Fat Joe has had his fair share of rap beefs, but he's taking his battle with Uncle Sam very seriously. The veteran rapper is facing jail time on charges that he failed to pay taxes on approximately $3 million in income in 2007 and 2008.
"I can't really explain that 'cause I got a real court case going on, like facing jail time. But I guess after June 24. Hopefully, it goes well," Joe said on Wednesday (May 22) on "RapFix Live."
Back in December, the "Make It Rain" MC pleaded guilty to the charges against him and has been working to pay his debt. "At the end of the day, I'm paying all the money back that's owed — actually I have and I'ma just go like a man, stand up," he said.
The Terror Squad leader is ready to take full responsibility for his financial dilemma, but he does allude that there were other parties who contributed to his tax woes. "You gotta understand we hire guys who are supposed have Harvard degrees to take care of us," he began to explain. "All the time you see artists, the first thing they did to you when you caught money was introduce you to a bunch of fancy guys with bow ties who are gonna take care of your money and all that and then you always see an artist or a celebrity or somebody like that goin' down for it and these guys never go down for it."
Recently Lauryn Hill and Mary J. Blige have faced similar charges and over the past few years MCs like Nas, Ja Rule and Beanie Sigel have all had trouble dealing with the I.R.S. Joe, however Joe didn't want to risk hindering his forthcoming hearing by speaking about his situation in very much detail. "I'll explain the story after that so you'll get a real understanding of what happened to me," he said. "It's no excuses."