Jay-Z ft. Alicia Keys - 'Empire State Of Mind'
I don't know where you're from, you don't know where I'm from, but I do know that if anyone had even tried to sing a hit song like this about, say, Ipswich, or Cheltenham, they'd be laughed out of existence before they could even collect their commemorative key to the city. And that seems a shame.
I've no idea why this should be the case, New York, for all that is an exciting place to be, is just a place. Granted, it's a place where lots of exciting things have happened, and continue to happen, and it's a place where lots of exciting people live, but can you honestly say this isn't the case for where you live? Are you SURE it's not worth giving your local area the benefit of the doubt? Who knows what treasures you will uncover?
(There's no video yet, surprise hit as this is. However here is Jay performing the song on Jonathan Ross's TV show.)
Granted, Jay-Z isn't rapping about the history of New York so much as his history within the city. The rough upbringing, the hustling, the attitude that comes from having been to where he has been, and doing the things he has done. There's nowhere else on Earth that could've shaped him in this way, and he's brought along local girl Alicia Keys to confirm that this is indeed how things are.
She's singing a melody straight out of a Broadway show, he's rapping like a kid on a street corner (albeit one who probably owns the street). That's what a huge city like New York is good at, jamming things from different places together and seeing if they fit. It's what the song is about, and it's what the song does.
But no-one has ever really tested Frank Sinatra's New York maxim that a person who can make it there can make it anywhere, have they? It's probably because someone who is big in New York is perhaps not that bothered about their total failure to put bums on seats in Macclesfield. But it's also because the people of Macclesfield know far more about New York than the people of New York do about Macc. And this is because of all the songs, films, TV shows, paintings, photos and poems about the place.
Who's to say that your town wouldn't be just as celebrated, if it got the same type of attention? Maybe it's time to change this around. Maybe it's time for you musical types to start writing the hymns to Cambourne, Derby or Inverness that will truly put your home on the map.
Then all you have to do is become internationally famous and rich, and everyone will know that New York city is all very well, but it's Swindon that made you the person you are.
Download: Out now
www.jay-z.com
BBC Music page
(Fraser McAlpine)
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~49~RS~)
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*Ipswich.. c'mon.....
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Dammit! You know what that is? That's the software company Ipswitch confusing me.
Apologies to the good people of Suffolk. And people who like spellings.
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Well as I said last night on the run this town , this is one of the stand out tracks on blue print , that for all the world sounds like a big big hit . Alecia sounds amazing and this is climbing i tunes like a gymnast ! Empire state human this song is gonna be . A very good song with huge commercial appeal !
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Empire State of mind is already A listed at RADIO 1 !
Heading for the top 10 , if not the top 5 , methinks .
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Not sure about this review Fraser .
I can sense the people of Ipswich and Cheltenham massing their ranks and paying you a loving visit in sunny old Cornwall.
They will be passing St. Austell , Bodmin and Liskeard to find you . lol
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Woooo, Leitrim! The least populated county in all of Ireland, home to 15,000 humans and 10,000 farm animals! But home of the famous RandomEnigma! RandomEnigma State Of Mind! Psychotic!
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Bristol , home of Massive attack , Portishead , my good friend Justin Lee Collins and little ol me...
Who's going next ?
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Random, 8/10 because you put your back into it, although you need to include some details of Your Struggle to really get the point across. Remember, you're fighting against years of pro-New York sentiment...
Spirit, 4/10. I get no sense of Bristol at all from what you have written. Where's the Arnolfini? Where's the Thekla? Park Street? The cappucino bars of old Clifton Town? That stranger flyover thing they pulled down a few years ago, near Temple Meads? The Bierkeller? St Pauls? Whiteladies Road? I need a reason to wish I was from there!
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Wow, a reply from Fraser! Well, here's my struggle! I grew up in a humble home in the heart of Leitrim where the only occupations are farmer of turf cutter! But cos I'm fly and all that and had to overcome the struggles of being a writer, (insert derogatory term in here), I'm real and all that man!
