Fat Joe made the move to Roc Nation’s management division in 2017, and it was all thanks to a deal the company’s CEO more than tripled for him before he even signed.
Joey Crack appeared on Shannon Sharpe’s Club Shay Shay podcast on Wednesday (October 16), where he was asked what made him decide to join JAY-Z‘s imprint.
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“There’s a woman named Desiree Perez,” he explained. “So she called me into the office — I had already made peace with JAY-Z, he was already on the ‘All the Way Up (Remix).’
“And she sat me down and said, ‘Yo, I think you should be a Roc Nation artist and we should manage you.’ And to them, in this game of chess, Fat Joe is a real big piece to grab on their team. She said, ‘I know you doing a deal right now.’ And the deal was for $1 million — I thought I negotiated a great deal. I was negotiating a deal with somebody.
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Joe continued: “She said, ‘What if I told you I’d call that guy right now and they’ll give you $3.5 million for that same deal you negotiated for $1 million?’ I said, ‘Let me see!’ She dialed the number, called the dude. She said, ‘Yo, you doing a [$1 million] deal with Fat Joe? It’s $3.5 million now. We manage him.’
“He said, ‘Sure, I’ll send the check tomorrow, Des.’ Hung up the phone. That was it for me. N-gga, I come from nothing. When I seen that type of power, I was like, ‘Oh I need that!’ And we been happily ever after.”
The conversation begins at the 40:43 mark below.
As Fat Joe’s career continues to rise to new heights, it seems clear he made the right move with the Roc. Aside from hosting the BET Hip Hop Awards four years running and hosting his own talk show on the STARZ network, the Bronx native received the key to New York City over the summer at a star-studded affair that was attended by the likes of Funk Flex, Doug E. Fresh and more.
The ceremony took place at New York’s Orchard Beach on August 20 and was hosted by Rise Up NYC. In addition to Flex and Doug E., Chubb Rock, Wayne Wonder and DJ duo Bobby Konders and Jabba were also in attendance as Mayor Eric Adams presented the Terror Squad rapper with his key.
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“His music has unlocked our hearts for so many years,” Adams said to News 12. “Fat Joe is a real legend, and we’re just really thrilled about giving him the key to [the] city.”
After posting the news he’d be receiving the key earlier that month, however, Joe was seemingly met with some pushback — despite his status as a New York rap legend and philanthropist.
“I get the key to the city [on] the 20th and, boy, was that a hard one. Hip Hop got a black eye,” he said in a post. “The mayor and his crew, his right-hand girl, got me the key to the city. Everybody was a little upset.
“But I don’t know another guy who keeps it realer with the streets of New York than Fat Joe, who feeds more people, opens more businesses. I don’t know what to tell you guys.”
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The “Lean Back” rapper didn’t specify who was upset with him being awarded the key to the city.
