Fat Joe was born on August 19, 1970 by the name Joseph Cartagena. He was raised in the South Bronx area of New York and heavily influenced by the Zulu Nation culture as a youth. His brother, Angel, would bring home tapes of the music played at those events, and the original sounds piqued the interest of young Joe. From discovering rap, he also learned the ways of living on the street through his brother. As he got older, he became involved in hip-hop culture, taking a liking to not only rap, but graffiti art and breakdancing as well. Along with that, he was heavily involved in the drug trade and from there, he got his nickname, Joey Crack. Before delving deeper into the drug trading world, he returned to his younger roots and discovered in time that his true love was music. Joe kicked start his music career by forming his own record label and signed his fellow indie artists on it. Under the moniker Fat Joe da Gangsta, he dropped a debut album "Represent" in 1993 and followed it up with another one "Jealous One's Envy" two years later. In the second effort, he dropped da Gangsta from his moniker and officially used only Fat Joe. The album peaked at No. 71 on Billboard Hot 200 and he was quickly embraced by rap community by receiving a major deal from Atlantic Records. Three years after the arrival of his sophomore set, Joe stormed the U.S. albums chart with his third set "Don Cartagne" which climbed to No. 7 on the list and soared to the runner-up position on R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. As his career went to a higher level, he was repeatedly slapped with controversies and harsh criticisms. One was being accused of neglecting the members of his own group Terror Squad.