Posts Tagged empire state of mind
Empire State of Mind – Alicia Keys feat. Stephen Colbert (not a typo)
“Home theater system 60inch plasma clean suburban air much better for my asthma” – Stephen Colbert
I want to see Colbert, Asher Roth and Eminem all on the same song. They should form a group and call it Milk of Magnesia. I absolutely love these dudes!
| The Colbert Report | Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Alicia Keys – Empire State of Mind (Part II) Broken Down | ||||
|
||||
What you know about…?

“I’m so far ahead of my time my grandpop just met my grandma at a high school prom” – Jay-Z
I was going through my personal discography of Jay and came across the debut of the “Hovi Baby” remix on a 2002 DJ Clue mixtape. Random… sure, but epic nonetheless. Why? “C’mon Son!” Did you not read the verse? The dude took a verse that was already pissing you off because it was so well crafted…
“I’m so far ahead of my time I’m bout to start another life, look behind you I’m bout to pass you twice”
and then recycled it to create something more simplistic, but it still made you want to fight someone just because it surpassed your level of creativity (mine included).
It’s nuggets like this that keep the self proclaimed God MC ahead of the pack. The crazy thing is that of the millions and millions of people that consider themselves fans of Jay I’d venture to say that a strong 65% do not fully comprehend the content he’s rhyming about. Don’t believe me? Check this out.
On the Blueprint 3 Jay says in “Empire State of Mind” he says…
“Me, I gotta plug, Special Ed, “I Got it Made,” if Jeezy payin LeBron I’m payin Dwayne Wade.”
Now most cats would just take it as gospel and keep it moving. You’re probably reading this and saying to yourself… “wait, so he said Jeezy and not Jesus on that verse?” YES! That is EXACTLY what I’m saying. HOWEVER… bigger than is what you’re most likely missing. The true value of this gem is that in this verse he just told you what he pays for the “work” he gets from his suppliers.
Jeezy paying 23 (i.e. Lebron’s jersey number) Hov… he gets it for cheap. His connects hook him up for 3 (a.k.a. Wade’s jersey number). Simple right? Yet, if you don’t use your brain you’d never get it!
I can’t take credit for this interpretation of Jeezy/Wade it was my homie Curt Quillen (of http://www.BOyamaNYC.com) who enlightened me. So it’s only right for me to pay it forward!
Fix ya Face, Wake up and Pay attention!