The rapper, who has new music and an album on the way, has been a Knicks superfan for decades

Throughout the Knicks’ playoff run this spring, Fat Joe has been everywhere. Maybe you’ve seen him on national television, dancing and waving his hands in an effort to make Victor Wembanyama miss free throws (he thinks it’s working). Maybe you’ve read his widely circulated quote during the NBA Finals, as his hometown Knicks sit one game away from winning their first championship since 1973: “I see Hasidic Jews break dancing with Black kids,” Joe claimed with his plainspoken absurdity. “This is the greatest unification of the city since 9/11.”

If not, you’ve likely seen him make some sort of similar, humorously hyperbolic proclamation on Joe & Jada, the fast-rising hip-hop podcast he co-hosts with Jadakiss. On the twice-weekly talk show, Fat Joe riffs on everything from hating how loud the birds are outside his home to the time, per his telling, the Taliban once “took a day off” following Michael Jackson’s death.

This summer, you’ll only be hearing much more of Fat Joe, thanks to his forthcoming album produced by Cool & Dre (it’s tentatively slated to come out in mid-July). This week, he released the first preview of the album, “Victory Lap (Him)”, an intergenerational tapestry of New York City hip-hop that weaves together a 1988 MC Lyte sample and an all-too-brief Jadakiss appearance while flipping “Victory,” the posthumous Notorious B.I.G. collaboration with Diddy. The song is a boastful homage to the rapper’s hometown: “I’m so New York,” he raps at one point. “Long shorts and fresh Timbs.”

“Jay-Z’s coming to Yankee Stadium, New York’s at an all-time high with the Knicks,” Fat Joe tells Rolling Stone. “I wanted to have a summer banger out there. I feel like it’s the summer banger.”

But as much as he’s focused on prepping his next studio album, these days Fat Joe is just another New Yorker who can’t think about much else other than the Knicks. Along with Spike Lee, he’s been one of the most longstanding and senior celebrity Knicks fans featured courtside during the team’s historic playoff run. When Fat Joe’s debut album Represent came out in 1993, a total of one current Knick — Jordan Clarkson — had been born.

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Fat Joe’s Knicks fandom goes all the way back to watching games with his grandfather in the Washington Projects in Spanish Harlem as a child. “I would sit there watching the basketball game… It was everything to me,” he says.

If the Knicks win it all, Fat Joe will call his family and friends first. He’ll also be thinking of a few of his lifelong Knicks fans who are no longer here: Big Pun, with whom Fat Joe used to attend games, as well as his late brother, who first brought Fat Joe to the Garden three decades ago.

Before he hops on a plane to San Antonio for Game 5, Fat Joe spoke with Rolling Stone about his new single, his forthcoming album, his teenage years scalping New York City sports tickets, and his favorite basketball team. 

How did “Victory Lap (Him)” start?
I heard a track Mike Zombie had produced for my sister Remy Ma, and I was like, “Yo, my brother, we gotta work.” Sure enough, him and Cool & Dre got together and they flipped the Notorious B.I.G. “Victory,” and the way they did it was so crazy because it just connects all genres. You got Yung Miami, who’s the hottest chick in the game right now, and you also got MC Lyte, who’s the living legend, going to the [Rock & Roll] Hall of Fame real soon, and you got Fat Joe. It’s a fun record. I think the game needs it right now. It sounds like a big boy, a “Lean Back,” big boy, a real big New York record. 

What’s a “big boy” record to you?
An anthem, a smash hit. There’s different reasons for putting out music. Some are just for the underground, the culture. This one looks like I’m swinging for the fence.

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Is any part of you superstitious about putting out a song called “Victory Lap” when the Knicks are still playing in the finals?
I ain’t even think about it, that’s a great question. I’m not superstitious like that.

What’s it like to have the kind of platform you have — your records, your podcast, and being on national television every other night this spring — at this stage in your career?
I give all to the glory of God. I don’t even know how to explain it, being the kid that came out in 1993 with “Flow Joe,” still being relevant, still being on the news. My team I’ve supported my whole life is now in the championship, and they’re including me, which is weird as a fan. The other night the coach [Mike Brown] said, “Fat Joe’s jewelry is blinding me.” Like, come on, man! As a kid, as a Knick fan, you think I ever dreamed that the coach would mention me?

I know how long you’ve been going to Knicks games. I remember being a little 14-year-old Jewish kid from the suburbs shaking your hand after a game back in 2004 or 2005, the Stephon Marbury era.
You know what’s crazy is Timothée Chalamet told me a similar story. He said, “Fat Joe, you was on the corner talking shit. I was a nine-year-old kid walking outside Madison Square Garden, I’d never even heard nobody talk like that. You was out there cursing and all that shit.” 

If you a New Yorker, a real New Yorker, you got a “how you met Fat Joe” story, somehow. 

Do you remember your first-ever Knicks game?
No. I used to scalp tickets outside Madison Square Garden. That’s where I met Tracy Morgan. I met Tracy, he used to scalp tickets at Yankee Stadium. We would scalp tickets and then when you didn’t sell a ticket, you’d go inside the game. 

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How old were you?
14, 15.

How would you describe what the last month or so in New York has been like during this playoff run in one word?
Amazing.