Fat Joe and Remy Ma scored a surprise, late-career hit in 2016 with “All the Way Up,” which went double Platinum. JAY-Z eventually hopped on the remix, but he wasn’t the only artist slated to appear on the song. In a recent appearance on Late Night With Peter Rosenberg, Fat Joe revealed that Drake was also set to be featured on the remix, but plans were scuttled due to a promise he made to JAY-Z.
“First of all, I’m grateful, I’m thankful. I always wanted to do a song with JAY-Z. I’m honored that he got on the remix,” Fat Joe said. “But the craziest story to that is I got a FaceTime call maybe three different times while ‘All the Way Up’ was out. And it was your man, the 6ix God, Drake. And he called me three different occasions out of nowhere. ‘Yo, send me the instrumental to 'All the Way Up.’”
According to Fat Joe, he couldn’t oblige Drake’s request to lay a verse down because he told JAY-Z that he would be the only artist featured on the remix.
“When I had told Hov we’re doing the song, he said, ‘Look Joe. It means so much to our history between me and you, let’s not put nobody else on the song,’” Fat Joe recalled. “He’s not referring to Drake, it could have been Kanye. 50 Cent was asking to get on the remix. ‘All the Way Up’ was big. [But] it definitely could have been JAY-Z and Drake and Fat Joe. Not could have, it was. I’m beyond a huge fan of Drake, but I had to keep my word. So when I told JAY-Z, ‘Nah, nobody else on the song,’ I had to keep my word.”
As Joe notes, he previously beefed with JAY-Z related to an Entertainment Basketball Classic game and subsequent lyrics on his 2004 hit, “Lean Back.” They squashed their issues in 2016.
The interview caused some outlets to speculate that Jay specifically blocked Drake from being on the song—the pair have a somewhat contentious history—but Joe put these rumors to rest:
“All the Way Up” stands as Fat Joe’s only Top 40 hit of the 2010s, peaking at No. 27 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Catch up on all the lyrics to Fat Joe and Remy Ma’s “All the Way Up (Remix)” featuring JAY-Z on Genius now.
