Some of the great mysteries of music are: Who was Carly Simon talking about in ‘You’re So Vain’? What did Billie Joe throw off the Tallahatchie Bridge? And what city was Jay-Z referring to in his hit track ‘Empire State Of Mind’?
If you look very closely at the subtle lyrics you will see that he actually peppered in clues throughout the song to help you figure out the location.
Clue 1: “Yea, yea I’m out that Brooklyn, now I’m down in Tribeca” – There is both a Brooklyn, Michigan and a Tribeca Court, Michigan. I suspect we are looking for a city perhaps along highway US-127.
Clue 2: “Pull me back to that McDonald’s, took it to my stashbox, 560 State St.” there are 545 McDonald’s locations in Michigan. There is a 560 State St. in Hudson, Michigan which is just 30 minutes south of Brooklyn, MI with a McDonald’s just TWO MILES away. That can’t be a coincidence.
Clue 3: “Say whattup to Ty-Ty, still sippin’ Mai Tai’s” – If you check the Yelp reviews for Jim Brady’s a restaurant just up the road in Jackson, MI you will find a one star review that mentions the awful Mai Tai’s. Also in Jackson is Mount Evergreen Cemetery. Buried there … Tyler Thomas! Ty-Ty.
Clue 4: “In New York, Concrete jungle where dreams are made of” – Concrete Jungle? You mean Cement City, Michigan, which is just 19 minutes away from Jackson?! Which is near Goose Lake, a wooded jungle area. The main street of Cement City is Woodstock Street – like the festival Woodstock was held in the state of New York.
Clue 5: “Catch me at the X with OG at a Yankee game” – The X is obviously a reference to Michigan’s Xtreme Soccer League, OG stands for Oakland County Golf for their famous courses, and a Yankee Game is clearly Jay-Z brag about his to find price reduced candles at Eastwood Towne Center Mall in Lancing.
Clue 6: “Put your lighters in the air everybody say yeah, yeah, yea, yea” – Guess what the Bowers Manufacturing Company out of Kalamazoo, Michigan make? You guessed it. Lighters.
Clue 7: “End of the winter gets cold, en vogue, with your skin out” Obviously it get cold in Michigan, everyone knows that. But what Jay is also referring to is the city of Coldwater, Michigan. A place where citizen do a yearly Polar bears plunge into Keuka Lake.
Now, map all the clues out and you will find something very curious…
Jay-Z literally drew a circle around Tekonsha, Michigan. Tekonsha… the city Jay-Z is referring to in ‘Empire State of Mind’. He even says “Don’t bite the apple, Eve,” which is a reference to Tekonsha’s own Harvey’s Farm which has apple picking. He couldn’t have made it any more obvious.