And in this week’s NME, he gets to meet Ian Brown!…

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[6.83]

Martin Skidmore: Is Jay-Z en route to becoming the first rapper to go Vegas, to become a mainstream entertainer? Is this what he wants? Despite my love for the likes of the Wu, I kind of want that to happen, and this will do no harm, despite some language not tolerated outside his genre. Thoroughly enjoyable.
[8]

Al Shipley: You’d think Jay would be able to pull a big crowd-pleasing NYC anthem out of his ass any day of the week, so it’s either restraint or distraction that’s kept him from doing so for the first half dozen singles of his post-retirement career. Shame this is one of the tracks where he decided to try out an incredibly awkward and unpleasant flow, but Alicia does all the heavy lifting with that stargazing chorus and perfect bridge anyway.
[6]

Chris Boeckmann: I can’t listen to this song without being reminded of the tragic terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The crashing drums, echoing like that horrible day’s endless thunder. And Hov himself, soaring over the beat like an eagle, tear in his eye he still flies. Then the chorus comes in, with Alicia pointing us to the sky to remind us of that concrete jungle, fallin’. But she knows we cannot — no, we cannot — let that moment define our lives, our decade. And so, like the gorgeous, heroic firemen, this triumphant song not only lets us emerge from the rubble, it also reminds us to never forget the rubble. NEVER FORGET!!!!!!!
[10]

Jordan Sargent: There is something here that is stirring in a perfunctory way, and I think credit goes to Alicia Keys, who of course knows her way around a dumb, towering hook. But Jay here is as post-Black Album Jay does. His detached elitism is no longer obnoxiously charismatic. As a tribute to the city that he looms over (at least as much as the cast of Gossip Girl), “Empire State of Mind” is soulless and empty. He’s traced his rise up to his Tribeca penthouse many times before, and the rehash here is neither necessary nor illuminating, and thus the song has the same stench that usually emanates from a song commissioned for a big-budget movie that nobody really wants, and that’s kind of what Blueprint 3 is.
[4]

Matt Cibula: Okay, I’m a sucker for a good old NYC-based rap song, especially because I am missing the city a lot these days and dude covers a lot of it, not just Manahatto Isle. Not sure I like A-Keys’ background hookbellow, sounds kind of painful. Also it kind of sounds like Jay is opening himself up to charges of tampering from the Cleveland Cavaliers. Still though.
[7]

Chuck Eddy: Hey, I used to live in New York, too! Still have a subway map around here somewhere. Which means I could just as well have written this song. Gonna be a while before I miss the stupid place though.
[6]

Pete Baran: Is Jay-Z just pissed off that New York State Of Mind was already taken by Billy Joel? He shouldn’t be, cost his song is considerably better than Billy’s supper jazz. A really pleasant semi-list record, and Keys belts the chorus well too (though the “Big lights will inspire you” did initially sound like “Bit like swilling spider juice”, which created a significant aural double take).
[8]

Iain Mew: A lot initially passes by in a blur of unfamiliar name-drops, but the beat is bright and there’s definitely enough there to keep me hanging on to the chorus, at which point I’m sold. Absolutely bursting with pride and love, she could be singing to anywhere and it would sound like the best place in the world.
[8]

Doug Robertson: Jay-Z and Alicia work well together here, and if he’d turned his attention to something less navel gazing for his inspiration there’d be a lot more of interest here. Oh, and if Alicia had kept her involvment down to plinking on the piano and singing the chorus and hadn’t decided, for reasons best known to herself, to contribute her own godawful verse at the end of the track, this would be getting one whole extra point.
[6]

Alfred Soto: When U2 recorded a song about Miami they didn’t ask Mary J. Blige to add soul inspiration. That came later. As for Jigga, the Sinatra of his day gets by on speed and timbre rather than flow and inspiration. Maybe it’s time to resurrect Auto-Tune, as he’s done with his own career twice already.
[6]

Martin Kavka: The production tricks used on those opening seconds of Stacy Lattisaw’s “Love On A Two Way Street” are major enough to steamroll over any and all criticism. But I really can’t get past the fact that while the title promises a song about New York State, we get a lyric about New York City. Typical downstate imperialism. On the outskirts of Oneonta, the absence of lights enable you to see the stars on a clear night. Isn’t that inspiring too?
[7]

Hillary Brown: Yes it’s dated, but you could also call it a return to form; a soothing, gliding ode to a city that certainly isn’t mine, it cuts through the water like a power boat in slo-mo, spilling not a drop of champagne. It could be more adventurous, but if it’s between this and yelling tunelessly at T-Pain, I’ll take this anytime.
[6]