Plus, I was shot 5 times...and I watch girls get down on the dancefloor all the time! Did I mention I was fly! Leitrim would be nuthin' without me, female dogs (really the plural form a word beginning with b)!
10/10 yet?
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Oh crap, I have a feeling my accounts gonna be cancelled! Are you guys strict on this or what?!
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Ha ha , the great man is back ! About blinking time .
I can see Whiteladies Rd from my bedroom window , I live in Clifton and I can walk to it in 30 seconds .It is the next road to mine.
I did my training for the Bristol Half Marathon by running 5 miles around Durdham Downs every other day recently.
Every time we go to the new Cinema De Lux at Cabot Circus , we drive past St Pauls .
I have played the Thekla myself , and was in the video for the new Ash video The Return Of The White Rabbit , which was recorded there .
I recently saw Banksy's famous graffiti art display 5 times when he took over Bristol Museum on Park St recently.
I caught the train for London Fashion Week from Bristol Temple Meads Station the other day , after you kept me up twittering the night before. lol
My friend Andy used to be head DJ and helped to manage the Bierkeller , and I have a lunch date with a big cheese at the Arnofini next week.
Hope that covers it.
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I wrote a comment but the moderators removed it! I would use a more colourful term but I am severely annoyed! See, see, the struggles I face on ChartBlog!
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Your go Fraser , you are on 2/10 at the moment, as I got no sense of Looe in your review !
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Haha, Fraser are you from Looe, that sounds like Loo. Let's make that 1/5!
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Nope. I'm not from Looe at all. It's a nice place but I don't live there. Never have!
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Where are you from so?
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Ive never been to Bristol.
Think I registered my love of this song on some other post somewhere.
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Rural Oxfordshire, rural Somerset, Devon, London and then Cornwall. That's a lot of stuff to cram into one song!
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Aren't Portishead from erm, Portishead..?
(there are no songs about Kristiansund... *sighs*)
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That's what I mean, write one! Or get someone to write one!
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Blueprint 3 is my favourite album this year and this song is one of my favourites this year!!
It was amazing on the VMA's and it's even amazing on my iPod.
Jay-Z is the man. I thought at some point, Kanye West was but Jay is the boy!
7 stars from me. C'mon, Fraser, Old buddy old pal... Create a new graphic!!
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Number 1 this week? Probably not, but Im gonna guess number 2.
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Totally love this song too! Hope it gets to Number 1, I'm bored of Taio Cruz, break your heart is a great song but my boyfriend is a total music nerd and plays songs only released now months before they were released!
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I'm writing loads of posts! Then when I check back, they're gone!!
Not even removed by the moderators, just gone! Hows that?!!
This probs won't show up either...
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Oh hang on...
They're there now.
Nevermind
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Number 3 for JAY-Z !
Superb song !
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I won't even try and give you a sense of my area of residence.
Wolverhampton.
It's just not worth the time.
This song is though.
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I have been to Queens, New York. Most people there were unfriendly. The Koreans were nice and kind. Most people wanted lots of money and they spoke about it a lot.
Jay z talks about the fact that he was once a drug dealer on this record. He does not sound sorry for mashing up people's lives with the drugs he sold them. He is a proud man who has made it while many of his friends are dead or in jail. I hope he retires again and leaves us all alone.
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"Rural Oxfordshire, rural Somerset, Devon, London and then Cornwall"
Police! Check your files for unusual patterns of crime movement...possibly rustling.
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Does this mean I have to write a hymn to Scunthorpe? That could be tricky... the time signature alone would be a nightmare. Maybe 1/8 time, which would also be your odds of having a night out and not meeting a plethora of aggressive idiots.
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" Rural Oxfordshire , rural Somerset , Devon , London and then Cornwall .
When the cast realised the filming locations , they immediately realised that the budget had been dramatically slashed , for the new James Bond movie .
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