Advertising
You are not logged in

New York Magazine

Skip to content, or skip to search.

Skip to content, or skip to search.

Advertising

What Do Jay-Z, Santogold, and Biggie Smalls All Have in Common?

  • 12/2/08 at 5:15 PM
What Do Jay-Z, Santogold, and Biggie Smalls All Have in Common?

Photo: Getty Images

“Brooklyn (Go Hard)” is indeed chockablock with all things Brooklyn: Jay-Z deploys a phony Jamaican patois; riffs on a local hero (“I Brooklyn Dodger them / I jack, I rob, I sin, amen / I'm Jackie Robinson / except when I run base, I dodge the pen”); and borrows the borough’s own Santogold for a sample (off “Shove It”) and a guest verse. This all presumably owes to the song being destined for the soundtrack to Notorious, the Biggie Smalls biopic. (Do we need to tell you where Biggie’s from?) The track’s one interloper, Kanye West, comes correct with an ominously bombastic beat — think “Jesus Walks.”

Download “Brooklyn (Go Hard)”: 2dopeboyz

Share
Advertising
Editors
Lane Brown and Mark Graham
Managing Editor
Jessica Coen
Articles Editor
Nick Catucci
Win $25K!

Recent News

The Lost Symbol

By Dan Brown, September 15, 2009