Image via Complex Original
Jay-Z's series of concerts opening up the Barclays Center in Brooklyn has provided us all with a nice little narrative arc for his career: Here's a guy who came up with nothing, ended up taking over the world, and now he's back in his old 'hood to share the wealth.
We went through Jigga's entire discography and scooped all of the references to Brooklyn he makes on his songs. Given that there are roughly 208 songs in his official body of work and we ended up with 67 references (a few tracks contain multiple nods to BK, but work with us here), Jay-Z has referenced his home borough on approximately 37% of his songs. Think about that—drop the needle on any Jay-Z song out there, and there is a one-third chance he's going to be talking about Brooklyn. That's huge.
The idea of tracking a rapper's career on the basis of how they talk about a single place provides a nice way of tracking their artistic progress. In the beginning, Jay-Z talked about Brooklyn because it was where he did his dirt—the song "Coming Of Age" is literally him picking Memphis Bleek up in a car and driving around Marcy, discussing the best way to make a million in a world that's structured to shut them out.
As Jay became a more well-established force within the New York rap scene, Brooklyn became a way of reminding you he wasn't to be fucked with. He might be getting brunch at the Four Seasons, but the goon squad was just a phone call away in Brooklyn. This was also a time in Jay's run when he was a street dude who wasn't fully comfortable trafficking in the higher echelons of culture. Brooklyn was a constant reminder of where he came from and who he was. Brooklyn served as a reminder that the guy with a No. 1 pop smash might be Jay, but so was the guy who allegedly stabbed Lance "Un" Riviera for possibly leaking Vol. 3… Life And Times Of S. Carter, and he was Brooklyn as fuck. As Jay entered the "icon" status of his career, he began to retain a sort of Jordan-esque flair for holding grudges, positively going in on guys like Joe Budden and Jim Jones, mere flies buzzing about his throne, for even possibly thinking that the hottest in NYC might hail from somewhere other than Brooklyn.
Odder still was Jay's post-Blueprint, pre-Black Album period, where he managed to squeeze off an Unplugged album with The Roots, The Blueprint 2 and Best Of Both Worlds. His Unplugged remains one of the best entries in the series, but Blueprint 2 is probably the most random album in Hova's discography, finding the God MC trading bars with Sean Paul, having Heavy D loop Cake only for Lenny Kravitz to sing the chorus, and even convincing Rakim to dust off the mic to rap with Dr. Dre. What you hear there is a man who reached ubiquity try to determine what, exactly, was the best way to maintain that ubiquity, searching for a sound that would connect globally while still keeping shit Marcy.
Somehow, he did this—having M.O.P. showing up on the remix to "U Don't Know" helped. Then, there's Best Of Both Worlds. Dear Christ, Best Of Both Worlds. A collaboration album with R. Kelly, produced by Trackmasters at their schlockiest, it's the type of thing that people tend to sweep under the rug when discussing Jay's legacy. If you've ever wanted to hear someone sound like they want to be anywhere other than the booth they're in rapping about cran-apple colored Benzes and trying to avoid R. Kelly's sneak disses on Sisqo, you should listen to it. Still, it contains a Jay line that's eerily prophetic: "Imma floss til they toss me a Bed-Stuy parade." I mean, the dude's got a stadium and a basketball team already. It's not out of the question.
As Jay settled more and more into his role as Rap Game Bono, Brooklyn took on yet another role still. WIth the proper amount of time sitting between him and his upbringing, Jay began to wax more and more lovingly about the streets that raised him, a reminder to us common folk that he, too, was once one of us.
Just as Jay rapped his way out of the projects and into within seven inches of President Barack Obama, we, too, can make it to the absolute top of American culture, provided we have prodigious rap skills, the business acumen of a one-percenter, and a little bit of luck. As long as we remember where we came from.
Written by Drew Millard (@drewmillard)
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"Jay-Z, Biggie Smalls, nigga shit your drawers/Brooklyn represent y'all, hit you fold/You crazy, think your little bit of rhymes can play me?/I'm from Marcy, I'm varsity, chump you're JV"
Song: "Brooklyn's Finest"
Album: Reasonable Doubt (1996)
Well, this song is pretty much exclusively about Brooklyn and how awesome Jay-Z and Biggie are.
"Place: Marcy, Brooklyn"
Song: "Coming Of Age"
Album: Reasonable Doubt
Jay spots a young buck who goes by the name of Memphis Bleek and decides to take him under his wing. Bleek is so magnanimous that he doesn't even take Jay's offer of a cool thou' to ride around Marcy with him.
