The hip hop artist and awards show emcee opened up to ET about his health and his family.
Fat Joe has been working hard to slim down. Now, the hip hop star is opening up about the very personal and heartfelt reasons for his 200-pound weight loss transformation.
Joe recently spoke with ET's Kevin Frazier to discuss both his health and his gig hosting this year's BET Hip Hop Awards, and explained that his main motivation for putting in the effort and losing weight is simply, "I just wanna stick around."
"Unfortunately, when you get to my age and you look around, you see the guys who are unhealthy and the guys who are at least trying to be healthy," said Joe, 53. "Every other week, every other month, somebody we know passes away, maybe even younger than us. And so, you know, we're just trying to be as healthy as possible."
The artist explained that he's also trying to keep healthy for his 17-year-old daughter, Azariah, whom he shares with wife Lorena Cartagena -- alongside their two adult sons, Joey and Ryan.
"My daughter is my work, daughter calls all the shots. She runs the family," Joe shared. "So I definitely did it for her."
Joe will get an opportunity to show off his health improvement as the host of this year's BET Hip Hop Awards -- which kicks off on Tuesday and will air on BET on Oct. 10.
"It's an honor for me," Joe said of getting the opportunity to emcee the event. "You know, I think back to the talent shows I used to do growing up as a kid, or the Apollo Theater amateur night, you know, everything I did to get to this point, and now I'm able to host the 50th year of hip hop, at the BET Hip Hop Awards. It's an honor."
"I'm here because I love it," he added. "I'm just gonna have a great time. Everybody tune in. You're gonna love this show. So many surprises, so many people!"
As host Joe said the best part thus far is getting to see behind the scenes at what fans are gonna get out of the show.
"When you get to rehearse, you get to see who's coming," Joe said. "They got the chairs, got the little pictures, and I'm like, 'Oh, this is star-studded! It's gonna be crazy."
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