Grammy Award winner and New York native Ashanti sang Tuesday night’s national anthem ahead of Game 4 of the World Series, one day after Fat Joe kicked off the series’ shift to New York with a pregame performance.
Ashanti drew several cheers during the performance as she belted out the country’s anthem with fans cheering at several points during the performance.
The 44-year-old singer has eight Grammy nominations during her career and two Billboard number one hits — “Foolish” and a collaboration with Ja Rule on “Always On Time.”
The night prior, the Yankees trotted out Fat Joe, a Bronx native, for a pregame performance that received a tepid, at best, reception at best from baseball fans.
He sang a melody of his hits, including “Lean Back” and “All the Way Up,” along with Ja Rule’s hit “New York.”
The performance was met with plenty of jokes on social media, including one user who wrote, “Ice Cube trounced Fat Joe Dodgers take a 3-0 series lead.”
“Dear New York, Fat Joe is not Ice Cube. Sincerely, The rest of us,” another person wrote.
Former Red Sox great and current Fox broadcaster David Ortiz even tool a shot at the performance.
“Even when Fat Joe came out, the body language from the fans was like damn,” he said. “I was like, ‘What’s going on here? Are we in a funeral already?’”
Leslie Odom Jr. then performed the national anthem ahead of Game 3.
Ice Cube had his own on-field concert of sorts ahead of Game 1 at Dodger Stadium to universal praise.
Even Yankees outfielder Alex Verdugo jammed out in the Yankees dugout.
The Yankees are in a do-or-die position going into Game 4 trailing 3-0 to the Dodgers, who held the Yankees without a run until the ninth inning on Monday night.
Freddie Freeman’s two-run homer put the Yankees behind the eight ball early, 2-0 in the first inning.
