Fat Joe once took credit for 50 Cent’s hit ‘Candy Shop’
(Credit: wikimedia / Hip Hop Hero)

Old School Archives

Fat Joe once took credit for 50 Cent's hit ‘Candy Shop’

Fat Joe and 50 Cent were at odds for the entirety of the 2000s, and it is only recently that the two have finally managed to put their issues aside. Both New York natives, 50 Cent spearheaded his Queens crew G-Unit, while Fat Joe led his Bronx-based collective, the Terror Squad. The two groups both created hits and achieved varying levels of success.

In 2004, the Terror Squad single ‘Lean Back’ debuted at number one and stayed atop the chart for a month. Produced by Scott Storch, with whom Fat Joe has a relationship, in 2005, 50 Cent released a similar track leading to friction between the two artists.

Oblivious to the politics, while the two MCs were feuding, Scott Storch was happy to provide 50 Cent with a hit record in ‘Candy Shop’ for his Sophomore album, The Massacre. However, Fat Joe took credit by declaring that he had helped 50 Cent make the record in the first place. According to the Terror Squad rapper (real name Jose Cartagena), the instrumental for ‘Candy Shop’ had been offered to him before 50 Cent, but he passed on it. In Cartagena’s eyes, he played a hand in helping 50 (real name Curtis Jackson) get the menacing beat.

However, the ‘What’s Luv?’ rapper went even further, stating in a 2005 interview with XXL that he helped Storch arrange the track. Detailing his contributions, Cartagena explained, “I’m pretty sure the world don’t know we actually produced ‘Candy Shop’ together. I produced it with him, made the intro, put the sounds together.” However, after its creation, the Bronx native decided he wasn’t the right artist for the beat.

Explaining to XXL how he never had a problem with Jackson, Cartagena unveiled, “I figured at the time ‘Lean Back’ was popping so Scott called me like 50 times, 100 times: ‘Yo, you sure you don’t want to use it? 50 Cent called me. 50 Cent want it! I never had a problem with this dude. I was like, ‘Go ahead.’ The next day, I get in there and hear ‘Candy Shop’… Sometimes you know beats ain’t for you.”

Following this ludicrous claim, 50 released a diss record towards Fat Joe entitled ‘Piggy Bank.’ However, it wasn’t just Cartagena’s lies that got Jackson riled up; it was also the fact that Joe had made a song with Ja Rule, his god-sworn enemy. The two East Coast rappers didn’t speak for years. However, during the late-2010s Fat Joe and 50 Cent eventually ended their non-sensical feud with the help of their mutual friends.

You can hear both ‘Candy Shop’ and ‘Lean Back’ in the videos below.