Sunday, 15 November 2009

• Do you have to Be in an Empire State of Mind to Love "Empire State of Mind"?

  After Lil Mama jumped up on stage during the premiere performance of "Empire State of Mind" at the most recent VMA's, she reconciled her erratic behavior with the frenzied pride and overwhelming unity she felt when she heard the instant anthem of her birth city. Though Jay-Z and Alicia's fab concoction is certainly a wonderful song, most of us can agree that Mama's reaction was unreasonable.
  
  But now, months later, post-tri-state-area-World Series: I wonder if it truly is all that crazy to understand where she was coming from? 
  
  When I first heard the song I was floored. I could have never foreseen Alicia's classic Motown-derived formulaic riff with a singing style noticeably more Broadway than her usual sultry diva belting marrying Jay's gentle yet fierce growling so enveloped in piano rhythm that only certain buzz-wordy lines popped out.
  
  

  
  

  NYC's Pride. Image source.
  
  

  And since I made it here. I can make it anywhere. 
  
  Good girls gone bad the city's filled with them.
  
  City never sleeps but it slips you an Ambien.
  
  I hail from the fringes of the fringes of the fringes of NYC, residing flatly on the line drawn on a map from New York to Philly. I've never "repped" the city, nor did I state unending adoration for it. People from around my river-bend tend to see the city exactly as Jay-Z does-we've all had moments of pride and felt profound, luxurious superiority in the throes of the concrete jungle, but we've also answered that 8:00 AM call from our friend who just woke up in an NYC hospital with no shoes or purse.
  
  We would never idealize New York-but we all believe someone does (Does anyone?). So when we hear American royalty spell things out the way we see them for those we assume just don't get it, why wouldn't we be floored, or overwhelmed, or frenzied like Mamacita?

  
  Since her audacious stunting, my entire world has fallen under the Jay-Z edict. He's the new Sinatra (we don't know the old one, but we know that to be him must carry some serious weight). But while everything I see turns to slow manifestations of Lil Mama's frenzy, I wonder if we all appear to be under an outrageous spell just as she was. Are those who hail from fringes whose fringes whose fringes never reach NYC sending us an unending slew of "Y'ALL CRAZY" eyes?
  
  

  
  

  Do you like us? Image Source.
  

  
  Atlanta-based gossip writer (NJ and I have been together for a while, but we're not exclusive) Sandra Rose takes the eyes up a notch, demanding answers: "Can someone explain to me what the big deal is with this lame track? Do you have to be a New Yorker to understand the hype?"
  
  One commentor declared "NY is hot to those who know!"
  
  Could it be true? Are people from NYC and its fringes the only ones hyped about "Empire State of Mind"?
  

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