"Don't worry about Brooklyn I continue to flame"
Song: "The City Is Mine"
Album: In My Lifetime: Vol. 1 (1997)
Jay-Z continues to remind everybody that he's from Brooklyn. Maybe in case someone got mad about him making a song with Blackstreet?
"Just blow up, scream my name from Brooklyn to Dakota/They know my shit stench without the baking soda"
Song: "Rap Game/Crack Game"
Album: In My Lifetime: Vol. 1
Pretty weird that Jay showed little to no interest in locking the West Coast down, but maybe somebody should have thought a little harder when naming the state of California so that it rhymed with more stuff.
"Get your shit scarred fuckin' with my sick squad/From Marcy to the Bay y'all, we got large, keep in charge"
Song: "Real Niggaz"
Album: In My Lifetime: Vol. 1
The precursor to his verse on G.O.O.D. Music's "Clique."
"This goes out to my Brooklyn Crew, put ya guns up in the air if ya feel me"
Song: "Face Off"
Album: In My Lifetime: Vol. 1
There's no better way to show support for the home team.
"Mentally been many places but I'm Brooklyn's own"
Song: "Where I'm From"
Album: In My Lifetime: Vol. 1
"Cough up a lung, where I'm from, Marcy son"
Song: "Where I'm From"
Album: In My Lifetime: Vol. 1
"I'm from Marcy son, just thought I'd remind y'all"
Song: "Where I'm From"
Album: In My Lifetime: Vol. 1
"Uh uh uh/Brooklyn/Respect this here. Check!/I'm from where the hammers rung, news cameras never come"
Song: "Where I'm From"
Album: In My Lifetime: Vol. 1
"Gonna stretch my mic out in Ponce Funeral Home on Marcy"
Song: "Intro—Hand It Down (f. Memphis Bleek)"
Album: Vol. 2...Hard Knock Life (1998)
This is a pretty odd intro, especially considering this prefaced the album where Jay started moving from "pretty hot New York Rapper" to "global force." He paid some guy to pretend he was a Jay-Z on his death bed, talking about how he was hanging up the mic in the local funeral home and letting Memphis Bleek take over the rap game for him. It didn't work out, but it still pretty nice of Jay to give Memph like 37 chances to get famous. Did Bleek save Jay's life or some shit when they were kids?
"Bed-Stuy Brook-lon took on the world/Shit, I led a life you can write a book on"
Song: "Money Cash Hoes"
Album: Vol. 2...Hard Knock Life
Prophetic, this line.
"I had so must hustle plus I was down to ill/Like a Brooklyn nigga, straight outta Brownsville"
Song: "A Week Ago"
Album: Vol. 2...Hard Knock Life
We're pretty sure Jay's referencing M.O.P. here, who make the gulliest fight music this side of polite societies that aren't solely governed by brute force.
"I'm from Marcy, and Marcy don't raise no rats"
Song: "A Week Ago"
Album: Vol. 2...Hard Knock Life
"I went from Marcy to Hollywood/And back again and back again"
Song: "Marcy To Hollywood"
Album: Players' Club OST (1998)
"Check, live from the 718/Either respect the flow or learn lesson from your weight"
Song: "What The Game Made Me"
Album: I Got The Hook Up! OST (1998)
"But I'm from Bed-Stuy, killa with the flow/Let lead fly out from the four-four, motherfuckers"
Song: "S. Carter"
Album: Vol. 3...Life And Times Of S. Carter (1999)
One thing we miss about new Jay is he threatens to kill people a lot less. Luckily, old Jay-Z albums still exist.
"The fo'-fo' is like a force field, you won't get me/I brought some folk with me, Brooklyn is loc'n with me"
Song: "Snoopy Track"
Album: Vol. 3...Life And Times Of S. Carter
Putting on for the city, etc.
"Cheah, NYMP the realest/This is educated thug music"
Song: "NYMP"
Album: Vol. 3...Life And Times Of S. Carter
New York Marcy Projects. Represent!
"I made it so, you could say Marcy and it was all good/I ain't no crossover I brought the suburbs to the hood"
Song: "Come And Get Me"
Album: Vol. 3...Life And Times Of S. Carter
We guess this is technically accurate? Jay crossed over pretty hard a few years later though, and it's pretty debatable about how hard he switched the style up to accommodate the 'burbs.
"I'm from the M-to-the-A-baby-R-C-Y/So it's hard for me to let the larceny die"
Song: "So Ghetto"
Album: Vol. 3...Life And Times Of S. Carter
Going through Jay's discography, you notice that every few years he'll make a song that is expressly about how awesome it is to be from Brooklyn. This is basically the equivalent of U2 making a song about how psyched Ireland makes them.
