The Book of Jose: A Memoir

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The funniest story is one where in which Joe describes how 50 Cent put out an entire Fat Joe diss tape. But with all the history between me and Jay-Z, I just felt like for the real fans that know Fat Joe, we had to let that fly. Beyond his music-related endeavors, Joe has developed into a media personality, having launched “The Fat Joe Show,” a nightly Instagram Live talk-show where he has interviewed politicians, musicians, athletes, actors, entrepreneurs and personalities such as Dr. You started off with the Diggin' in the Crates Crew, including Lord Finesse, Diamond D, legendary Big L. I liked how personal some of his stories were, but I don’t think any of them were impactful to me personally.

Rapper Fat Joe gives us the gritty, witty, and often laugh out loud story of his life, growing up in the Forrest Homes projects in the Bronx NY. You could tell that he is a good guy and that choosing a life of drugs and violence wasn't his purpose. I purchased a couple of other audiobooks and they let me down, because I didn't feel like they stood true with their personality, they just read it. His transparency will continue to be used “as a template” when his book is adapted into a scripted Showtime series executive produced by “Black-ish” creator Kenya Barris. Hip-hop will officially turn 50 in 2023, and you've grown up alongside it pretty much your entire life.The rapper gives us plenty of tales about the early rap scene and his first forays into the record industry, where he crossed paths with the likes of Jay-Z and DJ Khaled.

The grace I give is that I enjoy people in their own words, whether their stories offer extra fluff or not. Encounters with a variety of hardworking dancers, drag queens, and pimps, plus an account of the complexities of a first love with a drug-addled hustler, fill out the memoir with personality and candor. Joe also assumes all his readers are avid hip hop fans and old enough to know the big players in the early 90s.

The Squad has so much love for me, they would never let anyone disrespect me without serious repercussions.

Since 2017, Fat Joe has been managed by Jay-Z’s Roc Nation and he’s carved out a lucrative life outside of music that, even years after witnessing his successful reinvention from tough guy to music star, still feels surprising. However as one of few rappers who lived the life before picking up the mic, there’s still enough interesting even if Joe habitually leans into exaggerating and hyperbolic speech. Props to the editors and Shaheen Reid, the co-author, for crafting such a compelling story and preserving Fat Joe's (clearly unique) voice and personality. There was some real violent heart wrenching revelations that was going on right in my backyard in The Bronx back in the day. He does jump back and forth some times but I didn’t feel lost or feel like I had to go back and review to remember what he was referring to.I also find Joe's account to be disingenuous in places and recollections may differ as far as his time in federal prison are concerned. Apart from getting his backstory, I appreciate his unique perspectives on the development of hip hop culture over the past few decades. He became repulsed by cigarettes because his mom was heavily dependent on them, even after surviving throat cancer.