Meanwhile, for rappers Nas and Ja Rule, the two faces of New York become even more pronounced as the city becomes the arena for the most extreme kind of gangster wars.
In his song "New York," Ja Rule talks about having "a hundred guns, a hundred clips" just "'cause [he's] from New York. Would he have a hundred guns and a hundred clips if he was living elsewhere? In Nas' hip-hop classic "NY State of Mind," the city's ghetto neighborhoods are like mazes with "black rats trapped.
But once again, even the challenge of the criminality of New York has its promises. For Nas, the life of New York is one essential to the idea of Blackness. Nas' "peoples come back, Black" from the streets, as if to say that the soul of the African-American community can only really be found in its transcendence of everyday urban problems like crime and poverty.
Okay, so that's the musical background upon which "Empire State of Mind" unfolds. So, what's Jay-Z doing in the song?
We already know that he wants to acknowledge the New York mythology, but from the second the verses begin, Jay-Z puts himself on top of it all. Jay-Z "made it" in New York. He's done. He's already "out that Brooklyn," where the real-life youngster known as Shawn Carter grew up in the grim Marcy Projects.
Life is easy, "crusin' down 8th Street," "sittin' courtside, Knicks and Nets give me high fives. In fact he thrives on his roots.
It seems that Jay-Z is entirely aware of this because his rhymes become instructive by the end of the song. The third verse links up with Alicia Keys' chorus lyric "bright lights will inspire you," warning "lights is blinding. Lights is blinding, girls need blinders So they can step out of bounds quick, the sidelines is, Lined with casualties, who sip the life casually Then gradually become worse; don't bite the apple, Eve.
For everyone who gets to be "Spiked out" courtside at a Nets game, a dozen more are destined to become one of the "casualties" lining the city's gritty streets. And both have to respect the place where these stories all play out. So, "Let's hear it for New York. Certainly not Burger King. Anyone else notice all of the subliminal McDonald's advertising???
He drops a line about "that McDonalds" and in the video you can see 2 golden arches behind Alicia. For the best answers, search on this site shorturl. Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Skip to content.
August 23, thanh. He means riding with his wife, Beyonce Knowles. She is originally from Texas.
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