The song hidden inside the Terror Squad label
The “new Terror Squad” recording highlighted in March 2016 coverage was “All the Way Up,” by Fat Joe and Remy Ma with French Montana and Infared. Calling it a Terror Squad track made intuitive sense: Joe founded the Bronx collective, Remy had delivered its most famous verse, and their reunion deliberately revived that chemistry. Formally, however, “All the Way Up” was not credited to Terror Squad as the performing artist.
The official digital master names Fat Joe, Remy Ma, French Montana and Infared. Its release line reads RNG/EMPIRE/Plata O Plomo, and the rights-holder-supplied YouTube page gives March 2, 2016 as the release date. Apple Music confirms the same artist billing and date. The official audio delivery from EMPIRE does the same.
This was not a leak, an archival Terror Squad session or a surprise third group album. It was an authorized single introducing Joe and Remy’s eventual joint project, Plata O Plomo. The shorthand survives because Terror Squad had become more than a strict performing credit: it was a crew, a label identity and a description of the creative relationship between its two most commercially visible surviving members.
From Bronx collective to changing lineup
Fat Joe introduced the original Terror Squad network through his 1998 album Don Cartagena. According to AllMusic’s group biography, the early collective joined Joe and Big Pun with Cuban Link, Armageddon, Prospect and Triple Seis, alongside singer Tony Sunshine. The self-titled debut album followed in 1999.
The group’s centre of gravity changed after Big Pun died in February 2000. Pun had been both its most technically dazzling rapper and a crucial connection among Bronx artists. Cuban Link and Triple Seis departed, while Remy Ma—initially known as Remy Martin—and Tony Sunshine became more prominent in the subsequent configuration. That lineup shift is why lists of “Terror Squad members” often appear contradictory: they may be describing the 1999 album, the 2004 revival or Fat Joe’s wider label circle.
The second Terror Squad album, True Story, arrived in 2004. Its defining single, “Lean Back,” was performed by Fat Joe and Remy Ma, even though it carried the collective’s artist name. AllMusic’s credits and track list show how heavily the album relied on those two voices while retaining appearances from other members.
“Lean Back” reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and earned the group a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group. The Recording Academy’s Terror Squad archive confirms that nomination. In practical terms, the hit established the template later heard in “All the Way Up”: Joe’s blunt, booming authority set against Remy’s sharper rhythmic attack, with a hook simple enough to become a crowd command.
The verified “All the Way Up” credits
The 2016 single’s songwriting credits name Reminisce Smith, Joseph Cartagena, Shandel Green, Edward Davadi, Marcello Valenzano and Andre Lyon. Those are, respectively, Remy Ma, Fat Joe, Infared, Edsclusive and the production duo Cool & Dre. Apple’s detailed metadata credits Edsclusive with production, Marcello “Cool” Valenzano with mixing, Alexander “Smitty Beats” Smith with engineering and Chris Athens with mastering.
Contemporary accounts commonly describe the instrumental as a Cool & Dre and Edsclusive production, reflecting Cool & Dre’s broader creative role as well as the granular digital credit. Miami New Times profiled Edsclusive’s contribution, explaining that he entered the production orbit through Cool & Dre. The distinction is not necessarily a contradiction: production credits can divide beat creation, additional production, arrangement and mix responsibilities differently across databases and publicity materials.
Infared’s role is also easy to understate. French Montana receives prominent billing and vocal presence, but Infared is both a featured performer and one of the writers behind the central hook. The official title includes “feat. Infared,” while platform display conventions place French Montana alongside the lead artists. Neither man was a formal Terror Squad group member on this release.
Why the record sounds like a comeback
“All the Way Up” is built around a bright, stabbing horn figure, a heavy low end and drums that leave generous space for slogans. The horn is less a decorative flourish than the track’s engine: it announces triumph before anyone begins rapping. The hook then reduces the song’s idea to upward motion and invulnerability, language equally adaptable to clubs, sports arenas and personal victory montages.
Fat Joe performs in broad strokes, emphasizing status and continuity. Remy attacks the beat with tighter subdivisions and more internal movement, making her verse the technical counterweight. French Montana functions partly as texture and regional connective tissue, linking the Bronx reunion to the broader New York rap mainstream of 2016. That reading is musical interpretation, but it explains why the record could feel nostalgic without sounding like a 2004 reconstruction.
The resemblance to “Lean Back” lies primarily in function. Both songs turn minimal instructions and outsized percussion into collective physical responses. Yet “All the Way Up” has a brighter, more celebratory surface, and its production belongs to the louder, cleaner digital mix conventions of the mid-2010s. It evokes Terror Squad’s public memory while remaining a Fat Joe and Remy Ma record in its own right.
Remy told The FADER that she recorded the song only hours after her wedding to Papoose, leaving her honeymoon celebrations for the session. The anecdote fits the urgency audible in her performance, although the energy of the verse is a listener’s judgment rather than proof of her mental state in the booth.
Hit, remix and album chronology
The single appeared on March 2, 2016, and Eif Rivera’s official video followed later that month. The video is published through Fat Joe’s official artist channel and carries RNG/EMPIRE rights information. It visualizes the song as luxury spectacle while keeping Joe and Remy at the centre, reinforcing that this was their return as a partnership.
“All the Way Up” reached No. 27 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was certified platinum in August 2016, as recorded in the RIAA’s contemporary awards report, and later gained additional certification. At the 2017 Grammys, it was nominated for Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song; the Recording Academy lists the credited writers, including Joe, Remy, Infared, Edsclusive and Cool & Dre.
A high-profile remix featuring Jay-Z arrived on May 27, 2016. That is a separate authorized master, not the original version played in early-March new-music roundups. Apple Music dates the Jay-Z remix and preserves its revised billing. Further regional remixes followed, extending the song’s summit motif across different rap markets.
The original was subsequently included on Fat Joe and Remy Ma’s joint album Plata O Plomo, released in February 2017. The delay between single and album helps explain why early coverage sometimes framed the recording as a free-floating Terror Squad comeback. The album identity had not yet overtaken the older crew association.
What “Terror Squad” means here
Terror Squad’s documented discography still consists of the 1999 self-titled album, True Story and related singles led by “Lean Back.” “All the Way Up” should not be retroactively inserted as a third-era Terror Squad single merely because Joe and Remy made it. Its official credits are clear.
Yet the mistaken label reveals something culturally true. By 2016, the name Terror Squad had become shorthand for a particular Bronx lineage: Big Pun’s legacy, Fat Joe’s institution-building, Remy Ma’s emergence and the durable chemistry of the two voices on “Lean Back.” “All the Way Up” activated that history without formally reviving the group.
The most accurate description therefore holds both ideas at once. This was a Fat Joe and Remy Ma hit, commercially released through RNG and EMPIRE, not a leaked Terror Squad recording. It was also the most convincing musical continuation of the collective’s signature partnership in more than a decade. The credit belongs to the duo; the emotional afterimage belongs to Terror Squad.