The Book of Jose: A Memoir

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Fat Joe indulged in many stories from his childhood upbringing, hip-hop history, family history, and ties. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. It’s one thing to beef with each other on albums and mixtapes, but when you beef live on MTV during the channel’s biggest night, things are serious. Soon Joe and his crew dominate the streets, but he finds his true love among the park jams where the Bronx’s wild energy takes musical form.

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. Grammy-nominated, multi-platinum-selling artist, entrepreneur, and philanthropist Fat Joe pulls back the curtain on his larger-than-life persona in this gritty, intimate memoir about growing up in the South Bronx and finding his voice through music. The narrative gets off to a good start with Anderson’s nostalgic memories of her childhood in coastal Vancouver, raised by very young, very wild, and not very competent parents. Now it has made trillions of dollars across the world, it has employed millions of people and families. Frank and unapologetic, Johnson vividly captures aspects of her former life as a stage seductress shimmying to blues tracks during 18-minute sets or sewing lingerie for plus-sized dancers.And so I felt like he would be best, to collaborate with him and give him all the knowledge so that he could turn it into the way it best reflects me. As his day-to-day life becomes more and more fraught—he is shot and almost killed and watches as family and friends fall to prison, addiction, and even death—he gravitates toward the music that gives him both a voice to tell the stories of his young life and the tools he needs to create a new one.

One of the oldest rules in the hood is that you don’t get points for picking on somebody who can’t defend themselves. This is one incredible memoir and is way too much for me to express how essential this read is especially for Men and Boys of color. 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.aka Fat Joe, opens the book like a blockbuster movie, packed with tales of violence, drug-dealing, fast cars, and more. Fat Joe grew up in a family of addicts, so he decided at a young age to avoid the cycles he saw his loved ones tied up in. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. I thought he was too, too much and I also had a problem, as a Black British Jamaican, with his constant use of the N word. They’re using rap lyrics that kids are doing — their demos and stuff — to jam them up for the rest of their lives.

But his book definitely takes you on a ride from his early childhood having to deal with trauma and being bullied, growing up in the Bronx, to the days where he sold drugs and continuously got into trouble before his career took off. For example, you talk a lot about being a witness to the Bridge Wars rivalry between KRS-One and Marley Marl.

Witnessing him introduce the world to the rap sensation Big Pun, and then, after Pun’s tragic passing, develop himself into a true mega rap star in the 2000s. Grammy-nominated, multi-platinum–selling artist, entrepreneur, and philanthropist Fat Joe pulls back the curtain on his larger-than-life persona in this gritty, intimate memoir about growing up in the South Bronx and finding his voice through music.