Slick Rick also takes the stage as ESPN’s annual award show celebrates New York’s NBA title
The annual ESPYs kept the Knicks’ NBA Championship celebration going Wednesday with performances by four New York rap legends.
Long Island’s De La Soul first took the stage at the Lincoln Center’s David H. Koch Theater, encouraging the audience of athletes to take their feet during a medley that included snippets of “Stakes Is High” and “Run It Back!!”
Bronx-via-London’s Slick Rick opened his performance in the audience before taking the stage for an abridged version of his classic “La Di Da Di”:
Just weeks after Ghostface Killah took part in the Wu-Tang Clan halftime performance that potentially fueled one of the biggest second-half comebacks in basketball history, the Staten Island rapper opened his performance by repping fellow Wu rappers Raekwon (“Ice Cream”) and Ol’ Dirty Bastard (“Shimmy Shimmy Ya”) before launching into his own “Cherchez LaGhost.”
Fat Joe, who was omnipresent during the Knicks’ championship run, closed out the show with his “All the Way Up,” capping an award show that shared in the afterglow of the Knicks’ win: Finals MVP Jalen Brunson won “Best Championship Performance” and “Best NBA Player,” OG Anunoby’s last-second tip won “Best Play,” and the Knicks collectively won “Best Team.”
