Fat Joe Gives Definitive Answer About Whether He Dissed 50 Cent on Ja Rule’s ‘New York’

The perceived slight set off a seven-year feud that ended in 2012. 50 Cent and Fat Joe are seen at the game between the Detroit Pistons and the New York Knicks in Game Two of the Eastern Conference First Round NBA Playoffs at Madison Square Garden on April 21, 2025 in New York City. Al Bello/Getty Images Trending on Billboard Nearly 15 years after they squashed a long-running beef over a Ja Rule single, Fat Joe reiterated this week that he has no problems with former rival 50 Cent. The old beef came up again this week when Joe appeared on Monday’s (Sept. 21 ) The Real Report podcast with Tony Yayo and Uncle Murda, where the hosts revisited the legendary G-Unit/Terror Squad squabble. Explore See latest videos, charts and news Specifically, the conversation turned on Ja Rule’s Oct. 2004 single “New York,” which featured Joe and Jadakiss, as well as lines from Ja that 50 took as a sneak diss. The G-Unit general fired back in 2005 with the searing “Piggy Bank,” which also featured lyrics slamming Joe and Jada for being featured on Ja’s tune. “Somebody was trying to ask me [if I was] dissing 50 Cent in ‘New York.’ The answer was no,” Joe told the hosts. “I made [50 Cent’s 2005 hit single] ‘Candy Shop’ with [producer] Scott Storch. Lil’ Kim [who briefly dated Storch at the time], she’ll tell you. I had Lil Kim dancing like this [shakes his shoulders], like, ‘Move ya body like a snake, mama,’ I had her doing that to ‘Candy Shop.'” Joe said producer Storch called him “20, 30 times” to make sure Joey Crack didn’t want the insistent “Candy Shop” beat, and Joe insisted he had no problem with 50 and that Storch should give him the beat they’d made together. “I wouldn’t have dissed him,” Joe said of 50. “His beef was with Ja Rule. Ja Rule is my friend, he saved my life.” Earlier this year, Joe reflected on ending his vicious 50 feud, describing how they went from fierce foes to good friends. “I’ve never seen this guy not have beef, every day,” Joe said of the quarrelsome 50. “I think he’s got eight new beefs.” Joe then recalled sitting courtside with 50 during a New York Knicks playoff game in April last year, and 50 asked Joe to FaceTime his 35-year-old son, Joey Jr., who is nonverbal and was diagnosed with Down syndrome and autism. “50 asked for him! We were at the game, courtside. 50’s like, ‘Yo, let me speak to Joey. Let me see Joey.’ And Joey, he’s nonverbal, he can’t walk, but Joey’s got his own phone. So, we hit him up,” Joe said. “50 Cent [was] like, ‘Yo, what’s up, Joey? What’s going on, man?’ That’s really cool.” He went on to call 50 “family,” and said “we gotta show the youth that you can come together — that was a nasty beef — but you can come together afterwards and actually be grown men and show each other love. I got love for 50.” In 2023, 50 reflected on the beef in an interview with Rolling Stone, in which he admitted he was “buggin'” when he pulled Joe into his Ja Rule situation. “It was like my issues, I was using the same thinking in the very beginning of my career because it’s just the thinking you would use in the environment,” 50 told the magazine. “If anybody went next to Ja Rule, I’d jump on the person who featured with them, anybody who was faintly near them, ’cause I put him on life support and you wanna go resuscitate him. So that energy, later you look at it and you go, ‘I was buggin,'” 50 admitted. “‘Cause I’ll say that. Fat Joe, his issues, I would see him a little uncomfortable with the success I was having, and I interpreted as, ‘He doesn’t like me,’ when he’s really the kind of guy you want to be friends with because he’s loyal to a default. He’s so loyal for one record that [Murder Inc] did with him [“What’s Luv’] that we became enemies.” Joe and 50 eventually settled matters in 2012 following the death of their mutual mentor, music executive and friend Chris Lighty, though 50 and Ja continue to trade shots all these years later. Watch Fat Joe talk about the non-beef with 50 below. Get weekly rundowns straight to your inbox Sign Up