I have made two claims in Rock NYC one is that popularity improves a song and two is “Empire State Of Mind” isn’t very good and here is the test as “Empire” becomes Jay-Z’s first number one.
I am a little surprised that it is such a big hit, neither the back track nor words to the rap are all that. The rap is saved by Jay-Z flawless flow. “Empire” isn’t Billy Joel’s “New York State Of Mind” -Jay-Z can’t get out of his own way, wherever the lyric might end up, it is ABOUT Jay-Z front court side getting high fives from ballplayers. New York state of mind is about the Tri State area living up to Jay-Z’s expectations.
Here is the lyric to a different NYC song:, “Manhattan” by Rodgers and Hart.
Summer journeys to Niag’ra
And to other places aggra-
vate all our cares.
We’ll save our fares;
I’ve a cozy little pad in
What is known as old Manhattan,
We’ll settle down
Right here in town.
We’ll have Manhattan,
The Bronx and Staten
Island too.
It’s lovely going through the Zoo.
It’s very fancy
On old Delancey
Street you know.
The subway charms us so,
When balmy breezes blow
To and fro.
And tell me what street
Compares with Mott Street
In July?
Sweet pushcarts gently gliding by.
The great big city’s a wondrous toy
Just made for a girl and boy —
We’ll turn Manhattan
Into an isle of joy.
We’ll go to Greenwich,
Where modern men itch
To be free,
And Bowling Green you’ll see with me.
We’ll bathe at Brighton,
The fish you’ll frighten
When you’re in,
Your bathing suit so thin
Will make the shellfish grin,
Fin to fin.
I’d like to take a
Sail on Jamaica
Bay with you,
And fair Canarsie’s Lakes we’ll view.
The city’s bustle cannot destroy
The dreams of a girl and boy —
We’ll turn Manhattan
Into an isle of joy.
We’ll go to Yonkers,
Where true love conquers
In the wilds
And starve together, dear, in Childs’.
We’ll go to Coney
And eat bologny
On a roll,
In Central Park we’ll stroll
Where our first kiss we stole,
Soul to soul.
And South Pacific
Is a terrific
Show they say,
We both may see it close some day.
The city’s clamour can never spoil
The dreams of a boy and goil —
We’ll turn Manhattan
Into an isle of joy.
We’ll have Manhattan,
The Bronx and Staten
Island too,
We’ll try to cross Fifth Avenue.
As black as onyx
We’ll find the Bronix
Park Express,
Our Flatbush flat, I guess,
Will be a great success,
More or less.
A short vacation
On Inspiration
Point we’ll spend,
And in the station house we’ll end.
But Civic Virtue cannot destroy
The dreams of a girl and boy —
We’ll turn Manhattan
Into an isle of joy!
Now here’s the lyric to “Empire State Of Mind”.
Yeah I’m out that Brooklyn.
Now I’m down in Tribeca.
Right next to DeNiro
But I’ll be hood forever
I’m the new Sinatra
And since I made it here
I can make it anywhere
(Yeah they love me everywhere)
I used to cop in Harlem
All of my Dominicanos (Hey yo)
Right there off of Broadway
Brought me back to that McDonalds
Took it to my stash spot
560 State Street
Catch me in the kitchen like Simmons whipping Pastry
Cruising down 8th street
Off-white Lexus
Driving so slow
(but BK, it’s from Texas!!)
Me I’m out that BedStuy
Home of that boy Biggie
now I live on Billboard
and I brought my boys with me
Say what up to Ta-ta
Still sipping Mai Tais
Sitting courtside
Knicks and Nets give me high-5
N**ga, I be Spiked out
I could trip a referee
…tell by my attitude that I’m MOST DEFINITELY FROM…
New York!!!!
Concrete jungle where dreams are made of,
There’s nothing you can’t do,
Now you’re in New York!!!
These streets will make you feel brand new,
the lights will inspire you,
Let’s hear it for New York, New York, New York
I made you hot n-gga,
Catch me at the X with OG at a Yankee game,
sh-t I made the Yankee hat more famous than a Yankee can,
you should know I bleed Blue, but I ain’t a crip tho,
but I got a gang of n-ggas walking with my clique though,
welcome to the melting pot,
corners where we selling rocks,
Afrika bambaataa sh-t,
home of the hip hop,
yellow cab, gypsy cab, dollar cab, holla back,
for foreigners it ain’t fitted act like they forgot how to act,
8 million stories out there and they’re naked,
city it’s a pity half of y’all won’t make it,
me I gotta plug a special and I got it made,
If Jeezy’s payin LeBron, I’m paying Dwayne Wade,
3 dice cee-lo
3 card marley,
Labor Day parade, rest in peace Bob Marley,
Statue of Liberty, long live the World Trade,
long live the king yo,
I’m from the Empire State thats…
Lights Is Blinding
girls need blinders
s
o they can step out of bounds quick,
the side lines is blind with casualties,
who sip the lite casually, then gradually become worse,
don’t bite the apple Eve,
caught up in the in crowd,
now you’re in-style,
and in the winter gets cold en vogue with your skin out,
the city of sin is a pity on a whim.
good girls gone bad, the city’s filled with them,
Mommy took a bus trip and now she got her bust out,
everybody ride her, just like a bus route,
Hail Mary to the city your a Virgin,
and Jesus can’t save you life starts when the church ends,
came here for school, graduated to the high life,
ball players, rap stars, addicted to the limelight,
MDMA got you feeling like a champion,
the city never sleeps better slip you a Ambien
One hand in the air for the big city,
Street lights, big dreams all looking pretty,
no place in the World that can compare,
Put your lighters in the air, everybody say yeaaahh
come on, come,
Let’s start by stating the (empire) state obvious: Hay-Z is no Lorenz Hart. The perfect cadences and half rhymes, the humor, the precision of every word, blows Jay-Z away. There is simply no comparison. If Jay-Z’s idea of smart is offering the city that never sleeps n ambient we aren’t going And Jay-Z is begiining to sound like a crotchety Grandpa: “i was raised in Bed Stuy and we had no internet in my day, we used to husle all day long and oif you didn’t watch your turf you were one dead n—-” Oh, shut up.
Still the lyric isn’t as bad as I thought, it has its travelogue moments, and people like to sing about where they live.
It’s saved by Alicia Key’s chorus, an anti-melody shout out anybody can holla back at, perfect for ringtones and World Series games, any games. It galvanized the audience at Jay-Z’s MSG set a coupla months ago and it is a succesful piece of extended jingoism.
So has “Empire State Of Mind” changed? improved? since it became a smah hit. The answer is yes it has. It became the anthemn Jay-Z wanted in the only way it could become the anthemn Jay-Z wanted it to be the only way it could become the anthemn Jay-Z wanted it to be: through a huge audience who loved it. It still is nowhere close to the song “Manhattan” is.