Fat Joe is a bonafide hip-hop icon, and he’s made mostly wise decisions throughout his career, but turning down the chance to sign Eminem still keeps him up at night.
While the fairytale states that Eminem was plucked out of obscurity by an Interscope Records intern at the Rap Olympics who passed on his work to Dre and Jimmy Iovine, it nearly ended up very differently if Joe had taken up Shady’s proposal.
Marshall Mathers is a born hustler who has had to fight for every chance that he’s had in life. He might be the most successful rapper of all time, but Eminem is also more familiar with rejection than most.
In an interview with the South China Morning Post, Joe reminisced about his career and admitted that turning down Shady is the biggest regret of his entire career. He recalled: “Man I got so many regrets. The biggest is that Eminem gave me so many demos, six different times he approached me and I didn’t sign him. Shame on me.”
Despite that, Joe understands how rare it is to have had a career as successful as the one he’s been fortunate enough to make for himself and shone a light on new artists who have gone on to greatness.
Joe added: “To have so many years in the rap industry and so many number one songs, and sold so many millions of records, introduced the world to people like Cool & Dre, DJ Khaled, Pitbull, Rick Ross, Trick Daddy, Remy Ma, Big Pun, Rico Love… I could go on and on. Having been able to influence the rap game for so long is very important to me. Coming from the Bronx, too.”
He continued: “I’m so blessed to have a career. You’ve got to understand this: there are 10 million people trying to rap and the only one makes it, and the fact that even when someone makes it, most of the time, 99 per cent, they are a one-hit-wonder.”
While Joe regrets not being the man to take Eminem under his wing, there’s no guarantee he’d have gone onto superstardom without the guidance of Dre, and there’s no doubt that things turned out for the best in the end.
However, the fact that Eminem tried to get Joe to secure his signature on six separate occasions showed a resilience that was always going to help drag him to the top.
