This is the story that Fat Joe told many times, but every time new details emerge, and his sincere regret makes the whole plot hilarious.
Now, in Big Boy’s radio studio, Joe revealed that in what context Eminem reminded him of his past shortcomings:
I was just immature, I was crazy. I was just at these places, and one of these places was the Revolt Summit. And people were giving me their demos. I was at these places, and I was trying to get myself in the game, and Eminem apparently was giving me his demo. So years later, we had dinner, me, him, and B-Real from Cypress Hill. And Em was like, “Joe, Imma tell you something. I gave you my demo like six times”, and I was like, “Nooooo!!! Jesus Christ!”
Did Fat Joe even remember seeing Eminem back then?
I remembered Eminem from performing with this group called Outsidaz. They had a very dope thing, this is where I met Biggie, too, called Lyricist Lounge in New York. Biggie was battling twenty guys, beating everybody, white, Black, Chinese. He was killing everybody on that stage, kicking and jumping up and down. So now, Eminem, skinny white boy… Me and Pun closed the Lyricist Lounge, we headlined, and he performed with Outsidaz. They were all black kids with dreadlocks, and he was so skinny! He was going so crazy, they were holding him by his pants ‘cause he was gonna fall off the stage. We all knew he was crazy. It was too late. It wasn’t a demo time. He was on. He was just about to go with Dr. Dre and all that. Me and Pun, I never forget, we left, and I was like, “Yo, that white boy was c-razy”.
And I always tell a story, when his first album came out, it was Grammy week. When you see us on that classic picture of Pun and me at the Grammys looking like cartoon characters… But the night before, his album came out. And we stood the long line at Tower Records to get Eminem’s album. The first album. We bumped that all night and went to the Grammys the next day.
And while bumping this album, Joe had no idea that he had passed on this artist six times. When did he learn this again?
At that dinner! When he treated me to steak and lobsters! “By the way, you have never tried truffle before?”
In the “what if?..” land, would Eminem have been the same rapper we know if Fat Joe had taken him under his wing?
We make great music. Of course, that was legendary Dr. Dre, NWA, who gave him that whole different thing. Dre’s beats was crazy. But he would have been hot with us too. We made Big Pun. We made Remy Ma. We made DJ Khalid. The list goes on. We could have made him a big star. It probably would have been a different kind of star. Fat Joe liked the flash, show off, and this kind of stuff, and Eminem was not doing that. He was on some other shit.
Watch the video below:
