Even though Fat Joe and Jay-Z had a bitter rivalry in the past, it’s all water under the bridge now, and the two have joined forces to help Puerto Rico and Mexico. The island of Puerto Rico is suffering to get back on its feet after Hurricane Maria left the people without running water or electricity, and Mexico is recovering from two devastating earthquakes.
Fat Joe talked about his joint effort with Jay-Z on CNN, collecting two million pounds of food with the help of New York’s citizens. The rapper had previously posted an image of the supplies on Instagram, with the caption, “If we don’t take care of our own, no one will.”
When asked what he meant by that, he replied, “We feel stranded, US citizens and Puerto Rico have played their part,” Fat Joe told CNN. “I have two little cousins that are in the army right now willing to give their lives for this country. The fact that it took so long to get any help out there, that’s what I mean.”
Half of the supplies are for Mexico’s earthquake victims and the other half to Puerto Rico’s damaged areas. Fat Joe was not willing to wait for the government to do something about the tragedies occurring throughout the world right now.
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“We had to mobilize and empower ourselves to collect canned foods and water, and women’s hygiene [products] and toothpaste to give back to our own community, and that we did,” he said. Not only did Fat Joe and Jay-Z set an ambitious goal for themselves, but they surpassed it ten times over.
“So, we set out a goal with Jay-Z and Tidal to fill up one plane with 200,000 pounds, and we actually filled up five planes and we’ve got to fill up another five more,” Joe explained. “So, we’re at 2,000,000 pounds that the city of New York has collected.”
Fat Joe sprung into action when he saw the lack of response from the Federal government, and like Beyonce, Jay-Z wanted to do his part, too. However, Fat Joe gives all the credit to the citizens of New York, as well as to the governor of the state.
“[New York] Governor [Andrew] Cuomo has been a blessing, an angel. [Bronx Borough President] Ruben Diaz Jr. has been a blessing. We collected from the Bronx, we collected tons of stuff from the Bronx and half the stuff is going to Mexico, half is going to Puerto Rico.” – Fat Joe, CNN
"We feel stranded," says rapper Fat Joe, who is sending planes to deliver supplies to both Puerto Rico and Mexico https://t.co/x6QH5mu3lL
— CNN News Central (@NewsCentralCNN) October 4, 2017
Jay-Z will also be lending his 40/40 club in New York for a charity event to aid the relief efforts by raising funds. He will headline his annual Tidal benefit show and donate all proceeds to “organizations that focus on disaster relief and recovery.”
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