Fat Joe explains why some big rappers are endorsing Donald Trump
The 1990s was a golden age of hip-hop. The culture was thriving, and despite the East Coast versus West Coast war, the 1090s saw the emergence of some incredible artists who produced exceptional records, Fat Joe and all of his renowned protégés.
Fat Joe was one of the artists who surfaced in the early and mid-’90s. Previously a member of the Diggin’ In The Crates crew, alongside Lord Finesse Big L and others, Fat Joe, by the latter part of the decade, was forming his own collective that would later become the renowned Terror Squad.
While gathering recruits such as Big Pun, Cuban Links, and Remy Ma for his Bronx-based collective, the rapper simultaneously recorded and released music as one of the first and biggest Latino rappers ever. The Forest Houses native put Hispanic Americans on the map. That said, in a recent interview, as the US election approaches, Fat Joe explained why some rappers are endorsing Donald Trump.
In October, for the BET Hip-Hop Awards, Fat Joe, alongside Too $hort, interviewed presidential hopeful Kamala Harris to understand her policies and how she plans to help the Black and Latino communities. When asked by the Hollywood Reporter if he was nervous about the interview, the ‘Lean Back’ rapper responded, “Nah, I know her, so I wasn’t. I think the first or second time I ever hung out with Madam Vice President, I was a little nervous, but I see her all the time now. I’m not taking it for granted.”
The emcee continued, “I know she’s the vice president, but I’ve seen her a bunch of times to the point where the butterflies wore off. Now I see her, and I go, ‘Hey, Ms. Vice President. Heeey, owww.’ We chop it up. It’s a little bit different.”
The ‘John Blaze’ creator then explained why so many hip-hop icons have come out to denounce Kamala Harris and show they are supporting Trump. He began detailing,
“Hip-hop is the voice of the people. It’s always been the truth. You got to understand this art form started by oppressed people that had nothing and, in a sense, became the CNN of the streets. Who can you trust more than a rapper?”
However, the lyricist highlighted a problem that he sees in rap music concerning politics, unveiling, “The problem is rappers, some of them are thinking about themselves individually. ‘Yo, I make a lot of money, let me save with Republicans with Trump, with taxes.’ But they don’t realize they’re speaking for a nation of people. You think you’re saving taxes, but what about the little guy where we come from? So there’s two ways to look at it. Sometimes, when I see rappers get up there like, ‘Yeah, Trump is the best!’ [I think], yeah, Trump will save you some taxes if you’re a millionaire and you’re rich.“
For Fat Joe, the issue of Donald Trump may loom larger as he is far more popular in the Latin community than he is in the Black community. Explaining why he believes this is the case, he revealed, “Latino men, they have a whole different set of rules. I wish we were much more aligned because if you got the Latinos and the Black people voting the same way and looking at the world the same way, then we would be the most powerful force in America.”
The rapper concluded, But there’s different concerns for them. A lot of Latinos, they’re into the immigration conversation. It’s different.”