Fat Joe Reflects On The Decades Long East vs. West Coast Beef

The Bronx legend Fat Joe expanded on an enlightening conversation with Minister Farrakhan during the height of the regional war.

Walking down memory lane

Fat Joe stepped on the music scene in 1993 and has since acquired 28 years of music and business acumen. Being in the game for so long, he has an inside perspective of politics within the rap industry. He gave a peek into those politics earlier this week (Dec. 21) during an interview with Big U on the Checc’n In Podcast.

According to Joe, he played a role in ending the prolific rivalry between the East and West Coast. This long-standing beef had violent consequences in the 1990’s rap scene particularly. During the height of this conflict, Joe and a number of other rappers sat down with civil rights activist Minister Farrakhan to discuss the issue. He claims a side conversation occurred between him and Ice Cube, demanding he play a bigger role in ending the beef.

The East vs. the West

While tensions between East and West coast rappers had been bubbling for years, it came to a head after the 1996-1997 deaths of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls. To this day there are differing accounts between rappers old enough to experience the feud in real-time. Some insist the hate between the two regions was real, meanwhile, some maintain the problems were exaggerated by the media.

“You should have been the n*gga tryin’ to bring the peace. That’s what I was trying to tell him,” he stated. “Everybody loves you, you could have set this sh*t up and squashed this.”

He recounted him and Inglewood rapper Mack 10 having mutual respect and interest in spreading positivity.

“From there, that showed people that New York and L.A. could work together, and we became a bond, and we was doing videos together and working,” he said. Additionally, he added: “I would like to say that eased the tension between the east coast and west coast. It needed something like that; a Fat Joe, Mack 10, and everybody start working with each other, showing brotherhood and unity.”

Watch the interview on Checc’n In below:

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Dreema Carrington|IG @dr3amgirl79|Twitter @notdreema