Should Fat Joe respond to 50 Cent?

If I didn't know any better, I'd think Fat Joe didn't want people to buy J.O.S.E. 2.

Maybe it was one of these situations where the label wanted to have the album out by the end of the year, so it didn't look like they made as much money in 2009, for tax purposes, so they put together some garbage left over from the original J.O.S.E., and the umpteen other godawful albums he's put out this decade, went behind his back and released.

Something similar happened recently with a Noreaga album. I believe it was called N.O.R.E. 2, and the fact that the titles are so similar would lead me to believe that there might be similar shenanigans at play. If you notice, both albums are billed as sequels to the artists' most commercially successful albums. (I'm not gonna lie - I used to crank both N.O.R.E. and J.O.S.E.)

A few weeks ago, there was a video on World Star in which Noreaga explained that he didn't have anything to do with the release of N.O.R.E. 2, and that no one should buy it. I didn't bother watching it, because I could give a rat's ass. I wouldn't have bought the album, even if he did have something to do with it. But I could glean as much from the title. World Star has always been good about giving their videos very descriptive titles.

And if you notice, Noreaga has a history of distancing himself from his own albums. Of course, there was the hilarious line on CNN's The Reunion, in which he explained that the reason Melvin Flynt Da Hustler sucked balls is because he didn't want to make music, at the time. His pops just died. He may have also, at some point or another, taken steps to distance himself from that reggaeton album he put out. I know I've heard him talk down on it in interviews.

J.O.S.E. 2 seemed to just appear out of nowhere, the other day. Even I didn't know there was a new Fat Joe album coming out, and it's not like I do shit but sit around all day and read about which rappers have new albums coming out. How can you mock a rapper for not selling as many albums as he should have, if you don't know when his album came out?

Like a lot of people, I first heard of J.O.S.E. when I saw that hilarious video of Fiddy in the hospital, crying because it caused damage to his brain and ears - the culmination of a publicity stunt rivaled only by this dumbass kid yesterday claiming his little brother took off in a hot air balloon. Fiddy actually had Tony Yayo go on Twitter and say Fiddy had to be rushed to the hospital. And I guess people actually believed. Some news agencies even reported on it.

I only heard about it the next day, after the fact. I don't follow any shitty mainstream rappers on Twitter, but I figure I'm pretty much always on Twitter, except when I'm not. I probably would have heard about it. That day, I must have been busting a shift at the BGM. Or who knows, maybe I was sitting right there next to the computer, gorging myself on Yellow Tail, and I didn't bother to look at it, because I'd already spent all day looking at it. That's been known to happen.

The following weekend, I heard an interview with Fat Joe on a podcast I listen to. I imagine it was similar to any number of interviews Fat Joe did the week J.O.S.E. 2 was released. He thanked Fiddy Cent, who he said must be his biggest fan, for helping promote his album. Then when asked whether or not he planned on responding to Fiddy, he said he wasn't gonna bother. Like Jay-Z, he considers himself beyond beefing with people on YouTube. He's "off that," if you will.

For his next album (if he can convince anyone to release another album of his), he might want to reconsider. First week sales for J.O.S.E. were almost as bad as that M.O.P. album. And M.O.P. doesn't have Fat Joe's history of commercial success. "Lean Back" was arguably the biggest rap song of the year it came out. And that song he had with Arruh was a staple of TRL. (Or so I've heard.) Fat Joe's career, in terms of album sales, has taken one hell of a dive.

Beefing with Fiddy Cent, meanwhile, might be the only proven way to increase album sales, short of dying. When Fiddy beefed with Rick Ross, earlier this year, both of their album sales went up. And Fiddy didn't even have a new album out. He was probably selling more albums then than Fat Joe is selling now, the week his album came out.

Fat Joe could probably give a rat's ass about beefing with Fiddy. He's closing in on 40 now, he's got a nice house in a white neighborhood. Who needs the aggravation? But it's not like he has any choice in the matter. Fiddy Cent, because he's a troll by nature, is gonna start shit him every time he puts another album out. He might as well take advantage of it.