ all peaked at the top of the US R&B charts and received an RIAA Platinum rating, whilst also charting in the top 10 of the US Albums chart. Between 1996-2000, Too $hort achieved five top 10 positions in the US Rap chart with singles such as ‘More Freaky Tales’ and ‘2 Bitches’.

Too $hort continued to release records through the 2000s and 2010s; most notably, his album ‘Blow the Whistle’ peaked at no. 14 on the US Billboard 200. He encountered great success when featuring on tracks with other music artists too; for instance, he rapped on Kelis’s ‘Bossy’ in 2006 which peaked at no. 16 on the US Singles Chart, and he partook on Chris Brown’s ‘Loyal’ which peaked at number nine in 2014.

Too $hort is often compared to E-40, Ant Banks and Mistah F.A.B, and the Californian-born lyricist performed at prestigious settings such as iTunes Festival and Coachella. Too $hort’s talents have also lead him further afield; he played the role of Lew-Loc in the film Menace II Society and voiced the character Fillyacup on the animated sitcom The Siccness Network between 2000-2001, whilst he has also been a mentor at Youth Uprising, an organization serving at-risk youths.

As such a mainstay in the hip-hop scene, Too $hort worked alongside artists such as Twista, Snoop Dogg and Jagged Edge, and is regarded as a true pioneer of the West Coast movement.