Credit: Alamy

Fat Joe has been on a significant weight loss journey lately, losing over 100 pounds. Despite the impressive change to his body, no amount of weight he sheds will cause him to change his stage name.

The Bronx rapper was inspired to start his journey following the death of a friend who passed away due to issues surrounding his weight. During a recent interview with Big Boy, Joe opened up about entering “crackhead mode,” which involves him working out and cutting back on food.

“That’s when I went on super lose weight mode,” he said. “Working out two times a day. Not even eating a cracker. I call it crackhead mode, you know what I’m saying.”

Joe went on to explain that he couldn’t ever change his name due to the amount of promotion that has gone into pushing “Fat Joe” as a brand. Without it, he feels like nobody would know who he is.

“We spent so many millions to this day millions of millions of millions of dollars,” he said. “When Fat Joe comes out at the World Series, they say, ‘Rapper Fat Joe.’ Now if they just said, ‘Rapper Joe,’ you wouldn’t know who the hell that is. We spent all our money pumping up Fat Joe, that even if I slim down even more than this, I gotta be Fat Joe, cause we spent all the money on Fat Joe.”

Joe admitted to using Ozempic in October and described it as the “greatest invention ever” during his latest interview.

“Ozempic says you may only have two pieces of your favourite stuff,” he told Us Weekly. “We just try to eat everything with the least carbs as possible. So we try to stay away from the bread, the pasta, the rice. That’s the smartest way to eat.”

He added, “Like this morning, I ate breakfast, I had this toast. I cut the corner off, ate it and kept it moving. Normally I would’ve ate the whole thing. But, you know, that’s what we do. We cut carbs and try to be smarter.”

Joe is set to release his new album The World Changed on Me on December 13th, which will serve as his first LP since 2010’s The Darkside Vol. 1.