Fat Joe On Bridging Hip-Hop and Reggaéton: ‘I Just Love Making Music For Everybody’

Twenty years in the past, time hip-hop maintained its cultural dominance, reggaetón started to carve out a distinct segment within the international track scene, and Fat Joe — deeply hooked up to his Puerto Rican and Cuban heritage and recognized for his obvious Fresh York swagger — bridged the 2 genres. As each have developed, so has he: His involvement in Don Omar’s 2005 “Reggaetón Latino (Chosen Few Remix),” along N.O.R.E. and LDA, marked a pivotal era in bringing reggaetón and rap nearer in combination.

Since upcoming, he has constantly fused Latin influences with hip-hop, from his 2019 salsa-infused monitor “Yes” with Cardi B and Anuel AA (which samples Héctor Lavoe and Willie Colón’s “Aguanile”) to the newer unmarried “Paradise” with Anitta and DJ Khaled. Weighty Joe spoke with Billboard forward of his dialog with N.O.R.E. all over Latin Music Week in regards to the intersection of hip-hop and reggaetón.

How has your Latin heritage influenced your track?

Guy, I simply love making track for everyone. However each month we will faucet the Latino marketplace — as a result of I’m Puerto Rican and Cuban, my spouse’s Colombian — we do it for everyone. And you already know, no one is aware of the way to honour like Latinos. It’s about month we teamed up with Anitta from Brazil and upcoming DJ Khaled [with “Paradise,” which premiered at the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards] and form a Latino nationwide anthem.

Since “Reggaetón Latino,” how have you ever evident the connection between those two kinds evolve?

I’m simply happy with reggaetón and far and wide [those artists have] long gone as a result of after we began out, they have been the negligible guys. Now they’re killing the entire recreation — Don Omar, Tego Calderón, Daddy Yankee, Wisin & Yandel, the entire guys who pioneered the sport and taken it over to The united states and upcoming the sector.

For your view, how have hip-hop and reggaetón supported or influenced each and every alternative’s wider cultural acceptance through the years?

Hip-hop is the blueprint. It’s the substructure of the whole lot. Reggaetón got here then and simply took it to any other stage within the Latino length and the worldwide length. Even crowd who aren’t Latinos love reggaetón, however hip-hop is at all times the blueprint. It began the whole lot while you communicate in regards to the tide, the track, the fad… It simply runs neck and neck.

This tale seems within the Sept. 28, 2024, factor of Billboard.