Fat Joe has confirmed he will not change his stage name despite dropping over 100lbs a decade ago.
The 52-year-old, who used to weigh over 400lbs and suffered from diabetes, embarked on a bid to get fit after his overweight friends began dying young.
However he told Page Six: ‘As a business I spent so many millions and millions of dollars marketing Fat Joe that it wouldn’t be smart to change my name now.’
Slimmed down: Fat Joe has confirmed he will not change his stage name despite dropping over 100lbs a decade ago; he is pictured playing the BET Hip Hop Awards last week
Young Joseph Cartagena adopted the ‘Fat Joe’ nickname after being ribbed for his size during his childhood in the South Bronx.
‘I grew up in the projects where there was no filter,’ said the hitmaker, whose original stage name was Fat Joe Da Gangsta.
‘When the teacher would, say, write something on the chalkboard I was always big so the crack of [my butt] would show. So the girls would be like yeah Joey Crack and that’s how I kept my name,’ he dished.
After his dramatic weight loss journey, Joe told CNN in 2011: ‘I think I weighed about 450/460 at my heaviest. That’s huge! That’s Fat Joe.’
What a change: Fat Joe is pictured in 2005 (left) before his astonishing weight loss journey, which brought him to the figure he now enjoys (right, pictured 2021)
He noted that ‘I always took pride in being fat. I represented big people, but I realized at a certain point all my big people were dying.’
Joe shared: ‘Last year alone, I had six friends die of heart attacks. Most of them were younger than me, but they were my same size. So I had one friend who was funnier than me. He was cooler than me. Obviously God loved him and he still died. I couldn’t believe that he died of a heart attack at 32/33 years old.’
His friend had a daughter who was about the same age as Joe’s little girl Azariah, now 16 – a fact Joe could not keep out of his head during the funeral.
Wow: The 52-year-old, who used to weigh over 400lbs and suffered from diabetes, embarked on a bid to get fit after his overweight friends began dying young; seen in 2002
‘I couldn’t see a clearer picture of what’s the difference between me and him – of me being in a casket and my daughter running around the funeral home – and you know, she doesn’t have a dad anymore,’ Joe noted.
Comparing food to drugs, he decided that he had hit ‘rock bottom’ and devoted himself to slimming down with the help of a personal trainer.
In addition to his exercise regimen, he adjusted his diet and tried to keep junk food out of sight in case he succumbed to temptation.
Date night: Joe has been married to his wife Lorena Cartagena since 1995; they are pictured last week on the red carpet for the BET Hip Hop Awards in Atlanta
Joe lost so much weight he even managed to rid himself of his diabetes, which he had been suffering from ‘since I was 14.’
He told Vlad TV he had largely cut out carbs aside from breakfast and was leaning instead on protein-rich food items like steak, baked chicken and lobster.
Joe has been married to his wife Lorena Cartagena since 1995, and they have welcomed three children into the world together.
Source: | Dailymail.co.uk