Fat Joe Defends His Usage Of The N-Word: 'People Want To Look At Things With Racist Eyes'
New York rapper Fat Joe, who is of Puerto Rican and Cuban descent, has been unabashed about saying the N-word over the course of his hip-hop career, despite fans having found malice with it.
Despite the criticism, Joe has not stopped using the word and has often pointed to his South Bronx upbringing as to why he has a perceived right to say the word. He explained it all with his recent appearance on 92.3’s The Real with DJ HED and Bootleg Kev. Joey elaborated on his usage of the term, which was brought during his conversation.
Segueing off of Rapsody’s recent visit where the Roc Nation signee said that she’s fine with other non-Black minorities saying the N-word, but not white people, HED asked Joe if he felt the same way. Although Joe acknowledged White fans probably shouldn’t say the word even if they are singing along to a song, he didn’t necessarily outright disapprove of White fan’s saying the N-word.
'We might look at them like [they're] crazy, but we saying it on the record. It’s just a touchy [subject],' he began before he addressed the push-back he’s gotten over the years
“My thing is, when you say ‘You’re Latino. Why you using the N-word?,’ are you calling me racist for using it? Like, do you think I’m racist for using it? The way the N-word offends me is when someone says it in a racial way [and] we feel like somebody’s trying to call us a n**ga. So, now you looking at me with racist eyes when all I do is for my culture, my people?” Joe pondered around the 15-minute, adding that “I treat Black people and Latinos the same way, 100 percent. I treat them all the same way.”
Joe added that the term has always been used as a term of endearment since he was a kid.
'I wouldn’t even know how to stop saying it. I just don’t,' he told the radio hosts
As for people who are critical of him saying the N-word, Joe brushed it off as “people who want to look at things with racist eyes [and] a racist view.”
“Sometimes, we got to watch the people who's trying to police,” Joe concluded. Afterward, Kev and HED brought up Joe’s recent comments about Afro-Latinos on Hot 97's Ebro in the Morning.
“That’s a new word, Afro-Latinos. I don’t want to co-sign that, because people were saying I’m co-signing that, but I really don’t even know what that is,” Joe stated before explaining that he was trying to point out how most Caribbean-descendant Latinos have African ancestry due to slavery.
“I wasn’t saying every single Afro-Latino. I was saying where I’m from in the Caribbean, we got [African blood]. When you see my father, my father’s Black. My stepbrothers... they Black. I was speaking my truth and what I believe to be true,” he clarified.
Watch the clip below to hear his comments in full below.
