All rappers exaggerate.

To have so many years in the rap industry and so many number one songs, and sold so many millions of records, introduced the world to people like Cool & Dre, DJ Khaled, Pitbull, Rick Ross, Trick Daddy, Remy Ma, Big Pun, Rico Love... I could go on and on. Having been able to influence the rap game for so long is very important to me.

Talking to people from the heart matters, and it's unfortunately something brands have forgotten about. Celebrity endorsement deals try to gain recognition for brands, but at their core, what matters is if the celebrity truly backs the brand.

It's hard to have a boom-bap hip hop record that goes No. 1 in the country.

I think I'll die underrated, but it's alright, man.

We took Big Pun, a 700-lb Spanish guy, one of the greatest rappers ever, and made him a sex symbol. Women would wait on line to kiss him.

I'm not just a rapper. I'm a child educator.

Nobody in my family before me ever had anything.

As U.S. citizens, Puerto Rico has paid their part.

As a little kid, I watched hip hop get created. So it's an honour for me to represent the Bronx, the motherland of hip hop.

Man I got so many regrets. The biggest is that Eminem gave me so many demos - six different times he approached me, and I didn't sign him. Shame on me.

Puerto Rico is a powerful island.

Before I was rapping, I was always around the rap game, even though I was in the streets. I would be at all the parties and all the events, and I was pretty hard to miss. I was one of the few Spanish cats sitting there with jewelry on, Dapper Dan suits. It was pretty hard to miss me.

Everything has to evolve. Music has to go somewhere. That's what keeps it fresh.

I collaborate with Tidal because they're for the artists - the up and coming artists and the O.G.s in the game. It's like a home, the only place we have for the artists to find support.

I have been Fat Joe since I was a kid. It's always been my name and always will be.

I would bump A Tribe Called Quest in my car all day.

Food is like a legal drug. You can take 50 cents and walk into the store and buy a Twinkie and get high. And it's killing people.

The hip hop industry is most likely owned by gays. I happen to think there's a gay mafia in hip hop. Not rappers - the editorial presidents of magazines, the PDs at radio stations, the people who give you awards at award shows.

I'm known to be hands on 100%. I don't know any other way to be than a leader by example.

When I first started, I thought I was wack. Lyrically, I thought I was wack. The thing I had over everybody was that I was the realest rapper.

Allen Iverson was the Tupac of basketball; he was a true revolutionary.

There are 3.5 million Americans in Puerto Rico. So, just like we're quick to go everywhere else and help, we expect that same of America for Puerto Rico. These are U.S. citizens!

I used to watch Oprah Winfrey, and whenever she used to lose weight, I used to be like, 'How's she losing it? What is she doing?' But it's all about education and knowledge, feeding yourself and knowing that too much carbs is what gets us fat.

KRS One and LL Cool J are the biggest influences in my rap career, along with Heavy D.

When I came up in hip hop, there was no such thing as a Puerto Rican rapper doing hip hop for many mainstream people, so I was the ship, the captain, and the crew.

We're in the same ghettos, same inner cities, and we're suffering from the same problems. Every problem the blacks have, the Latinos have.

I could battle rap forever, but it's a joke to me.

The biggest killer of people is food.

Fat Joe ain't out here trying to battle-rap everybody in the world. That's not what I'm about.

Pun was just a natural-born genius with music, and he basically taught me so many tricks on how to make better music, even though I was the one that discovered him. He was so far advanced than me; he taught me a lot.

I beefed with 50 Cent for seven years.

Fat Joe is signed to Fat Joe. I have a distribution deal for my label. I'm independent. I'm very happy with that.

If you really analyze my music, there is a lot of violence in my music because the Bronx, at the era and time I was coming up, was almost equivalent to how a 'Braveheart' or 'Gladiator' movie would be.

If you look at history, at the first time hip-hop was invented, there was a Latino right there. How they got erased, I don't know how that all came about.

We're just trying to make 'The Darkside' its own brand. It's Fat Joe, but it's 'The Darkside.' We come with 'Vol. 2,' make it crazier than 'Vol. 1.' By the time 'Vol. 3' come, we got a problem on our hands.

As long as you get your education and you stay focused, you can do anything.

I'm addicted to food, so if you bring the cake and stuff to my house, I might walk by and take a swipe of icing and keep it moving. So what happens is I try to not keep it around.

This world is too hard for me to leave my kids, without me supervising and being there for them.

My coldest days, my darkest days, ain't no sun out, all I got is my fans. They the only people I ride for. Believe it or not, if you're a real Fat Joe fan, a Terror Squad fan, I do it for ya'll.

Latinos finally have a genre of music that represents them, and they're supporting reggaeton in such huge numbers that people can't help but notice there's a revolution going on.

I was scared to fly for a long time.

I'm a huge fan of the Clintons. I love Hillary; I love Bill.

'Envy' was a bit of a challenge for me. It was smooth.

Envision what the end result is supposed to be... what do you want to be when you grow up? Where do you see yourself? Once we identify what the painting on the wall is, it is so much easier to bring in the right colors, canvas and brushes to paint that picture.

Any time Khaled comes to your video, it just steps it up that much more. He's so fun; people love him.

It feels as if I never get my just due.

I ain't no Kennedy, I ain't no Diddy Combs, I ain't no Jay Z, I ain't got it like them.

I realized, at a certain point, all my big people were dying. I couldn't see a clearer picture: what's the difference between me and him, of me being in a casket?

When it's all said and done, I want to look back on my career and say I did numerous things.