Fat Joe Releases Triumphant Summer Hit, Hopes to Soundtrack a Knicks Victory

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. 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. 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.

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.