"I spit Brook-Brook-Brooklyn every time I bust/Radio's gotta play me though I cuss to much"
Song: "So Ghetto"
Album: Vol. 3...Life And Times Of S. Carter
"Career crook, nobody rep Brooklyn like me/Jiggaman, Volume 3, I'm back looking like meStop the presses, baby girls drop your dresses/BK like a shot for Big Pop in heaven"
Song: "So Ghetto"
Album: Vol. 3...Life And Times Of S. Carter
"I bet his wrists ain't bluish like this/And I'm from Marcy, you catch me on anybody's block"
Song: "Hey Papi"
Album: Nutty Professor 2 OST (2000)
Ten bucks says Jay-Z would pay a million dollars for his name to never come up in a Google search of "Nutty Professor 2" ever again.
"Take a nigga brick, smack him, then you sell it back to them/Still there Brooklyn?"
Song: "1-900-Hustler"
Album: Dynasty: Roc La Familia (2000)
This is a great song, because it's basically about Jay and the rest of the Roc Familia running a call center where they give people advice on how to hustle. The Wire came next.
"You know when I heard that? When I was back home/I'm comfortable dogg, Brooklyn to Rome"
Song: "Streets Is Talking"
Album: Dynasty: Roc La Familia
Insert comment about Jay-Z's worldliness here.
"Sigel lock Philly up, Brooklyn is me/Matter of fact, the East Coast fuck took it from me"
Song: "Change The Game"
Album: Dynasty: Roc La Familia
Jay's got Brooklyn on lock, brought Beans to the team to sew up Philly.
"Marcy raised me, and whether right or wrong/Streets gave me all I write in this song"
Song: "Blueprint (Momma Love Me)
Album: The Blueprint (2001)
Chicken-and-egg theorizing, Marcy edition.
"Imma floss til they throw me a Bed-Stuy parade"
Song: "The Best Of Both Worlds"
Album: Best of Both Worlds (2002)
Has anybody thrown Jay a parade yet? Can we just throw him one? Like once? What if the Nets win a championship? Somebody call Bloomberg, quick.
"For my Brownsville neighbors, how about some hardcore?"
Song: "U Don't Know (Remix)"
Album: The Blueprint 2: The Gift And The Curse
M.O.P. all day, every day.
"Now how the fuck they gone deal with me?/I ain't going nowhere, they gotta deal with me/Got the whole BK ready to kill with me/You scared motherfucker, keep it real with me"
Song: "What They Gonna Do Part II"
Album: The Blueprint 2: The Gift And The Curse
Honestly, some of us live in Brooklyn but we're not really ready to kill for Jay. Who's he beefing with these days? World leaders? Zuckerberg?
"Troubled man, dare I say, I am Mar with the flow/I come up hard but I evolve with the flow"
Song: "What They Gonna Do Part II"
Album: The Blueprint 2: The Gift And The Curse
"I'm a Bed-Stuy nigga but I do it to death/I promise I'm at St. Thomas homie eating at Chef's/One Twelve, ATL, the sun up yet?"
Song: "All Around The World"
Album: The Blueprint 2: The Gift And The Curse
Aspirational narratives! The hood Horatio Alger! Can somebody hire DJ Khaled to yell that?
"All around the world/Brooklyn bombers/Detroit Players/Chi-Town, all around the world"
Song: "All Around The World"
Album: The Blueprint 2: The Gift And The Curse
Okay, so those are all just people who do stuff in cities in America, but you get the point.
"Said it ain't you from where it's at/Real niggas out in Brooklyn, so niggas don't clap"
Song: "All Around The World"
Album: The Blueprint 2: The Gift And The Curse
"Burn slow like blunts of hydro/Jiggaman, BK shit, y'all know"
Song: "Who Shot Ya" (Freestyle)
Album: The S. Carter Collection (2003)
Though he famously doesn't smoke weed very often, you get the sense that every time he does Jay raps about it.
"I say a B.I.G. verse, I'm only bigging up my brother/Bigging up my borough, I'm big enough to do it"
Song: "What More Can I Say?"
Album: The Black Album (2003
Much has been made about how Jay routinely lifts Biggie lines, but if you just say you're paying homage, that's fine.
"Can I get an encore, do you want more?/Cookin' raw with the Brooklyn boy"
Song: "Encore"
Album: The Black Album
Lest we forget, Jay-Z is a former drug dealer.
"From Marcy to Madison Square/The only thing that matters in just a matter of years"
Song: "Encore"
Album: The Black Album
The fact that Jay's performing at the Barclays Center totally transcends this line.
