Sheek Louch, Live from the Knicks Parade

Yesterday, for the first time ever — not even after their championship wins in 1970 and 1973 — the Knicks threw a ticker tape parade through the vaunted Canyon of Heroes in downtown NYC. Three million people came out, New Yorkers remembered how to like, be around other people for the first time in what’s felt like forever. It truly looked beautiful.

Eric and I were confirmed to be on one of the floats through a friend, but (due to some confusion at the staging area), we never got credentials. Still, I was very lucky to talk to Sheek Louch — from the showcast! — who did make it onto a float and could talk about the momentous occasion.

JEFF: If you were to talk to a friend about today, how would you describe it?

SHEEK: I’m not gonna lie. I’m gonna use some words that I don’t even, like, use, my brother: Magnetic. Energy. Proud. Like…hope! Excited. Like, those kind of action words, if you want to know the truth. If I show you some pictures — I’m gonna send you some pictures. Dog, everybody was so happy and proud to be from here right now. And these streets were insane. You only seen around the Garden, right? Man. You’ve gotta see it now that they let the parade out! Dog. Look at my IG when I post it — that is not AI!

JEFF: You can hear it in your voice! Yea, please send me pictures, send me videos, I want to see it all!

SHEEK: People in the comments saying, “Damn, that shit look like it’s AI.” Insane, how them streets are!

JEFF: What was the best thing you overheard today? From either the street or on the float.

SHEEK: Raekwon just kept saying, “Yo, 53 years ago, some of us wasn’t even born yet.” Like, this for our generation right here. He just kept expressing that, like, “Look at this, Louch!” And we was right next to each other, looking amazed at how everybody was looking. And everybody had the proper attire on. I don’t give a fuck if it’s a old jersey, an old Knicks t-shirt that brung them good luck. It was all in unity, man.

JEFF: I love that.

SHEEK: No fights! Well, I dunno. Maybe, you’d know better than me. (Ed’s note: I wouldn’t.) And let me say something else: the police did a great fucking job. The streets was in order. I was like, [garbles words, real shocked]. I got nothing negative!

JEFF: Who was the most fun person on the float?

SHEEK: Ah man, it was easily Ja Rule, Kiss, Fat Joe, Remy Ma. (laughs) Shit like that! Oh man, Melle Mel. They proudly doing their records. And Melle Mel — “Don’t push me, cause I’m close to the edgeeee” — was ringing off out there!

JEFF: Here’s a logistical question: what was the bathroom situation like?

SHEEK: I went before I got on, cause I’m an old head, you heard? (laughs) I gotta go when I can. You seen us at the 4 Penn pick-up, right? Then they drove us to —

JEFF: A staging area.

SHEEK: Yea, down by City Hall, right? Yeah. Inside there, they had food.

JEFF: A breakfast, yeah.

SHEEK: And everybody was mingling, dog. We rode back, Timothee Charlamagne* (Ed’s note: lol) was on my bus. KAT had his trophy with him. You name it: Spike Lee, agents, celebrities, crazy on the bus. And everybody was in unity. That’s what it was like in that holding cell we were in, too.

JEFF: A holding cell is crazy. Did you talk to anybody?

SHEEK: Yeah, what you mean? (laughs) I said hi. But you know me, I’m not gonna — even though we’re all in a parade and all celebrating — I’m not gonna act like we played in the sandbox. Unless we played in the sandbox. I’m that kinda guy.

JEFF: Yeah, for sure.

SHEEK: I’ll take that, “That’s just Louch.” I’m not gonna act like I go way back with you.

JEFF: I just didn’t know if you went over to anyone and said you were a fan, and you had to say something.

SHEEK: I talked to Spike, Chris Rock. “What’s going on? Aight.” And everybody’s approaching me — but definitely stuck my hand out to say what’s up first to some people. But I’m not acting like, “Yo! Where you been!” Dog, I don’t know you!

JEFF: What was the best block, do you remember?

SHEEK: Hell no! No one don’t know that. No one was looking at street signs and shit. Bro, it was just a sea of people.

JEFF: (laughs) The commentators this morning were like, “Once you turn that first corner to get into the Canyon of Heroes, the wall of sound is unreal.” Did you feel that?

SHEEK: Yeah, I feel that. Whoever said that is 100% correct. 100%. Soon as you turned. Because we thought it was lit where we was at. As soon as you turned it was like, “Oh shit! Look at this shit!” And they’re screaming your name. Like, our shit? You know, they had ballplayers on other floats — but we was rocking on ours. I know they were looking at ours like, “Damn!” I’m still on a high. Coolest part is, my son was right there with me, pointing out “Dad, that’s the lady from Law & Order, that’s Timothee Charlamagne*!”

(Ed’s note: still lol)
SHEEK: Man, I wish y’all were there.

JEFF: Same. Eric and I are going to the official Knicks party tonight, though, unless our names have been taken off the list.

SHEEK: Go under an alias!

[Just to wrap this up: we did go to the Knicks party. KAT made a 😜 face when he shook our hands. A woman we spoke to apologized, and said she’d lost her voice at the parade. Eric said, “No. You gave it to the world.” Beautiful. Also, this city loves loves loves Landry Shamet. Big response when he walked in.]

Also! Unrelated, but definitely of interest: we’re announcing our next live show in next week’s newsletter, so make sure to open that and get your tickets quickly. You know how these things sell out.

Kiss is gonna be out of town, and we could either abide by the schedule or let The Dude abide. We all chose to do Big Lebowski. So! That’ll be up Monday morning. Big Lebowski is streaming on Netflix, as is Pretty Woman and 48 Hrs. Carlito’s Way is available for rental on Amazon or streaming on Starz/Hulu.

If you haven’t yet, fill out the 2J3BD reader survey, it only takes a couple of minutes. Thank you to everyone who’s submitted responses so far, it’s been really helpful in trying to tailor the experience of our show to you guys — and we have some solutions we’re putting together in spaces where we could use improvement.

That’s about it for this week! As always, you can also find us on YouTube, Spotify, Apple, Instagram, TikTok and right here, for our weekly newsletter. But before we go: Keep sending in ideas to our suggestion box!

Here’s the latest — did 8 Mile just hit streaming or something? I’m going to do that later this summer, for sure.