cember 8, 2009
A Common Misunderstanding of
the Lyrics of Jay-Z's "Empire
State of Mind"
by David Cho posted @1:01 PM
If
you're like me (and the rest of
America, according to the Billboard
Hot 100), you love the Jay-Z song
"Empire State of Mind." But here's
the thing: there's apparently a
frequently-misunderstood lyric
regarding popular NBA players
LeBron James and Dwyane Wade,
one that seems to leave a number
of people befuddled. Maybe you've
heard this line? It's in the second
verse and goes something like this,
"I got it made/If Jeezy's payin'
LeBron, I'm paying Dwyane Wade."
A lot of people think this has to do
with an NBA franchise, of which
Jay-Z is a part-owner: the New
Jersey —soon to be Brooklyn—
Nets. Those people are wrong.
The lyric in question is usually
misconstrued in one of two ways.
Either:
1) It's misheard as: "If Jesus paying
LeBron, I'm paying Dwyane Wade."
Or:
2) It's heard correctly, but taken
literally, as: "If Jeezy's paying
LeBron, I'm paying Dwyane Wade."
Here's how the different scenarios
break down:
1) "If Jesus is paying LeBron, I'm
paying Dwyane Wade." A lot of
people assume that this means
that there's someone named Jesus
who owns a large equity stake in
an NBA franchise who is vying for
LeBron James (one of the best NBA
players of all time, and close friend
of Jay-Z) when James hits the
market as a free agent in 2010.
Well, you know what they say
about happens when you assume,
and that's just what you've done.
No one named Jesus, pronounced
like the son of God and not in the
more commonly used Hispanic
way, owns any part of any NBA
team. Sorry.
2) "If Jeezy's paying LeBron, I'm
paying Dwyane Wade." So now
you might think, okay, maybe the
popular rapper Young Jeezy owns
a bit of an NBA team, just like Jay-Z
does, and he's saying that if Jeezy
signs LeBron, Jay-Z will then settle
for Dwyane Wade. Again, you could
not be anymore incorrect, I'm
sorry. Young Jeezy also does not
have any points in an NBA
franchise. It seems weird that you
even thought that.
The actual answer is a bit more
complicated.
In Young Jeezy's song "24-23
(Kobe-Lebron)," Jeezy uses the
players' jersey numbers to
articulate the price he's paying of a
kilogram of cocaine.
The chorus of that song goes, "I
used to pay Kobe [24], but now I
pay LeBron [23]." This means that
he used to pay $24,000 for a kilo of
coke, whereas now? He only pays $
23,000, you see.
So. In "Empire," Jay-Z takes this
one step further, so as to show his
impressive status in New York. He
suggests that, while Jeezy may be
paying $23,000, Jay-Z is paying a
mere $3000 (expressed as Dwyane
Wade's jersey number) for a kilo of
cocaine.
David Cho is the publisher of The
Awl.

Jay-Z is sick

Sick as in dope?? Or as in a craze mur'a4cker mason . Lol. .

lol he's dope

Thank you for the analysis. More ink to your pen.

ryhmz stop using JESUS CHRIST name as example even if you MUSLIM,
Im warning you, even if you an mc. watch your lip. dont even try to expanciate on what people have said about OUR LORD JESUS. Bleep You RYHMZ, dats for using HIS name.

Hello