The float was the tell. When the Knicks’ ticker-tape parade rolled down the Canyon of Heroes on Thursday (June 18), the Knicks’ hip-hop fans got a float of their own, carrying Wu-Tang Clan, The Lox, Mobb Deep, Q-Tip, Mary J. Blige, Fabolous, Ja Rule, M.O.P., Fat Joe, Remy Ma and Yung Miami, according to HotNewHipHop. Fat Joe helped organize it. HotNewHipHop points out that the last time the Knicks won a title, “the city quite literally invented the culture.” Now the team and the culture were celebrating at once.
The Knicks ended a 53-year drought on Saturday, June 13, by beating the San Antonio Spurs 94-90 in Game 5, per Billboard. It was their first championship since 1973. What made the run feel different is how often New York music sat courtside.
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The celebration spread well beyond the rap world. Rolling Stone lists Jennifer Lopez, Mariska Hargitay, Cardi B, Jon Stewart and Ben Stiller among those toasting the win, and Timothée Chalamet joined the locker-room celebration in San Antonio after Game 5. But the rap world had been the team’s house band for months.
The halftime shows
Madison Square Garden hosted its first NBA Finals game since 1999 on June 8, and the Knicks tapped Cardi B for the Game 3 halftime show, Billboard reported. Earlier in the playoffs, Fat Joe, Jadakiss and Fabolous had all taken the mic at MSG. Cardi, a Bronx native, had been rooting on the Knicks all through the run, and Billboard notes she was set to perform on a night when President Donald Trump was expected in attendance, after being critical of him throughout his tenure. We covered Cardi’s night in detail.
Then came the halftime that became the story. With the Knicks down 29 points in Game 4, Wu-Tang Clan took the Garden floor, and Method Man ended the set by declaring, “Knicks in five.” As Rolling Stone tells it, the team then came back to win 107-106 and closed out the series in Game 5. The team was set to reunite with Wu-Tang on The Tonight Show that Monday (June 15).
The anthem argument
A funny debate broke out in the middle of the celebration: which song belongs to the Knicks? Jay-Z and Alicia Keys’ “Empire State of Mind” was the obvious pick, and many New Yorkers were not having it, Complex reported. A viral Threads post from @shewritestolive put it bluntly:
I promise, New Yorkers are not trying to yuck your yum with ‘Empire State of Mind,’ but it is NOT our anthem,
Tamela Julia Gordon (@shewritestolive), on Threads, Complex
Her alternatives included Ja Rule’s “New York,” Nas’s “N.Y. State of Mind” and Billy Joel’s “New York State of Mind.” Replies added Mobb Deep’s “Shook Ones,” Jadakiss’s “We Gonna Make It,” Bad Bunny’s “NUEVAYoL,” Busta Rhymes’s “New York Shit,” Rakim’s “New York (Ya Out There)” and A Tribe Called Quest’s “Check the Rhime.” Cam’ron’s “Welcome to New York City” got a vote, and a Taylor Swift song with a similar name got a request that nobody play it. The conversation has politics and brands in it, too: Complex notes that Ja Rule’s “New York” was previously used by Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and that Billy Joel’s song appears in a new Nike commercial directed by Josh Safdie.
The city did not hold out against “Empire State of Mind” for long. Knicks owner James Dolan said Alicia Keys would sing it at the City Hall ceremony closing the parade, and Keys, per Billboard, confirmed it on a FaceTime call with OG Anunoby. She had already performed it with Nas at an afterparty she threw on the night of the clincher, after hosting the Tribeca premiere of her Girl From Hell’s Kitchen documentary.
Like how could I not? This is my city and the city’s on fire,
Alicia Keys, in a video posted to Instagram, Billboard
The new songs
The title also minted new records. Fivio Foreign dropped “GCB Freestyle (Game 4),” a tribute to the 29-point comeback, filmed in Knicks gear, and told his followers, “The Knicks made Fivio drop. OMG we needed this,” as Billboard reports. He then tweeted that he better be performing at the parade. Watch the freestyle below.
Fat Joe, a lifelong Knicks fan, spoke to Rolling Stone during the Finals about his song “Victory Lap (Him)” and what it meant to be folded into the team’s fabric. He recalled that coach Mike Brown had joked, “Fat Joe’s jewelry is blinding me.”
My team, I’ve supported my whole life, is now in the championship, and they’re including me, which is weird as a fan.
Fat Joe, to Rolling Stone, Rolling Stone
Then there is the hit nobody saw coming. Complex’s midyear songs list says French Montana and Max B’s “Ever Since U Left Me (I Went Deaf),” which flips KC and the Sunshine Band, grew into more than a mixtape cut: the Remy Ma remix became the unofficial song of the Knicks’ championship run, the outlet writes, and a symbol of a partnership that survived Max B’s long prison stint. The song is on our best songs of 2026 so far.
What comes next
The parade was set to end at City Hall, where Mayor Zohran Mamdani planned to present the team with keys to the city and Keys was tentatively scheduled to sing at 1 p.m. ET. As for the anthem, Complex’s closing thought is the best one: somewhere in a studio, someone is probably working on the record that will define New York in the late 2020s, without knowing yet that this is what it is.
Sources
Added to the High Grailed archive on October 12, 2026.
