Quotes from Fat Joe

When I came up in hip hop, there was no such thing as a Puerto Rican rapper doing hip hop for many mainstream people, so I was the ship, the captain, and the crew.

When I first started, I thought I was wack. Lyrically, I thought I was wack. The thing I had over everybody was that I was the realest rapper.

I'm not just a rapper. I'm a child educator.

All rappers exaggerate.

We gotta be proud to be Latino. It's almost like we cheating because we're American and we live by American customs, but at the same time, we got that Latino culture. We cheating; we double dipping.

There's no such thing as too much. If there's too much, then that's a great thing.

I started out in the Apollo Theater. That's where I got my start. I won Amateur Night four weeks in a row.

There's millions of gay people in the world. In 2011, you've got to hide that you're gay? Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, be real.

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.

I make hits.

It's hard to have a boom-bap hip hop record that goes No. 1 in the country.

I'm a huge fan of the Clintons. I love Hillary; I love Bill.

I love Lil Wayne, that's like my little brother. He's just the coolest dude on Earth.

For artists, the majority of the money we make comes from us being on the road and touring.

Fat Joe is signed to Fat Joe. I have a distribution deal for my label. I'm independent. I'm very happy with that.

Latinos been a part of hip-hop culture and every other culture; we've been influential in every aspect of life.

I come from nothing, and growing up, I really didn't have many people to inspire me, at least no good people to inspire me.

Your man Daddy Yankee, some black and white people who know what's going on in the 'hood and the clubs are supporting him and loving him. But he's speaking Spanish, and he's speaking directly to the Latino people, and the people who know the language really dig it.

I was a diabetic for 16 years, since I was 14. Being that I lost weight, no more diabetes. You don't have to lose your eyesight, cut off your toes, have a stroke, get kidney failure. You just have to lose weight - you know - for most of the diabetes.

Being that I always perform, I started working out with a trainer to get that endurance and stamina. Now, I guess you could call me a gym rat.

If you look at history, at the first time hip-hop was invented, there was a Latino right there. How they got erased, I don't know how that all came about.

I always loved being fat, obviously. I'm Fat Joe.

I have been Fat Joe since I was a kid. It's always been my name and always will be.

We're just trying to make 'The Darkside' its own brand. It's Fat Joe, but it's 'The Darkside.' We come with 'Vol. 2,' make it crazier than 'Vol. 1.' By the time 'Vol. 3' come, we got a problem on our hands.