The Book of Jose: A Memoir

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The funniest story is one where in which Joe describes how 50 Cent put out an entire Fat Joe diss tape. I have to admit that when I picked up this book, I had never heard of Fat Joe (I'm just a little too young). I liked how personal some of his stories were, but I don’t think any of them were impactful to me personally.

Particularly heartbreaking, was the story of how he planned to end his life at 17 following a family dispute that shattered his sense of self (you’ll have to read the book for more on that story! MH: The final chapter of Book of Jose talks a little bit about your 50th birthday, and you say in the chapter, "Life starts at 50. Props to the editors and Shaheen Reid, the co-author, for crafting such a compelling story and preserving Fat Joe's (clearly unique) voice and personality. But ‘retire’ is a big word and I’m still better than everybody, so there’s no need for me to retire.Fat Joe opens the book like a blockbuster movie, packed with tales of violence, drug-dealing, fast cars, and more. Hearing his voice, accent and emotions while delivering this heartfelt story was/is absolutely phenomenal. It’s interesting that Fat Joe consistently describes himself as a nice guy in this book, a nice guy who had to make, and did make, some difficult choices to survive, but at the end of the day, and at the end of this book you really get the vibe that he just is a nice guy. Joe refers to his friends in different places by their street names and given names interchangably leaving the reader to try to figure out who is who.

The Book of Jose: A Memoirby FAT JOE; Shaheem Reid is an interesting and enlightening memoir that I enjoyed. When he mentions a friend who ripped off 200,000 dollars, am I supposed to take him at his word this time? Having a son with autism and down syndrome and dealing with the son’s mother, who abandoned the child because of these diagnoses. Encounters with a variety of hardworking dancers, drag queens, and pimps, plus an account of the complexities of a first love with a drug-addled hustler, fill out the memoir with personality and candor. His brother eventually went blind as a result of his drug use but eventually found lasting sobriety.His life is clearly interesting, but it was told way too casual to be impactful - he did things like say "waaaaayyyy" and "sooooooo" which I don't think I've ever seen a person do in a book before, that wasn't dialogue of some sort. FJ: No, I haven't, and I don't know if I am no time soon, because one of the hardest jobs I ever had in my life was doing this audiobook. RASCOE: I mean, you talk about the regret because it's like, what do you feel like - 'cause like you said, you bullied people - good people and bad people. I will give leeway for regional cadence and dialect in an autobiography but it is literally written like text messaging "soooooo.