FAT JOE TALKS RECESSION AND HOW IT HAS AFFECTED RAP.

The bronx new york rapper, fat joe talks about how the recession is going to affect albums sales, and he also talks about the 50 cent rick ross beef. Fat joe is dropping his new album, j.o.s.e 2 may 19th.

"The recession has affected the whole entire globe," Joe explained. "Anyone telling you the recession ain't real is a liar. So the recession is too real, it's affecting everybody, you know, if people ain't got money how can they go to your show? If people ain't got money, how can they buy your record? Another way that it's affecting me is a lot of my friends are being laid off. They're coming to me like, 'Joe I'm messed up, what can I do' I try to help but I can't help the whole world...It really upsets me to know that so many of my friends are doing so bad during these times as well...In hip-hop, where do we draw the line...Notice he hasn't had a fight with nobody yet in every beef he's had in the universe. Disrespecting DJ Khaled's mom, that's not hip-hop. I haven't heard anybody that thought it was dope.


"Rick Ross is my brother," Joe said in an interview. "I'm just telling you [the battle] is a bit too much for me already...Nobody's scared of no 50 Cent. Are you nuts are something? 50's nothing, man. Nobody's scared of him, I mean, tell me one person 50 Cent has fought. All this hoopla and all this stuff he's doing, you tell me who he has fought one on one. Why should we be scared of this guy in the slightest way?"

"50 Cent just gotta make music," Joe said in an interview. "He does all these diversions and disses rappers to eliminate the fact that he's not really hot and relevant right now. So if two weeks ago we were talking about 50 Cent, what record or what would we really be talking about unless he disrespected Rick Ross...I'm tired of all these gimmicks and these games. This man's just gotta put out hit records. That's what we're doing...We making music. At the end of the day, we fell in love with hip-hop to make music and hit records."

The new project will have guest appearances by Ron Browz, Fabolous, Lil' Kim, T-Pain, Lil Wayne, Raekwon, Akon along with production from Jim Jonsin, The Incredibles and The Street Runners. Cuts from the album include "One" and "Winding On Me." The album is slated to hit stores May 19, 2009.