Fat Joe has claimed that the police attempted to frame him for murder multiple times throughout his career.
Speaking to Shannon Sharpe on Club Shay Shay, the Terror Squad rapper was reflecting on his turbulent journey from the streets to Hip Hop stardom when he said: “I had the cops on me. The cops tried to frame me, like, three times for murder.
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“This is a true story. I don’t really talk about it but framed. The police was trying to get me out of there! The people was trying to get me out of there!”
He added: “It was like public enemy number one, but my community loved me so they would protect me. When the cops came, the old ladies would let me in their house and they would save me all the time.”
Watch his comments at the 12:33 mark below.
While Fat Joe did not elaborate on the alleged incidents, he has been linked to various killings over the years.
In 2004, at the height of his success with “Lean Back,” his former bodyguard Jose Mulero was charged with murdering a Bronx man named Ernesto Rivera 10 years prior.
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Investigators claimed at the time that Joe witnessed the shooting and had cooperated with the investigation, but the rapper’s lawyer disputed this.
“Joe received a subpoena,” Peter Frankel said, per The New York Times. “Joe responded to the subpoena as he was under the obligation to do, and that was the extent of his cooperation.
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“Joe was not an eyewitness to a homicide. He knows nothing about a homicide. He didn’t see anything,” he added, while also denying that Joe had a bodyguard back in 1994.
The Bronx native was also suspected to have witnessed a double murder in South Beach, Florida in 2007. It was reported that he was an acquaintance of the two victims and was in the same car as them when they were killed.
Joe’s attorney told HipHopDX at the time that his client was happy to speak to police as they investigated the killings.
“I don’t know where this [story] comes from that Joe doesn’t wanna help,” attorney Jeffrey Lichtman said, responding to rumors that he was avoiding police after the murders. “We’re not looking to hide anything.”
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Fat Joe has previously been criticized for admitting that he lied in the vast majority of his music.
He said on Instagram Live earlier this year: “I’ve been rapping professionally for 30 years — I’ve lied in almost 95 percent of my songs. I’m being honest.
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“I write like I feel that day. I’m just being creative. You couldn’t build a jail high enough for the lyrics I’ve said on songs which are all untrue.”
