“Empire State of Mind” is destined to be played in promos for Knicks games. “Let’s hear it for New York!” Alicia sings in the cheesy hook, giving Jay a breather from name dropping every tourist spot in the verses. Why would he title this flaccid song in such a way as to draw comparisons to Nas’ “N.Y. State of Mind”? Is he trying to give us yet another reason to dig up a copy of Illmatic?




































