reading comparing and contrasting

Empire State Of Mind
JAY-Z

Yeah

Yeah I’m out that Brooklyn, now I’m down in Tribeca

Right next to DeNiro, but I’ll be hood forever

I’m the new Sinatra, and, since I made it here

I can make it anywhere, yeah, they love me everywhere

I used to cop in Harlem, all of my Dominicanos

Right there up on Broadway, pull me back to that McDonald’s

Took it to my stashbox, 560 State St

Catch me in the kitchen like a Simmons wippin’ pastry’s

Cruisin’ down 8th St, off white Lexus

Drivin’ so slow, but BK is from Texas

Me, I’m out that Bed-Stuy, home of that boy Biggie

Now I live on Billboard and I brought my boys with me

Say what up to Ty-Ty, still sippin’ Mai Tais

Sittin’ courtside, Knicks and Nets give me high five

Nigga I be Spike’d out, I could trip a referee (come on, come on, come on)

Tell by my attitude that I’m most definitely from

In New York (ayy, ah-ha) (uh, yeah)

Concrete jungle (yeah) where dreams are made of

There’s nothin’ you can’t do (yeah) (okay)

Now you’re in New York (ah-ha, ah-ha, ah-ha) (uh, yeah)

These streets will make you feel brand new (new)

Big lights will inspire you (come on) (okay)

Let’s hear it for New York (you’re welcome, OG) (come on)

New York (yeah), New York (uh) (I made you hot)

Catch me at the X with OG at a Yankee game

Shit, I made the Yankee hat more famous then a Yankee can

You should know I bleed blue, but I ain’t a Crip though

But I got a gang of niggas walkin’ with my clique though

Welcome to the melting pot, corners where we sellin’ rock

Afrika Bambataa shit, home of the hip-hop

Yellow cab, gypsy cab, dollar cab, holla back

For foreigners it ain’t fair, they act like they forgot how to act

Eight million stories, out there in the naked

City is a pity, half of y’all won’t make it

Me, I got a plug, Special Ed “I Got It Made”

If Jesus payin’ Lebron, I’m payin’ Dwyane Wade

Three dice cee-lo, three card Monte

Labor Day Parade, rest in peace Bob Marley

Statue of Liberty, long live the World Trade (come on, come on, come on)

Long live the King yo, I’m from the Empire State that’s

In New York (ayy, ah-ha) (uh, yeah)

Concrete jungle (yeah) where dreams are made of

There’s nothin’ you can’t do (that boy good) (okay)

Now you’re in New York (uh, yeah)

(Welcome to the bright lights, baby)

These streets will make you feel brand new

Big lights will inspire you (okay)

Let’s hear it for New York (come on)

New York (yeah), New York (uh)

Lights is blinding, girls need blinders

So they can step out of bounds quick, the sidelines is

Lined with casualties, who sip the life casually

Then gradually become worse, don’t bite the apple, Eve

Caught up in the in-crowd, now you’re in style

End of the winter gets cold, en vogue, with your skin out

City of sin, it’s a pity on the whim

Good girls gone bad, the city’s filled with them

Mommy took a bus trip, now she got her bust out

Everybody ride her, just like a bus route

“Hail Mary” to the city, you’re a virgin

And Jesus can’t save you, life starts when the church end

Came here for school, graduated to the high life

Ball players, rap stars, addicted to the limelight

MDMA got you feelin’ like a champion (come on, come on, come on)

The city never sleeps, better slip you an Ambien

In New York (ayy, ah-ha) (uh, yeah)

Concrete jungle where dreams are made of

There’s nothin’ you can’t do (okay)

Now you’re in New York (uh, yeah)

These streets will make you feel brand new

Big lights will inspire you (okay)

Let’s hear it for New York (come on)

New York (yeah), New York (uh)

One hand in the air for the big city

Street lights, big dreams, all lookin’ pretty

No place in the world that could compare

Put your lighters in the air everybody say

“Yeah, yeah” (come on, come on, come on)

“Yeah, yeah”

In New York (uh, yeah)

Concrete jungle where dreams are made of

There’s nothin’ you can’t do (okay)

Now you’re in New York (uh, yeah)

These streets will make you feel brand new

Big lights will inspire you

Let’s hear it for New York (come on)

New York (yeah), New York (uh)

Izzo (H.O.V.A.)
JAY-Z

Ladies and gentlemen let’s put our hands together for the astonishing

H to the izz-O, V to the izz-A…

Welcome ladies and gentlemen to the 8th wonder of the world

The flow of the century, oh it’s timeless. HOV’!

Thanks for comin out tonight

You coulda been anywhere in the world, but you’re here with me

I appreciate that, uh

H to the izz-O, V to the izz-A

Fo’ shizzle my nizzle used to dribble down in VA

Was hurtin ’em in the home of the Terrapins; got it dirt cheap for them

Plus if they was short with cheese I would work with them

Brought in weed, got rid of that dirt for them

Wasn’t born hustlers, I was birthin ’em

H to the izz-O, V to the izz-A

Fo’ sheezy my neezy keep my arms so freezy

Can’t leave rap alone the game needs me

Haters want me clapped and chromed it ain’t easy

Cops wanna knock me, D.A. wanna box me in

But somehow, I beat them charges like Rocky

H to the izz-O, V to the izz-A

Not guilty, he who does not feel me

Is not real to me, therefore he doesn’t exist

So poof – vamoose, son of a *****!

H to the izz-O, V to the izz-A

Fo’ shizzle my nizzle used to dribble down in VA

H to the izz-O, V to the izz-A

That’s the anthem get’cha damn hands up

H to the izz-O, V to the izz-A

Not guilty y’all got to feel me

H to the izz-O, V to the izz-A

That’s the anthem get’cha damn hands up!

Holla at me…

I do this for my culture

To let ’em know what a nigga look like, when a nigga in a roaster

Show ’em how to move in a room full of vultures

Industry shady it need to be taken over

Label owners hate me I’m raisin the status quo up

I’m overchargin niggaz for what they did to the Cold Crush

Pay us like you owe us for all the years that you hoed us

We can talk, but money talks so talk mo’ bucks

H to the izz-O, V to the izz-A

Fo’ shizzle my nizzle used to dribble down in VA

H to the izz-O, V to the izz-A

That’s the anthem get’cha damn hands up

H to the izz-O, V to the izz-A

Not guilty y’all got to feel me

H to the izz-O, V to the izz-A

That’s the anthem get’cha damn hands up!

Yeah…

Hov’ is back, life stories told through rap

Niggaz actin’ like I sold you crack

Like I told you sell drugs; no, Hov’ did that

So hopefully you won’t have to go through that

I was raised in the pro-jects, roaches and rats

Smokers out back, sellin they mama’s sofa

Lookouts on the corner, focused on the ave

Ladies in the window, focused on the kinfolk

Me under a lamp post, why I got my hand closed?

Cracks in my palm, watchin the long arm of the law

So you know I seen it all before

I seen hoop dreams deflate like a true fiend’s weight

To try and to fail, the two things I hate

Succeed in this rap game, the two things that’s great

H to the izz-O, V to the izz-A

What else can I say about dude, I gets bu-sy

H to the izz-O, V to the izz-A

Fo’ shizzle my nizzle used to dribble down in VA

H to the izz-O, V to the izz-A

That’s the anthem get’cha damn hands up

H to the izz-O, V to the izz-A

Not guilty y’all got to feel me

H to the izz-O, V to the izz-A

That’s the anthem get’cha damn hands up!

H to the izz-O, V to the izz-A

H to the izz-O, V to the izz-A

H to the izz-O, V to the izz-A

H to the izz-O, V to the izz-A