Fat Joe brought the Bronx to NPR headquarters on Thursday morning. NPR premiered the Bronx emcee's new Tiny Desk Concert at 5 a.m. ET on November 5, five years after his Tiny Desk (home) concert, and Joe Cartagena did not come to play it safe — per NPR's Bobby Carter, he wanted to "touch the third rail" and make the set anything but typical.
A Bronx Roll Call Behind the Desk
True to the loyalty theme that runs through his catalog, Fat Joe filled the tiny room with family. Remy Ma, Jadakiss, Stove God Cooks and singer Stevie Mackey all stepped to the desk, along with Dre of production duo Cool & Dre. The set supports his latest album, Organized Rhyme, while reaching back across more than 30 years of records. Remy Ma rides shotgun on "Cocababy," "Lean Back" and the closing "All the Way Up," while Jadakiss — Joe's co-host on the Joe and Jada podcast — joins for "New York" and "The Aroma."
DJ Ted Smooth Holds the Decks
A Tiny Desk set lives or dies on its band, and this one had a DJ at its core. Ted Smooth is credited as the DJ in NPR's musicians list, working inside a live ensemble led by music director and keyboardist Zo Harris, with Ricky "Strings" Ramos on guitar, Keithan Foster on bass and Antwan "Amadeaus" Thompson on drums. Ted Smooth also DJed Fat Joe's 2021 Tiny Desk (home) set — five years on, the same trusted hands are still behind the turntables while a full band rebuilds the records around him.
Ten Songs, Thirty Years
The 10-song set list moves from "Million Dollar Intro" and "(Ha Ha) Slow Down" through "I Shot Ya" and "I Won't Tell" before landing on the anthems, "Lean Back" and "All the Way Up." It is a victory-lap format, but an earned one: few rappers from Joe's era are still cutting new albums, running a hit podcast and commanding a room this size with their day-one people beside them.
Filed under The Wire, MixShow Prime's music industry news desk.
