Jay-Z featuring Alicia Keyes

Empire StateState of Mind

I’m up at Brooklyn, now I’m down in TribecaRight next to DeNiro, but I’ll be hood foreverI’m the new Sinatra, and since I made it hereI can make it anywhere, yeah, they love me everywhere

I used to cop in Harlem, all of my DominicanosRight there up on Broadway, brought me back to that

McDonald’sTook it to my stash spot, 560 State StreetCatch me in the kitchen like a Simmons whipping

pastry

Allusion:Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York”

Simile:Comparison using “like”Allusion (Reference to

Popular Culture): Rev. Run’s daughters run a company called Pastry.

Pun (Play on Words): The clothing line is called “Pastry.” Their company is not actually based in a kitchen.

Cruising down 8th Street, off-white LexusDriving so slow, but BK is from TexasMe, I’m up at Bed-Stuy, home of that boy

BiggieNow I live on Billboard, and I brought my

boys with me

Say what up to Ty Ty, still sipping maltaSitting courtside, Knicks and Nets give me

high fivesI be spiked out, I can trip a refereeTell by my attitude that I am most definitely

from…

Metaphor:He doesn’t literally live on Billboard Street. He “lives” on the Billboard charts.Internal Near Rhyme created using assonance (repeated long “i” sound)

Allusion (reference to historical figure):Movie director Spike Lee frequently sits courtside at NBA games.

Alliteration (repeated starting consonant sound): Knicks and Nets

Synecdoche (a part standing for a whole): “BK” is “Beyonce Knowles.”

Portmanteau Word:Bedford-Stuyvesant, neighborhoods in NYC

In New York, concrete jungle where dreams are made of

There’s nothing you can’t do, now you’re in New York

These streets will make you feel brand newBig lights will inspire you, let’s hear it for New York

Metaphor

Catch me at the X with OG at a Yankee gameI made the Yankee hat more famous than a Yankee canYou should know I bleed blue, but I ain’t a Crip thoughBut I got a gang…walking with my clique, though

Welcome to the melting pot, corners where we selling rock

Afrika Bambaataa…home of the hip hopYellow Cab, Gypsy Cab, Dollar Cab, holla backFor foreigners that ain’t fifty, they act like they forgot how

to act

Synecdoche:Jay-Z uses “X” to stand for the whole word “Bronx.”

Alliteration: Repeated “bl” sound to start words

MetaphorsandAssonance

Repetition

Eight million stories out there, and they’re naked

Cities is a pity, half of y’all won’t make itMe, I gotta plug, Special Ed “I Got It Made”If Jeezy’s payin’ Lebron, I’m paying Dwyane

Wade

Three dice Cee-lo, three-card MonteLabor Day Parade, rest in peace, Bob MarleyStatue of Liberty, long live the World TradeLong live the king, yo, I’m from the Empire

State that’s…

Allusion: A reference to rapper Young Jeezy

Metaphor:Lebron = 23Wade = 3(their jersey numbers)

Alliteration

Allusion

Light’s is blinding, girls need blindersSo they can step out of bounds quickThe sidelines is blind with casualtiesWho sipping life casually, then gradually become

worse

Don’t bite the apple, Eve, caught up in the in crowd

Now you’re in style and in the winter gets coldEn vogue with your skit out, the city of sin is a pity

on a whimGood girls gone bad, the cities filled with them

Allusion to the story of Adam and Eve in the Book of Genesis. The reference implies that girls should resist temptation.

Assonance

Internal Rhyme

Alliteration

Mommy took a bus trip, now she got her bust outEverybody ride her just like a bus routeHail Mary to the city, you’re a virginAnd Jesus can’t save you, life starts when the

church ends

Came here for school, graduated to the high lifeBall players, rap stars addicted to the limelightMDMA got you feeling like a championThe city never sleeps, better slip you an Ambien

Personification:Lending the city the human action of sleep.

Simile

Assonance creates a near rhyme to end these lines.

Idiom and Irony:The use of “high life” is ironic, because it would usually suggest a better life, and yet it is a reference to getting “high” from drugs.