Fat Joe won’t host this year’s BET Awards. The entertainer resigned following the controversies that trailed his remarks about the Foundational Black Americans’ (FBA) mark in hip-hop. The rapper has hosted the BET Awards for three years in a row. He also hosted the 2024 Awards in Las Vegas on October 15, 2024. Fat Joe was slated to host the 2025 BET Awards ceremony but resigned after many considered his comments about the contribution of the FBA to the hip-hop genre inflammatory.
Fat Joe Resigns From Hosting BET Awards
Fat Joe officially resigned from hosting the BET Awards on January 10, 2025. “I’ve resigned as host to the BET awards,” the Lean Back singer told Billboard in a clip on X, formerly Twitter. Fat Joe revealed that rapper 2Chainz offered to host the ceremony and promised to do a good job. Therefore, 2Chainz will be hosting in his stead. A spokesperson for the Freedmen community also posted the update and shared the steps he took to ensure accountability after Fat Joe’s “derogatory rhetoric.”
“On December 27, 2024, I took action by sending emails to the three organizations managing Fat Joe’s business, outlining the harm caused by his derogatory rhetoric against the FBA (Foundational Black Americans) community. Certified letters were sent shortly after, ensuring our concerns were formally acknowledged,” the spokesperson, Authur Watkins, wrote on X.
Watkins called for a boycott of all of Fat Joe’s music, merchandise, and media until he took accountability.
Fat Joe’s Statements Offended The Black Community
The rapper probably didn’t expect he would drop from the BET Awards following the backlash from the black community after his interview with Math Hoffa on his My Expert Opinion podcast. The South Bronx emcee mislabeled the FBA as Foundational Black Authority and called them “broke” and “radical black racists” per Hotnewhiphop. He also claimed that the FBA and Latin American musicians, in particular, Puerto Ricans, created hip-hop “50/50.”
He said about the response to Latin Americans and Black people creating hip-hop together:
“These rumors were made by radical Black racists … It’s a group of these guys that don’t want to hear Jamaican, don’t want to hear Guyanese, don’t want to hear a Black guy not down with them, right? So, their job is to criticize anybody who doesn’t look like them. Who ain’t Black American. The FBA, whoever these broke [explicit] is. I’m just keeping it a buck. And their mission is to attack everyone on Twitter.”
FBA Demands Apology From Fat Joe
A petition was made against the Flow Joe rapper by Que Parker on change.org.
“As a foundational black American, I find myself increasingly disturbed by the conduct and rhetoric of the white Hispanic rapper, Fat Joe,” Parker wrote in the description.
He said Fat Joe’s rhetorics towards the FBA “have been consistently disrespectful and bigoted. Moreover, his blatant use of racial slurs, coupled with his audacious claims that Latinos invented hip-hop, perpetuates harmful stereotypes and creates a culture of misinformation.”
“We, therefore, urge the music industry, his audience, and all platforms that host his content to hold Fat Joe accountable, to stand against his bigoted comments, and to cancel him until he offers a sincere public apology and undergoes sensitivity training to address his biases,” Parker concluded.
Consequently, Fat Joe stepped down from hosting the BET Awards.
Fat Joe’s resignation from the BET Awards reflects the tensions among the different communities. It also underscores the importance of being sensitive, especially when talking about racially charged topics like music.
#Clique, what do you think about Fat Joe’s resignation from the BET Awards? Let us know in the comments.
