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Empire State of Mind Jay-Z song meaning?

Posted on Dec 13, 2009 under off broadway shoes |

i wanted to know what everything hes referring to in his song…
i know a little bit

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 (vanessa simmons from runs house new shoe line?)
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 (Biggie Smalls?)
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…

[Alicia Keys]
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

[Jay-Z]
I made you hot n-gga,
Catch me at the X with OG at a Yankee game, (is the x a nightclub?)
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…

[Alicia Keys]
In 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

Welcome to the bright light..

[Jay-Z]
Lights is blinding, (?)
girls need blinders (?)
so 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 (?)

[Alicia Keys]
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

[Alicia Keys]
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,
yeah,

[Alicia Keys]
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

So the lines with the question marks are the ones you want clarified?

"8th Street": It’s known to be where St. Mark’s Place is (which of course is in NY), which is where urban teenagers hang out, according to Wikipedia.

"BK from Texas": Beyonce Knowles is from Texas. It might be one of the few songs where he acknowledges her, I think.

"Bed-Stuy": Short for Bedford-Stuyvesant, it’s a predominantly black neighborhood found in the center of NY.

"Home of that boy Biggie": Yep, Biggie Smalls. Also from Brooklyn.

"Say what up to Ta-ta": It’s Ty Ty, who is Jay-Z’s nickname to Tyron Smith, who is his "BFF".

"Mai Tais": Drinks. I don’t know the relevance to NY, but he’s probably mentioning in reference to his past where he probably drank it a lot and still do today.

"N*gga, I be Spiked out/I could trip a referee": He could get front row seats to a game and be so close to the players that he could literally trip a referee. Possibly.

"Catch me at the X with OG at a Yankee game": OG referes to Juan Perez, President of Roc-La-Familia, and co-owner of the 40/40 club.

"Corners where we selling rocks/Afrika Bambaataa sh*t": I think he’s referring to the fact that they’re from the Bronx and they were popular to listen to during the breakout of the hip hop scene when he was growing up (I could be wrong about that, because I’ve no idea how old he is) or the fact they have an album called "Planet Rock", meaning that it can go both ways.

"Yellow cab, gypsy cab, dollar cab, holla back": He names all types of the most common transportation in NY (yellow cab - taxi, gypsy cab - illegal taxi, dollar cab - one dollar taxi).

"8 million stories out there and they’re naked": Refers to the 1948 film "The Naked City" with the quote: "There are eight million stories in the Naked City; this has been one of them."

"3 Dice Ceelo/3 Dice Marley" - It’s 3 Card Molly. Both refers to the stereotypical "alley" games.

"Lights is blinding/ Girls need blinders" - Just referring to the chorus about the "big lights" being everywhere in NY. Lights go on during the night time, where girls would be on the streets for A. prostitution or B. nighttime clubbing.

"Or they can step out of bounds / Quick, the side lines is blind with casualities" - They could get caught up with the lights (which also refers to fame, the in-crowd as he points out a little later). I’m not sure about the casualty part.

"Who sip the light casually, then gradually become worse" - The fame can become an addiction.

"Hail Mary to the city, you’re a virgin / And Jesus can’t save you / Life starts when the church ends" - Still referring to girls chasing fame in the city, where "virgin" means the innocence they have before they get into the real world.

"MDMA got you feeling like a champion" - MDMA is better known as ecstasy. But it means that the girls, who have lost their innocence when chasing fame, are officially in the "in-crowd" by doing drugs and such (I think I worded that wrong).

"The city never sleeps, better slip you a Ambien" - Ambien is a drug for people who can’t sleep. Since they’re doing drugs already, why not slip another one?

And that concludes it. I sorta paraphased and did quick research, so there are some parts where it could be wrong.