A song as anthemic as Jay-Z and Alicia Keys’ “Empire State of Mind” needs a music video to match. Cue auteur Hype Williams, who filmed the official clip you’ll find after the jump. Get ready for a ton of classy black-and-white shots of Jay and Alicia hanging out everywhere from Times Square to Harlem, surrounded by more than a few bright lights that will ins-pie-err yooooou.
Let me tell you, between “Empire State of Mind” and the way the Yanks are doing in the Series, this blogger is feeling so much NYC pride right now. Anyone with me? And how do non-New Yorkers feel about this song and video, anyway? Sound off in the comments section.
More from EW’s Music Mix:
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Watch Jay-Z and Alicia Keys perform “Empire State of Mind” at the World Series
JayZ is not my type of music but this song is catchy to me only because of Alicia’s chorus. The video has some great city shots. My husband is from Upstate so we’re cheering hard for the Yankees!
I LOVE NEW YORK!
wow, that lyric is absolutely terrible including the bad rhymes. and the drum machines and samples make it sound like Johnny 5 wrote it. so, like all hip-hop…it’s garbage.
All hip hop is not garbage. Your face is garbage.
You are so hopelessly out of touch, I’m surprised you were even able to use the computer to post that ignorant comment!!!
(that comment was for COUCHGROUCH)
Love this song, and New York! It’s my favorite place.
The video feels a bit lazy, especially when you consider “99 Problems” directed by Mark Romanek gave us a NYC that was vivid (and controversial). If Hype wanted to inspire, he could have given us more than Alicia Keys banging a piano in the middle of Times Square.
I agree. I wanted to see shots of nyc – the people the culture – not the buildings. I guess since no one airs videos anymore, he didn’t want to spend the money but the song is soooooo good. It needs a good video.
Autie your powerful argument on hip-hop’s behalf totally convinced me the drum machines, dreadful writing and profanity is all worthwhile. good job!
ha ha!
I’ll never understand why people (like Autie) get so defensive about an opinion from someone they don’t even know……
They probably should have put out a video before every person in NYC heard this song 10 million times coming from every car on the street and on every radio station every other song and started hating it. Not interested anymore!
I really, really hate rap and when EW posts songs/videos like this I sometimes listen and the “songs” are always filled with bad writing and mechanized “music”. rap does have people that jealously defend its virtues, whatever they may be. one guy said i deserved to die awhile back. (elsewhere) he did little to persuade me rap was little more than sex, violence and profanity. so it goes.
Hey couchgrouch, what I don’t understand is you taking the time to tell everyone about something you don’t like. If hip-hop is not your thing, then don’t listen. It says more about you that want to share how much you hate it. It’s only music, man (or woman)move on and let the rest of us enjoy it…
the video is mediocre. the song is a dope tribute. i wish more hip hop would have this maturity.
I’m not preventing you from enjoying it. the guy who wrote the intro to the video asked people to give their views. he even said it might “inspire” me. I gave my opinion, said it didn’t and said why. I’m a songwriter so I find people who make hip-hop a little more offensive than perhaps the average person.
Please tell me someone out there other than me cares that “concrete jungle where dreams are made of” is not in any way a coherent phrase in the English language.
I hope not. Its an anthem, not a dissertation.
The video could have been better, but the song is AMAZING. It makes me proud to be born and raised in New York.
i am from nyc and im feelin real good and so are all my friends… go yankeees!love the jay z video… was listenin to his new artists the other day from nyc too…They are called MAXIMUM WAGE….www.myspace.com/mwagerecords…
As a non-new yorker, I am not feeling the pride or love. Where’s my Milwaukee love song!!! I think George Jones did one