Fat Joe is close friends with LL Cool J — but the rapper still gets starstruck around the hip hop legend.
“LL Cool J is my idol and the guy who inspired me to make music,” Joe, 54, reveals exclusively in his 25 Things You Don’t Know About Me feature in the latest issue of Us Weekly. “Every time I hang out with him I get nervous, even though I’ve hung out with him a hundred times in my life and we’re friends. I owe everything to him.”
The Bronx-born rapper was also inspired by a few other New York City legends.
“When I was younger, a lot of music inspired me,” Joe told Us. “It was the Nas and Jay-Z era.”
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Keep scrolling for more fun anecdotes from Joe, whose new album, The World Changed on Me, is available now:
1. My first car was a black BMW 525.
2. If I could only watch one movie, it would be The Godfather. It’s the blueprint to my life — I watch it to keep my skills sharp.
3. We didn’t have much growing up, so every Sunday, [when] my father would take us to the Chinese [restaurant] in the hood, we felt like it was big time. We ordered all the stuff we shouldn’t order, like chicken wings, french fries and pork fried rice. We were so lucky in New York. You got good Chinese [food] in every corner.
4. If I could collaborate with anybody, it would have been Michael Jackson.
5. When I’m making a new album, I hang out in the studio for, like, a month, listening to music and beats and other artists. Then I start recording. I listen to a lot of other artists, from Bad Bunny to the Griselda Boys. When I was younger, a lot of music inspired me. It was the Nas and Jay-Z era.
6. My kids are everything to me and my most valuable possession.
7. My favorite song I’ve collaborated on is Ja Rule’s “New York” with Jadakiss. Coming from New York City and representing where I’m from for crowds across the world, it gives me the most joy and pride.
Fat Joe and Ja Rule. Johnny Nunez/WireImage
8. LL Cool J is my idol and the guy who inspired me to make music. Every time I hang out with him I get nervous, even though I’ve hung out with him a hundred times in my life and we’re friends. I owe everything to him.
9. My favorite book is the Bible, and the story of Job motivates me.
10. My alternate profession would have always been to be an entrepreneur.
11. “Give Me the Night” by George Benson brings back the best memories and reminds me of sitting in the back of my father’s station wagon. It would come on and I would just feel like it was amazing. And then I found out in the future that Quincy Jones produced that and the writer was Rod Temperton. I loved it as a kid and my whole life, and then to find out who produced it and wrote it was the greatest.
Quincy Jones had the magic touch when it came to music production, so when he teamed up with Michael Jackson, they were destined for greatness. The legendary producer, who died in November 2024 at the age of 91, worked with the likes of Aretha Franklin and Frank Sinatra before hitching his wagon to Jackson in […]
12. My secret talent is that I used to play softball really well back in the Bronx, but those days are gone.
13. Social studies was and still is my best subject.
14. My go-to takeout order is cheese pizza from Patsy’s Pizza on 119th Street and 1st Avenue in NYC. There’s no better pizza.
15. The best time in my career was the success that [2017’s] “All the Way Up” had after being in the game for such a long time. Very rarely did a guy over 40 years old put a hit out, and it came at the right time.
16. My first job was [handing] out flyers. A bunch of guys from my block would drive us to Brooklyn on Saturdays and we’d give out flyers in different houses and apartments.
17. My happy place is definitely Dubai and I also love, love, love the Dominican Republic. I have the best time there.
18. I collect sneakers and my favorite pair is a black [Air] Jordan Kobe Bryant set.
19. The items I can’t leave the house without are my car keys, a watch, some cologne and a Diet Pepsi.
20. My fondest childhood memories are during summertime in New York, playing for hours in the sun and [my] mom screaming to get in the house because it was getting dark.
Fat Joe Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Netflix
21. I’ve never been to Cuba and that’s the one item left on my bucket list.
22. My favorite comfort meal would be octopus salad and Spanish-style rice and beans.
23. My ideal way to spend the weekend is as lazy as possible — sitting on my couch and watching sports — which never happens because I’m usually traveling and doing concerts.
24. To unwind after a long day, I get a massage.
25. Snoop Dogg is the most famous person in my phone book.
With reporting by Leanne Aciz Stanton
