Jennifer Lopez’s opinion on what determines a “real New Yorker” caught Florida-born rapper and podcaster Mase by surprise.
The It Is What It Is co-host, who was born in Jacksonville, Florida, but raised in Harlem from childhood, spoke on the Tuesday (June 9) episode of the podcast about Lopez’s take. On a recent episode of Subway Takes With Kareem Rahma, the Office Romance star claimed that, unless you were born and bred in New York, you can’t claim the Big Apple as your hometown.
“According to J.Lo, Harlem World is a fake,” Mase joked around the 28-minute mark of the episode below. “I don't know how to feel about that. I think if you didn't go to kindergarten there, if you didn't go to elementary there…But if you've been there since kindergarten all the way through high school, at what point do you say a person is not from there?”
He continued, “I see what she trying to say, but I'm definitely from where I'm from.”
Mase also admitted that his Social Security card states that he’s from Florida before joking that Lopez has “bigger stuff to worry about.” The former Bad Boy Records artist went on to shout out the actress and singer for her cameo in his 1997 music video for “Been Around the World” featuring Diddy and late rapper The Notorious B.I.G.
Elsewhere, Cam’ron jumped in by comparing retired NBA players Michael Jordan, who was born in New York but raised in North Carolina, and Carmelo Anthony, who’s a New York native, but moved to Baltimore as a child.
During Lopez’s subway sit-down with Rahma, she remarked that a true New Yorker has to be “born in one of the five boroughs,” meaning Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx and Staten Island.
