Hip-hop stars Nelly and Ashanti announced they are expecting a baby in 2023. The two stars were an “it” couple in the early 2000s but eventually split up. But the two stars rekindled when rapper Fat Joe featured Nelly during his Verzuz performance in 2020. After the two got announced they were expected, Fat Joe requested a hefty payback.
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“So the other day Ashanti FaceTimes me with Nelly,” he said during an Instagram Live session on January 20. “I immediately tell them I need 10 percent of this kid because if it wasn’t for Verzuz when I brought Nelly out, me against Ja Rule, that’s when they saw each other, and that energy connected again.”
Fat Joe Settles Beef With 50 Cent
2023 seemed to be the year of rekindling relationships. Fat Joe shocked everyone on Christmas Day at the New York Knicks game. He and fellow rapper 50 Cent were seated next to each other at Madison Square Garden.
It was surprising, given the two artists had a bitter rivalry in the early 2000s. Former Knicks player Tim Thomas said the rap beef caused a rift between him and his former Knicks teammate, Stephon Marbury.
“Me and Steph grew up together, we went to Five Star Basketball camp. I knew his brothers, his mom, his pops. We played for Fat Joe with Terror Squad at the Rucker. It was really no issues between us at all until 50 and Fat Joe got into it. That’s when me and Steph kind of separated,” Thomas said in an interview with “Weekend Work” in 2023.
“We were actually teammates at this particular time. It was a lot of different things that transpired between those three years of them beefing. I remember Fat Joe being courtside and Steph showing him love. And I’m looking at them like, ‘Damn, I can’t go over there and say what’s up to him?’”
Rapper Reveals Reason Behind Beef
50 Cent recently opened up about his previous issues with Fat Joe. The “Get Rich or Die Tryin,” rapper noted that his issues with Fat Joe were a result of his loyalty. Fellow Rapper Ja Rule was one of several artists who feuded with 50 Cent during that time. So when Fat Joe recorded a song with Ja Rule’s record label Murda Inc., the Queens rapper perceived it as a shot.
“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 said.
“He’s so loyal for one record that [Murder Inc.] did with him that we became enemies.”