Line-up

Headliner
Fat Joe Last time in Boston / Cambridge: 11 years ago

Venue

House of Blues - Boston

15 Lansdowne St., 02215, Boston, MA, US

www.houseofblues.com/boston

Capacity: 2,400

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Additional details

Doors open: 19:00

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Fat Joe biography

Joseph Antonio Cartagena, otherwise known by his stage name Fat Joe, is a hard-hitting, hip-hop rapper from the Bronx, New York US.

Born on August 19, 1970, Fat Joe released a number of recordings which have lead to the explicit rapper attaining great success. He was raised by parents of Puerto Rican and Cuban descent, and was influenced by the Latino lyricist Big Pun in his early life; Fat Joe claimed he respected Big Pun for aiming to “represent our people”.

Between the years of 1992-1995, Joseph Cartagena performed under the show-name Fat Joe da Gangsta whilst being part of the Diggin’ in the Crates (D.I.T.C) rap collective. He released the debut album ‘Represent’ in 1993, which included the single ‘Flow Joe’; it gained Joe widespread recognition and forced people to start noticing his talents after it peaked at number one the Billboard Hot Rap Singles chart.

In 1998, Fat Joe released the album ‘Don Cartagena’ - featuring the likes of Nas, Diddy, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony and his own group Terror Squad - on Atlantic Records. It peaked at number two on the US R&B chart, and signaled the begging of prolonged success for the east-coast rapper.

In 2001, Fat Joe released ‘Jealous Ones Still Envy (J.O.S.E)’ - a production from Irv Gotti - which featured Busta Rhymes, Ludacris and R. Kelly. It included the hip-hop, club-classic single ‘What’s Luv’ featuring Ja Rule and Ashanti, which peaked at number four in the UK, at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and featured in the 2002 movie Juwanna Mann; the single has since sold over 4,500,000 copies. Fat Joe also featured heavily with Remy for Terror Squad’s single ‘Lean Back’ in 2004, which topped the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks, topped the R&B charts for over a month and won the Single of the Year award at The Source Hip-Hop Music Awards.

Fat Joe is comparable to Mase, Redman and Indo G, whilst the Puerto Rican enthusiast is commended for his charitable work, having visited his old school and donated new computers for students, whilst also speaking at a School is Cool assembly in Public School 5 in New Jersey US in 2009. He has performed at prestigious settings such as The Black Music Festival and BET Hip-Hop Awards 2012, and continues to demand respect from the hip-hop scene and beyond for a career decorated with credible accolades.

Live reviews

If we’re going to talk about Fat Joe, the first question has to be this: is that name even appropriate any more? Indeed, over these past few years, the rapper’s weight loss has seen him bring his size down a level that perhaps won’t afford him the title of ‘Slim Joe’, and whilst the inbuilt requirement for rappers to eschew modesty will mean that ‘Average Joe’ likely won’t fly, it’s probably the most fitting way to describe him these days.
He’s continued to cook up new music, too, with his most recent record - The Darkside Volume 1 - dropping back in 2010. Whilst he’s yet to return to the kind of commercial level that he reached with the Ashanti-featuring ‘What’s Luv?’ back in 2002 - that track was a worldwide smash - he continues to command respect within the hip hop community, and has a sizeable cult fanbase to fall back on, too. Whether his recent reduction in physical stature will see him also strip back his live shows - which typically saw him flanked by an entourage - remains to be seen, especially seeing as he forced to cancel a recent show in London at indigo2 with Ja Rule and Twista after he and Ja failed to secure visas; it was only a matter of logistics, though, so expect him to reschedule as soon as.

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