The Book of Jose: A Memoir

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Like anyone else, they developed the skills they’d need to survive, but didn’t have anywhere healthy to put it.

You know, the pioneers, the fathers of hip-hop is Grandmaster Flash, Kool Herc and Afrika Bambaataa. Rappers seldom speak on mental health and suicidal thinking, so I was impressed with Joe’s vulnerability with how he dealt with waves of depression throughout his life. The reason for the Fat Joe show on Instagram, and the reason for the book, is I’d been seeing some documentaries about hip hop, and the facts were all wrong. According to the acknowledgments, this memoir started as "a fifty-page poem and then grew into hundreds of pages of…more poetry.Though Fat Joe’s memoir covers some heavy (no pun intended) topics, I enjoyed listening to The Book of Jose on Audible and will definitely be giving it another listen soon (paid links.

Finance is provided by PayPal Credit (a trading name of PayPal UK Ltd, Whittaker House, Whittaker Avenue, Richmond-Upon-Thames, Surrey, United Kingdom, TW9 1EH). The moment I could relate most to Fat Joe was when he said he fears his family will let the wrong people attend his funeral.before his untimely death in 1997, Fat Joe provides an encyclopedic collection of one-of-a-kind stories. The funniest story is one where in which Joe describes how 50 Cent put out an entire Fat Joe diss tape. His new memoir, The Book of Jose, goes back to his childhood in New York and his early days rapping in the Diggin' in the Crates Crew. Highlights include reporting at MTV, Vibe, and XXL; serving as the president of Busta Rhymes Conglomerate record label; and launching Polaris, the first Black-owned, free-ad supporting streaming channel, in 2021. Fat Joe indulged in many stories from his childhood upbringing, hip-hop history, family history, and ties.

From infancy his life is threatened by violence, and by the time he starts middle school, he is forced to make a life-shaping choice: to be prey or predator. Joe recounts his youth in the South Bronx projects, where he grew from a rambunctious loudmouth into a ruthless gangster after being bullied by his street-savvy peers. Her anecdotes are humorous, heartfelt, and supremely captivating, recounted with the passion of a true survivor and the acerbic wit of a weathered, street-wise New Yorker. And by the third, fourth day it became like an Instagram TV show where we was coming on every day at 7 o’clock at night.

I didn't know anything about Fat Joe before reading this book and I do feel like the book actually made me understand what makes him tick. You started off with the Diggin' in the Crates Crew, including Lord Finesse, Diamond D, legendary Big L. As the 50th anniversary of Hip Hop comes up this year, a memoir like Fat Joe's is an essential look back at a world arguing movement that had its origins in the toughest of conditions. Rapper Fat Joe debuts with an unflinching portrait of his rise to fame set against the backdrop of 1970s and ’80s New York City. He has shined in limited acting roles, most notably starring alongside Kevin Hart and Tiffany Haddish in “Night School” as well as in Spike Lee’s “She’s Gotta Have It” Netflix series.