Fat Joe reveals surprising reactions from hip-hop legends on his podcast
- - Fat Joe reveals surprising reactions from hip-hop legends on his podcast
Gerrad HallJanuary 19, 2026 at 2:05 AM
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Christopher Polk/Billboard via Getty
Fat Joe in October 2024
After numerous guest appearances on other people's podcasts made Fat Joe go viral — "really, really big, a million views and all that" — he tells Entertainment Weekly that he decided he should "capitalize on it" himself. That's why he and Jadakiss launched their own podcast, Joe and Jada, last summer.
"We came out running," the "Lean Back" rapper says of the twice-a-week series, on which the pair share stories about their careers and talk pop culture, music, and sports — as well as "everything from God to mental illness, to hip-hop, fashion, you name it, we tackling everything," he says. They've already welcomed such guests as Golden Globe winner Teyana Taylor, Cardi B, DJ Khaled, Eve, Jermaine Dupri, Common, Tiffany Haddish, Ciara, Tyrese, and Stephen A. Smith.
One guest, however, said something Joe won't forget.
"The best moment I've ever had was Bobby Brown, the legend, saying he taught Michael Jackson how to moonwalk," Joe recalls, adding with a laugh, "I don't know how true that is."
He continues, "Now, the other thing I heard was a guy from the group Shalamar taught him. Bobby Brown told me he taught him, but a bunch of credible sources told me it was a guy from Shalamar."
Joe, whose real name is Joseph Antonio Cartagena, says he's always been a great storyteller, but when he considered the people he thought were doing sports commentary well — "Charles Barkley, Shaquille O'Neal, Kenny Smith, these are guys who put skin in the game and won championships" — he realized that he and Jadakiss could start a successful podcast focused on their industry because of something they have in common with those guys.
iHeart
'Joe and Jada' podcast
"We're both battle-tested, we've both been in the game, we've been through ups and downs, and nobody's more credible than us," he says. "So podcasting is freedom. We have the freedom to say what we want, do what we want. Of course, we do everything in a positive and respectful way. Stephen A. Smith came up here and said he envies us. He gotta say certain things on ESPN; he can only do certain things."
So what has surprised him most about hosting a podcast?
"I'm dealing with hip-hop and legacy and legends, and some legends, you could big them up and give them their props, and they'll still be mad at you," he admits. "Another thing: I've been an artist for 30-something years, and I never realized that artists are so different — everybody likes different things and has a different concept."
Now, after 30-something years in the business, and just seven months since the launch of Joe and Jada — which is getting hundreds of thousands of views every episode on YouTube alone — Joe is about to reach a whole new audience. iHeart, the home of Joe and Jada, is one of a handful of podcast studios who've signed an exclusive video podcast deal with Netflix, and Joe and Jada will start streaming on the platform on Jan. 26.
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"We love YouTube, we're happy for the opportunity, but the only difference I see at Netflix is when you go to YouTube, you gotta go for a specific thing, and not everybody goes to YouTube — my wife don't go to YouTube," Joe says. "I love that Netflix is accessible; everybody has Netflix. And I'm hoping that it'll open a new audience that wouldn't have normally tuned in to our show. We're gonna get the core audience. The core audience that follows us now, they have Netflix, so they gonna tune in and they love the show. But we looking to get more eyes and new fans in on it."
on Entertainment Weekly
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
