Episode 150: Fat Joe & Remy Ma

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Fat Joe and Remy Ma are longtime friends and collaborators who have been making music together since the heyday of their crew The Terror Squad in the early 2000s. Their 2004 Grammy-nominated smash “Lean Back” was number 1 for three weeks and became one of the most popular songs of the decade.

But as any hip-hop fan knows, both of their stories go much deeper than that. Joe first came on the scene in the early 1990s as part of the powerhouse Diggin’ in the Crates crew. Joe’s first verses were on DITC member Diamond D’s classic 1992 debut Stunts, Blunts and Hip Hop, and Diamond would produce most of Joe’s own debut record, Represent, the following year.

As Joe’s career developed, he started his own crew called the Terror Squad, which came to include Remy and her mentor, the late Christopher “Big Pun” Rios.

Pun’s death in 2000 took a toll on crew morale, and the group gradually split apart. By the time of Remy’s 2006 debut There’s Something About Remy: Based On A True Story, Joe and Remy had fallen out completely.

In July 2007, Remy was arrested for shooting an acquaintance outside a Manhattan nightclub. She served six and a half years behind bars, and was released in August 2014. A reconnection with Joe soon followed, and the two began working together again. Joe and Remy’s latest hit single is “All The Way Up,” and they have a duo album coming out very soon.

Tracks featured in this episode:

1. Fat Joe & Remy Ma, “All The Way Up”
2. Diamond and the Psychotic Neurotics, “Freestyle (Yo, That’s That Sh…)”
3. Remy Ma, “Crazy”
4. Fat Joe, “Flow Joe”
5. Fat Joe, “Cypher”
6. Fat Joe, “Music”
7. Fat Joe and King Sun on Stretch and Bobbito, 1992
8. Big L and Jay Z on Stretch and Bobbito, 1995
9. Stretch and Bobbito: Radio That Changed Lives
10. LEGENDARY DJ RON G Talks 2Pac & Biggie relationship
11. Remy Ma, “Go In, Go Off”
12. Lil Wayne, “Dough Is What I Got”
13. Fred the Godson, “We Want War Freestyle”
14. Fabolous, “The Wake”
15. Lord Finesse & DJ Mike Smooth, “Funky Technician”
16. Lord Finesse & DJ Mike Smooth, “Baby, You Nasty”
17. Remy Ma, “I’m Around”
18. Remy Ma, “Madness”
19. Fat Joe, “Success”
20. Fat Joe, “Make it Rain”
21. Fat Joe 1993 Commercial
22. Fat Joe, “Definition of a Don”
23. remy ma 6 1/2 minute freestyle from nys prison
24. Remy Ma, “Ain’t Talkin About Nothin’”
25. James Brown, “Get Up, Get Into It, Get Involved”
26. Fat Boys, “Fat Boys”
27. Doug E. Fresh, “The Show”
28. Cheryl Lynn, “Got to be Real”
29. Funky Four Plus One More, “Rappin’ And Rocking The House”
30. Brother D with The Collective Effort, “How We Gonna Make the Black Nation Rise?”
31. Lonnie Love, “Young Ladies”
32. DJ Hollywood, Grandmaster Flash, Melle Mel and Kurtis Blow, “‘Live’ Convention ‘79”
33. Taana Gardner, “Heartbeat”
34. Mary Jane Girls, “All Night Long”
35. Big Daddy Kane, “Just Rhymin’ With Biz”
36. MC Shan, “The Bridge”
37. BDP, “South Bronx”
38. MC Shan, “Kill That Noise”
39. Boogie Down Productions, “The Bridge Is Over”
40. MC Shan Calls out KRS One to A Battle 30 Years in the Making
41. MC SHAN DROPS OVER 3 MINUTE RHYME AIMED AT KRS ONE LIVE ON AIR 4-7-16
42. KRS-One, “Still Huggin’ A Nut (S.H.A.N.)”

Show notes:

1. Bloomberg, “Market America’s American Dream Machine”
2. HipHop DX, “Fat Joe Shoots Down Market America Misconceptions”
3. Thrillist, “Can You Treat PTSD With…Hip-Hop?”