Fat Joe Says Ashanti Was Nearly Replaced By Jennifer Lopez For "What's Luv?"

Fat Joe recalls how Jennifer Lopez nearly replaced Ashanti on the classic single, "What's Luv?."

BYCole Blake
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Fat Joe joined R&B legend Ashanti on Instagram Live, Saturday, and revealed that Irv Gotti and Ja Rule originally wanted to swap out Ashanti for Jennifer Lopez, because they wanted "the Latinos on this."

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"Irv and Ja had called me, and they woke me up [at] like 3 in the morning, and they say, 'Yo, come down, we made a song for you," he recalls. "I go to the studio, it was like 4 in the morning. They played 'What's Luv?' and you on it. And they was telling me, 'Yo, this is for you and J. Lo. We want the Latinos on this."

Joe says he was taken away by Ashanti's vocals and said she deserved to be there: "I was like, yo, J. Lo? She [Ashanti] sound amazing on here. I was like, 'Nah, we leaving her there.'"

The story was news to Ashanti as much as it was news to any of the listeners. She reacted with an emphatic "What?," after Joe finished.

"What's Luv?," featuring Ashanti's vocals, went to peak at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, and remained on the charts for 20 weeks. It remains one of the most popular tracks on both artist's discographies.

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About The Author
Cole Blake is currently an Editor at HotNewHipHop based out of Brooklyn, New York. He began working at the site as an intern back in 2018 while studying journalism at St. John’s University. In the time since, he’s graduated with a bachelor's degree and written extensively about a wide range of topics including pop culture, film & television, politics, video games, sports, and much more. He’s also covered music festivals such as Gov. Ball and Rolling Loud. You can find him publishing work for HNHH from Monday to Wednesday or on weekends. On the sports front, Cole’s a passionate NBA and NFL fan with his favorite teams being the Indianapolis Colts and Los Angeles Lakers. He also roots for the Yankees whenever he finds himself at Yankee Stadium or the Red Storm when in the company of other SJU alumni. His favorite hip-hop artists are billy woods, Earl Sweatshirt, Cam’ron, MIKE, and Mach-Hommy.