Fat Joe has big ambitions. Known for hip-hop hits like “What’s Luv?” and “Lean Back,” the 54-year-old Bronx native, born Joseph Antonio Cartagena, is coming for the Queen of TV. “I got my eyes on Oprah Winfrey. You know, that’s who I want to be compared to,” he tells Yahoo Life.
That’s the expectation he has for himself as the host of Starz’s new interview series Fat Joe Talks, which premiered Oct. 4. He’ll be having conversations with other greats in the entertainment world but hopes to showcase his guests in a new light. To do that, he’s also opening up in novel ways himself.
Here, he shares what he wants you to know about him, including his personal journey with physical and mental health and his health care advocacy for others.
His weight loss saved his life
Over the last 15 years, Fat Joe has lost 215 pounds. And while the transformation has motivated some people to discuss the irony of his stage name, he says there’s a more important conversation to be had.
“We’re losing too many great people too young,” he says, noting his late friend Big Pun. The fellow rapper passed away at just 28 years old in 2000 from an obesity-related heart attack. That was a pivotal moment of self-realization for Joe: “You gotta lose weight or you’re gonna die,” he recalls telling himself. And now that he’s taken the steps to improve his lifestyle, he wants to encourage others to do the same.
“You see me doing it. Everybody gotta do it,” he says. “It’s important that we get educated on that.”
He’s been on a mental health journey
Beyond the physical, Fat Joe has also embarked on bettering his mind. “Talking about [mental health] is easy. Doing it, that was a hard thing for me. You know, I was young, I was into this real tough guy [appearance],” he says.
Experiencing depression is something that he addresses in Episode 1 of the show with his first guest, Method Man.
“I was so depressed. I would come out on a sunny day and [feel] as dark as night. … That’s a tough battle that goes with you everywhere,” he says. “Thank God I went to seek therapy when I did. It changed my life.”
He advocates for health care price transparency
“I’m a big activist with Power to the Patients, where we go to Washington, D.C., to get health care price transparency. So I’ve been doing it for some years now,” says Joe, noting that 100 million Americans are in debt because of health care bills.
He’s particularly passionate about getting people to understand that if costs for health care services were provided to patients upfront, they’d have the opportunity to shop around for the best, most competitive prices.
Joe even invited Congressman Hakeem Jeffries to be featured on his interview series to discuss the issue and says he hopes to bring on other political figures as well. “The health care issue that I’m fighting for is a bipartisan thing,” he says. “So it isn’t just Democrat or Republican, it’s everybody together.”
He takes his responsibility to be a role model seriously
Joe challenges himself to continue to show up for his community in a bigger and better way and wants other hip-hop artists to do the same.
“I wrote a book, The Book of Jose, and it’s all about vulnerability, it’s all about transparency. You know us as artists, we always want to feel like we’re Godlike on Earth, that nothing bothers us. And so we finally got to a place where we’re old enough and we’re confident enough that we know that there’s people out there, millions of people, that look up to us. It’s very important that they hear these stories of how you came from here to here and you overcame the adversity,” he says of those who will tune into his show. “That’s powerful stuff, and that’s what I want you to get. I want you to be a fly on the wall. Get access that you normally wouldn’t get to your favorite artists. But at the same time, get some form of a message or inspiration to help you get over something you’re going through.”
If his peers have taught him anything through this process, it’s gratitude. Specifically, he recalls a conversation with LL Cool J, whom he calls “my idol,” that was filmed for the Starz series in which the rapper and “NCIS” actor helped Joe to reflect on how far he’s come.
“It resonated,” says Joe. “It was very impactful to me, because I was like, wow, the evolution, you know, God is great. I’ve been able to grow.”
