Fat Joe reveals Ashanti was almost replaced with another singer on ‘‘What’s Luv?’’ single
This is not a drill.
Fat Joe is letting the cat out of the bag regarding his 2001 collaborative hit with Ashanti.
During a Instagram Live session, Joe confessed to the singer that she almost didn’t make the final cut. The South Bronx spitter revealed that the record’s producer Irv Gotti originally wanted Jennifer Lopez on the single. “Irv [Gotti] and Ja [Rule] had called me, and they woke me up at like 3 in the morning, and they said, ‘Yo, come down. We made a song for you,’” Joe said to Ashanti. “So, when I go to the studio, like 4 in the morning, they play ‘What’s Luv?’ And, you’re on it. And, they was telling me, ‘Yo this is for you and J. Lo. We want the Latinos on this.’”
Joe explained that he informed Gotti and Ja that he wanted Ashanti’s vocals to remain on the record. “Nah, we leaving her there. And, that’s how that went down,” he explained.
Elsewhere during the conversation, the “Happy” singer addressed rumors on whether or not she’s written hits for J. Lo in the past. “Absolutely, I wrote ‘Ain’t It Funny (Remix).’ I wrote that. I believe Ja [Rule] wrote the hook.”
Back in December 2019, during an interview with Elliott Wilson, Joe revealed that he made so much money from his Ashanti-assited record that he began spending recklessly. “I made so much money that I was going to the bank every f**king day to get $50,000 in cash,” Joe said. “Every n***a in my crew — 30 n****s in the Bronx — has white f**king Cadillac trucks with TS chains on.”
Around that same time, Ashanti spoke with Cheat Sheet and dished about the ever-changing music industry. “I think today, people are way more vocal,” Ashanti said. “People talk about things way looser than before. I think it’s really important just for me as an artist to be able to open up and show different sides and just connect with people and talk about real-life experience. Whether the good or bad, but talk about it so that people can relate.”