Fat Joe reveals he will NOT change his stage name despite dramatic weight loss

Fat Joe has confirmed he will not change his stage name despite dropping over 100lbs a decade ago.

The 52-year-old, who used to weigh over 400lbs and suffered from diabetes, embarked on a bid to get fit after his overweight friends began dying young.

However he told Page Six: ‘As a business I spent so many millions and millions of dollars marketing Fat Joe that it wouldn’t be smart to change my name now.’

Young Joseph Cartagena adopted the ‘Fat Joe’ nickname after being ribbed for his size during his childhood in the South Bronx.

‘I grew up in the projects where there was no filter,’ said the hitmaker, whose original stage name was Fat Joe Da Gangsta.

‘When the teacher would, say, write something on the chalkboard I was always big so the crack of [my butt] would show. So the girls would be like yeah Joey Crack and that’s how I kept my name,’ he dished.

After his dramatic weight loss journey, Joe told CNN in 2011: ‘I think I weighed about 450/460 at my heaviest. That’s huge! That’s Fat Joe.’

He noted that ‘I always took pride in being fat. I represented big people, but I realized at a certain point all my big people were dying.’

Joe shared: ‘Last year alone, I had six friends die of heart attacks. Most of them were younger than me, but they were my same size. So I had one friend who was funnier than me. He was cooler than me. Obviously God loved him and he still died. I couldn’t believe that he died of a heart attack at 32/33 years old.’