"Your boy back in the building, Brooklyn we back on the map/Me and my beautiful beeeeeitch in the back of the 'Bach"
Song: "Dirt Off Your Shoulder"
Album: The Black Album
One day Jay-Z and Beyonce will hang out with us in a Maybach. We are certain of it.
"I'm strong enough to carry Biggie Smalls on my back/And the whole BK, nigga, holla back"
Song: "Moment Of Clarity"
Album: The Black Album
"Like it's '92 again and/And I got O's in the rental/Back in the Stuy again"
Song: "My 1st Song"
Album: The Black Album
What do you think Jay did in his Jordanesque retirement? Did he actually play golf like he threatened to do at the end of this song?
"I do so much sauce with lines with someone who saw my climb/From Marcy to party where you soaking' up blue nine"
Song: "Stop" (f. Foxy Brown)
Album: Unfinished Business (2004)
Damn, nobody likes to talk about the albums Jay-Z did with R. Kelly, but they sort of rule.
"Brooklyn get paper/Tote bag thangs/We chase niggas around they own ball games"
Song: "Brooklyn High (We Fly)"
Album: N/A (2006)
Jay-Z chooses the oddest sparring partners. Just when Jim Jones released "We Fly High" and had the world eating out of his tattooed, vampiric hands, Jay jacked his beat and reminded everybody why he's the best rapper alive.
"Bed-Stuy, Brownsville CI/The best in the game since Daddy Kane and B.I."
Song: "Brooklyn High (We Fly)"
Album: N/A
"I'm ballin' for real you pump faking' it/Manhattan keep on faking it, Brooklyn keep on taking it"
Song: "Brooklyn High (We Fly)"
Album: N/A
"I'm in BK where it ain't every day you make it out/To be on top of yachts waving"
Song: "I Made It"
Album: Kingdom Come (2006)
Jay-Z was Yacht Rap before Rick Ross was Yacht Rap, and he was better at it.
"Born in Brooklyn, got a place in Manhattan/Going back to Brooklyn to escape the madness"
Song: "Hollywood"
Album: Kingdom Come
This is why everybody moves to Brooklyn. That, and the rent's cheaper.
"Iller than Albee Square Mall back in the 9-0"
Song: "Hello Brooklyn"
Album: American Gangster
"I father, I Brooklyn Dodger them/I jack I rob, I sin./Aw man, I'm Jackie Robinson"
Song: "Brooklyn Go Hard"
Album: Notorious OST
"Now when I bring the Nets, I'm the black Branch Rickey/From Brooklyn corners, burn in' branches of sticky/Spread love, Biggie, Brooklyn, Hippie"
Song: "Brooklyn Go Hard"
Album: Notorious OST
"Get your chain tooken, I may do it myself, I'm so Brooklyn"
Song: "D.O.A."
Album: The Blueprint 3 (2009)
Remember when Jay-Z wasn't a walking press release and was actually scary as fuck? Like stabbing people and shit? That Jay-Z ruled.
"Meanwhile I had Oprah chillin in the projects/Had her out in Bed-Stuy, chillin on the steps"
Song: "On To The Next One"
Album: The Blueprint 3
The only thing crazier than rapping this is the fact that it actually happened.
"Mobb Deep shook it but Prodigy took it a lil' too far/Can't fuck with Brooklyn"
Song: "A Star Is Born"
Album: The Blueprint 3
Queens is cool and all, but eh. Brooklyn's way better.
"Yeah I'm out that Brooklyn/Now I'm down in TriBeCa/Right next to De Niro/But I'll be hood forever"
Song: "Empire State Of Mind"
Album: The Blueprint 3
Jay's New York anthem is peppered with references to the borough that spawned him. Is there a motion we've got to file in order to get this to be the official song of the city? Is that even a thing?
"Took it to my stash spot, 560 State Street/Catch me in the kitchen like a Simmons with them pastries"
Song: "Empire State Of Mind"
Album: The Blueprint 3
"Me I'm out in Bed-Stuy home of that boy Biggie/Now I live on Billboard and I brought my boys with me"
Song: "Empire State Of Mind"
Album: The Blueprint 3
"Jimi Hendrix, I'm so left mode/Southpaw, I'm an outlaw"
Song: "Ghetto Techno"
Album: The Blueprint 3 Outtakes (2009)
This is one of those sneakily great lines, packed with meaning, that Jay manages to squeeze off with ease. He's a lefty, yeah, but Southpaw is a legendary hip-hop club in Brooklyn that closed down in February.
"Chi-town's D-Rose/I'm movin' the Nets to BK"
Song: "Niggas In Paris"
Album: Watch The Throne (2011)
Yet another one of those "holy fuck Jay-Z actually did this" lines.