In Hip-Hop folklore, much speculation has been made over a supposed beef between Fat Joe and Jay-Z in the past few years. The pair briefly sparred after Jay apparently took issue with a Joe lyric that referred the Terror Squad victory over Team S.Carter at last year’s Rucker basketball tourney.
Jay followed suit in “The Game Is Mine, where he said, “I’m the proud new owner of the Nets/ No diploma, no regrets, don’t even talk about Rucker/ Muthaf****s I am set.” In a pair of songs “Victim” and Lil’ Scrappy’s “No Problems [remix],” Joe seems to points the finger at unnamed rappers, making some deduce he’s talking to his Roc-A-Fella Records peer.
Elusively, Joe told AllHipHop.com, “I’m going at everybody. Everybody’s a victim. I’m the realest in the game. It’s hard to be the realest man, I’m going at everybody.”
As far as the Rucker comment in “Lean Back,” Joe said he was merely stating the facts of last year’s incident.
“You know I was talking the truth. We won the Rucker. I wasn’t looking for no problems with Jay Z. I was like, ya know we won the Rucker. And we ain’t have to play. (chuckling) I ain’t inventing it. He’s a bigger dude, n####’s owning basketball teams and s### like that. He’s doing what he gotta do. I don’t see no problems, not that I know of.”
As Things of that Nature, his new album prepares to drop, Joe said he’s finally feeling respected by the industry as an artist.
“I just feel like all the years, all the work I done put in, it always felt like I was under-appreciated, n##### was sleeping on me. So I finally got them where I want them with the TS album,” he explained. “I don’t know why after all these years, so it’s like now I just want to just strike right now and just let n****s know. This [is] some of the best work I ever did in my life. [I’m] just trying to run the game to be honest. I’m trying to dominate the game for real.”
The album features the production of Cool & Dre, DJ Kahled, Timbaland, R.Kelly, Scott Storch, Swizz Beatz and others.
Things of that Nature hits stores on November 30.
