Empire State of Mind

When the Yankees beat the Phillies in Game 6 of the World Series this year, Lisa and I were in Atlantic City at Game On! (great place to watch a game, by the way). There was a large crowd gathered, roughly split equally between New York and Philadelphia fans. The Jay-Z / Alicia Keys song "Empire State of Mind" was just become big - though I was ahead of the curve since I'd already received the album as a gift from Lisa and received a heads-up from a wise man about the album.

In my mind, I'd been wondering if this song was our generation's "New York, New York" and wondering how truly "good" of a song Empire State of Mind was. I'd been wondering if I was just getting carried away because the album was so catchy, but I'd been thinking that this song specifically would really catch on, and NYC people would love it when they heard it and belt out the chorus. I'd even been wondering if eventually this song would rival or surpass Sinatra's ode to New York that everybody knows (yes, I know Sinatra didn't write it). After all, would most people consider an song an appropriate ode to a city even though it contains gritty lines and images like "corners where we sellin rock" and "I got a gang of niggas walkin with my clique", as opposed to lofty ideas like "if I can make it there, I can make it anywhere"?

Well, the Yankees won and the series was over. Half of the packed crowd in Game On went apeshit. The DJ started blasting the "Empire State of Mind" chorus. A decent percentage of the beer-drinking crowd sang along at the top of their lungs with Alicia Keys, while the rest just hugged and celebrated. The DJ let it run for a minute and then went right into Sinatra's "New York, New York". Now, some of the older people who'd let Alicia Keys and a bunch of drunk strangers sing alone joined in and now everybody sang along and hugged like it was 1:55 at Vinny O's and MMG's run of songs just ended on the jukebox and we just sat through James Taylor and the Allman Brothers to get to Sinatra's closing song.

So, has Empire State of Mind reached the stature of NY, NY? Not yet. Will it? I don't think so. But, it was something that those were the *two* NYC celebratory songs played at that moment, and the song has only gotten bigger since the World Series ended. I wonder if it will get any consideration for awards (Grammys, American Music Awards, etc...)