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Fat Joe is shutting down all the chatter about him allegedly lying about working with the late Notorious B.I.G.
On Wednesday, August 20, Don Cartegena posted an early version of the tracklist for Biggie's double album, Life After Death. Originally titled Life After Death...Til Death Do Us Part, Joe was supposed to appear on the track "Once Upon A Time." The Terror Squad leader posted the tracklist amid allegations that he lied about recording music with Biggie prior to his death. Unfortunately, Joe was left off the final version of the album, which dropped two weeks after the Brooklyn rapper was murdered in 1997.
Fat Joe posted the tracklist shortly after Lance "Un" Rivera called out the rapper-podcaster for allegedly lying about his work with Biggie. In an interview with the Art of Dialogue, Rivera, who worked closely with Big during his career, called cap on Joe's previous claim that he and the "Hypnotize" artist worked on a joint album before he died.
"I’ma call cap without even knowing," Rivera said. "Because I don’t know for sure, right? If there was a real legitimate album, I would have heard about that.”
“I would have heard about them doing songs together, because in Daddy’s House, if B.I.G.’s going to studio, you could get a verse or you might not get a verse, depending on his mood and how much money you had in your pocket," Rivera continued. "You know what I’m saying? Because he was a, ‘how much weed you got on you’ type, you know what I’m saying? But I call cap on Fat Joe. Show me the receipts.”
Joe first spoke about his alleged joint album with Biggie in 2021. During an Instagram Live session with Swizz Beatz and Timbaland, Joe said he and Big had created five songs for the project. He also claimed they included a lot of disses aimed at 2Pac. The album was ultimately scrapped following Biggie and 'Pac's deaths.
“We cut about five songs together," Joe explained. "He was like, ‘You the Latino don, I’m the Black don.’ And we was in that studio going crazy. It’s verified by Puff Daddy and everybody. I’ma keep it real – at the time, we were dissing Tupac a lot and all that and so that should have never seen the light of day. Which is respectfully so, because you know they both passed on. But yeah, I worked with the B.I.G. for real.”
It's clear Fat Joe did work with Biggie, but we'll see if Joe will go in-depth about what happened to the joint album on Joe & Jada.