I was running on the treadmill, and Jay-Z/Alicia Keys’ Empire State of Mind came on my iTunes. It’s a song that I particularly like, but I also think it’s cool that it’s a song that’s basically also a soliloquy to the city of New York, and how much Jay-Z thinks it’s a great place.
Somewhere along the line, I thought about Frank Sinatra’s New York, New York, and how it was such a classic, iconic song, and that it could probably never be replaced. I’m not saying Empire State of Mind replaced New York, New York as the anthem of the city, but it says something when it’s played at some point during every single Yankees home game at Yankee Stadium, in addition to Sinatra.
The bottom line is that Empire State of Mind is a song that, sure lyrically rap, which tends to make some people nervous, but has what I think is a catchy melody, beat, and is overall harmonically pleasing to listen to. Clearly, I’m not the only person who thinks this, and it’s a song that has done pretty well for itself in the grand spectrum of things.
If you haven’t already clicked the YouTube video, and don’t mind listening to shitty music, go ahead and click it now.
Long story short, The ATL is a song that was produced and made in like 2005, because the City of Atlanta wanted to brand itself, and in their words, “like New York.” The entire branding campaign cost Atlanta taxpayers somewhere in the ballpark of $5 million dollars, with $3 million of that going to “producer” Dallas Austin, to make this abomination of a “song.”
Conclusively, the entire campaign fell flat on its face, the city has an official logo that nobody recognizes, couldn’t even get “Atlanta.com,” having to settle with “Atlanta.net,” and was basically a complete and utter waste of taxpayer dollars. The city’s bonehead officials forgot that you can’t forcefully brand a city, and that a city’s branding often times comes unofficially and at the voice of people collectively.
As for the song itself, it pigeon-holed the entire city to what people already perceive of Atlanta: as a black people-dominated city, with its R&B crooning, bass-heavy, drumline beat and gospel-like background chorus that screams “We belong on BET only” instead of having any remote attempt to reach out to a broader, more top-40 like audience. White people don’t want to listen to this crap. Hispanics or Asians don’t want to listen to this either. Hell, there are probably black people that don’t want to listen to it either.
Basically, I consider this song to be one of the city’s more notable failures and embarrassments, and it makes me pine for someone(s) else to step forth and try and make something that isn’t quite so exclusive, and might actually be enjoyable to a broader audience.
Contrary to popular belief, sure, Atlanta is crawling with a thousand rappers, notable as well as pretenders, but there’s more to the musical history than just rap music. Especially if the guidelines expanded a little bit to include the neighborhoods of sprawl that feeds workers into Atlanta on a daily basis.
If it were up to me, I’d employ Ludacris to be the guy to spearhead this entire collaborative effort, because he’s a guy that has been proud and not the least bit reluctant to shout out to Atlanta throughout his whole career. I also think he’s a more cerebral and intelligent individual than people give him credit for. And frankly, with Atlanta’s population being majority black, without him, it would be hard to get that portion of the populous to be on board.
And if not Luda, then fuck it, get Outkast. They’ve successfully crossed genres before, there’s no reason to think they couldn’t do it again, especially with collaborators.
But performers I have in mind, when I think of Atlanta (area) musicians (that aren’t exclusive to rap) are names like the Black Crowes, the Indigo Girls and Butch Walker.
I know it’s all wishful thinking, but I want to be more proud of where I live, and it’s sometimes difficult to do when there are tons of preexisting reputations and stereotypes that are reinforced frequently. But a cool song that actually praises Atlanta, that doesn’t sound like it should only be played in an 88’ Caprice Classic with 30” rims would be a great start.
