Fat Joe has revealed that Ye made him record his verse for the 2012 single “Pride N Joy” 300 times to get his pronunciation of one word right.
Joe opened up about the creation of the song during a recent episode of GQ’s Iconic Tracks series.
”’Pride N Joy’ was a hit. It was coming right after ‘Another Round,’” Joe said. “Rico Love had the hot hand. Kanye heard it and was like ‘Yo, I want to do something to it. At the time, Kanye could not lose.”
When the two got in the studio to record the track, things got difficult, according to Joe.
“He made me do my same verse—like say it over and over—300 times,” Joe explained. “My guys want to beat him up. They’re like yo come on, fuck outta here with that.”
“He’s like ‘cul-der-sac,’" he continued, emphasizing that Ye wanted him to pronounce the word a certain way. “He would leave. He’d come back. ‘Cul-der-sac.’”
Ultimately though, the end results justified the means.
“I loved the finished product,” Joe admitted. “I love how my verses turned out. He was a tough one. It’s an honor to work with him. He’s my favorite rapper of the last half of my career—and the only guy I compare my music to.
Joe feels strongly about his music, especially when it doesn’t get the accolades that he thinks it deserves. He recently made it clear that he hasn’t made peace with the fact that he lost a Grammy award in 2017 to Chance the Rapper.
In a listening season for his forthcoming album, The World Changed On Me, Joe reflected on Chance snagging the Grammy for Best Rap Performance for his song “No Problem,” which was nominated along with Joe and Remy Ma's “All The Way Up.”
“That’s the biggest disrespect,” Fat Joe said. “You know how Jay-Z used to say, ‘Gotta learn to live with regrets.’ I can’t live with that one.”
In 2022, Joe spoke with Elliott Wilson about the perceived snub, as well.
“‘All the Way Up’ was bigger. Not only that, if people understood the culture, Remy and I were like Robin Hood and Cinderella,” Joe said at the time. “They gave it to Chance the Rapper—and for what? I’m not going to be disrespectful, but they gave it to him for a record I don’t even know no more. This is my point. I don’t even know what he beat us with.”
