Fat Joe Becomes Latest Rapper To Lock Down Key To New York City

Fat Joe received New York’s Key to the City on Tuesday night (August 20). Mayor Eric Adams presented the Terror Squad rapper with the award at a free concert in the Bronx.

“You know I had to Boogie Down to the Bronx to join the crowd at our Rise Up NYC concert at Orchard Beach!” Mayor Adams wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter). “We made it an even more special evening by presenting Fat Joe with the ‘New York City Entertainer’s Key’ for always giving back to the borough that raised him.

N.O.R.E. was one of the celebrities who attended the event. He congratulated Fat Joe in an Instagram post on Wednesday (August 21).

“Flew in and out to make sure I witness my brother get the key to NEW YORK CITY,” N.O.R.E. wrote. “THANK YOU @fatjoe and happy birthday keep winning!!!”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Noreaga Nore (@therealnoreaga)

Fat Joe thanked his family, friends, Mayor Adams and several Hip-hop pioneers in a speech at the concert.

“I gotta thank the pioneers,” Fat Joe told the crowd. “From Melle Mel, Mr. Ness to KRS-One … If there was never a KRS-One, there never would’ve been a Fat Joe. My whole life I been trying to be KRS-One. LL Cool J, Heavy D and the list goes on. I wanna shout out everybody here because we in the Bronx.”

Fat Joe said he never thought he’d receive New York’s Key to the City. He was happy to be proven wrong.

“If you ask me did I ever think Joseph Cartagena was gonna get the Key to the City, the answer is no,” he admitted. “But if you ask me do I really deserve the Key to the City, the answer is yes. I just told the mayor I went from getting harassed by the cops every day to my brother being the police commissioner of the police department in New York City.”

Check out Fat Joe’s speech below.