Hey Joe

Flow Joe steez

I was speaking to the homie Rob Markman the other day and discussing the merits of Fat Joe. We are both longtime fans of Joe Crack we went over some of the finer points of what has and hasn’t worked for the Bronx rapper of late after hearing his 9th album, J.O.S.E. 2, due in April. But no matter how you feel about Joseph Cartagena as an MC, he will always be good money with me since he did put Big Pun on.

While lately it seems like Joe gets more pub for everything but his music (beef with Remy, G-Unit and Pun’s wife Liza Rios, as well as my personal peeve; collabos with the trendy R&B crooner  of the moment), after a 16+ year career the big man’s got a chunky catalog. Here are a handful (at least the ones with videos: check Big Pun’s “Fire Water (Remix)” with Joe, Raekwon and Armageddon) of my favs that I keep at the ready when forced to defend his Hip-Hop merit.

“Watch the Sound” – Joe’s DITC comrade Diamond D flips Sister Nancy and threatens to steal Youth Corp checks while Grand Puba looks for the Love Boat and Joe goes “glock for glock and tech for tech.”

“S**t Is Real (Remix)” – DJ Premier on the remix. That’s all you need to know.

Big Pun f/ Fat Joe “Twinz (Deep Cover ’98)” – Yeah, Pun obliterated this ish but Joe did a commendable job riding shotgun.

Terror Squad “Lean Back” – Happier times and Scott Storch still had his mojo.

Fat Joe “300 Brolic” – from his last album The Elephant in the Room. Don’t snooze on it.

And one more…

LL Cool J f/ Keith Murray, Prodigy, Fat Joe & Foxy Brown “I Shot Ya (Remix)”