Fat Joe Recalls Kanye West Thinking He Was A “Mafia Don” Who Didn’t Write His Own Raps

They were working on “Pride N Joy.”

To prepare for the December 6 release of Family Ties, the album that Fat Joe calls his “greatest,” the rapper recently visited Los Angeles’s Power 106 radio station. The Bronx emcee has had a successful, decades-long career, and during his chat with the L.A. Leakers, he shared a story about working Kanye West on “Pride N Joy.” After taking the blame for his beef with Jay Z, Joe said that at one point people thought of him as the “New York Suge Knight.”

The only difference was, I was really making my music. I wasn’t stickin’ n*ggas up,” he said with a smile. “The misconception was ‘Yo, this guy is like a street legend, crazy, he must be extorting. Let me tell you an ill story. I sat down to do a record with Kanye West. We did the joint ‘Pride N Joy,’ and when I pulled out my paper and started writing he was like, ‘You write music?’ This was five years ago! He was like, ‘You rap?’ I was like what do you mean, we’re making a song together.’”

Kanye apparently couldn’t believe it. “‘Oh, I just thought you were like a mafia don and they just come give you different raps and you chose which one you’re gonna say.’ I’m like, ‘Get the f*ck out of here! I’ve been rapping my whole life. What the hell are you talking about.’ I never had no help.” Watch the entire interview below and check out Fat Joe talk about his encounter with Kanye West around the 26:53 mark.

[via]