After delaying his pre-World Series performance of “Empire State Of Mind” for reasons that were either weather-related or scheduling-conflict-borne, Jay-Z took the song to the field at Yankee Stadium before last night’s Game 2. (He continued his run as a good-luck charm for the home team; the Yankees topped the Phillies, 3-1.) Our F2K correspondent Christopher R. Weingarten was not all too pleased about this, saying on his Twitter, “If New York is so great, it really shouldn’t fall for something as cloying as ‘Empire State Of Mind’.” Which garnered a sorta-obvious, yet still noteworthy, parallel from diehard Phillies partisan JT Ramsay: “I hope Billy Joel gets a songwriting credit!” Sure, the titular similarities between the two Big Apple odes were obvious from the day that the track listing leaked, but this recent spate of Yankees-flogging does take things to another level. Why, just look at the below performance of the Piano Man performing his Big Apple shout-out at the old Yankee Stadium in 1990.





Someone needs to make a mash-up of these two songs, although I fear that whoever does will put way too much John Sterling “thu-hu-hu-hu-huhhhhhh YANKEES WIN” sputtering for my taste. (By which I mean: Any at all.) Also, could you make a case that “Off That” is Jay’z ersatz “We Didn’t Start The Fire”?


[HD] Jay Z & Alicia Keys – Empire State Of Mind (Live At World Series 2009 Game 2 Yankee Stadium) [YouTube]
New York State Of Mind [YouTube]
Related: Let’s Just Take the Comment Section Below the New York Times’ “Empire State of Mind”/World Series Piece as a Sign of Progress, America