All 67 References to Brooklyn in Jay-Z's Catalog of Songs

A thorough collection of Hov's nods to his home borough in music.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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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"

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"Place: Marcy, Brooklyn"

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"Don't worry about Brooklyn I continue to flame"

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"Just blow up, scream my name from Brooklyn to Dakota/They know my shit stench without the baking soda"

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"Get your shit scarred fuckin' with my sick squad/From Marcy to the Bay y'all, we got large, keep in charge"

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"This goes out to my Brooklyn Crew, put ya guns up in the air if ya feel me"

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"Mentally been many places but I'm Brooklyn's own"

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"Cough up a lung, where I'm from, Marcy son"

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"I'm from Marcy son, just thought I'd remind y'all"

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"Uh uh uh/Brooklyn/Respect this here. Check!/I'm from where the hammers rung, news cameras never come"

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"Gonna stretch my mic out in Ponce Funeral Home on Marcy"

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"Bed-Stuy Brook-lon took on the world/Shit, I led a life you can write a book on"

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"I had so must hustle plus I was down to ill/Like a Brooklyn nigga, straight outta Brownsville"

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"I'm from Marcy, and Marcy don't raise no rats"

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"I went from Marcy to Hollywood/And back again and back again"

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"Check, live from the 718/Either respect the flow or learn lesson from your weight"

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"But I'm from Bed-Stuy, killa with the flow/Let lead fly out from the four-four, motherfuckers"

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"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"

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"Cheah, NYMP the realest/This is educated thug music"

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"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"

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"I'm from the M-to-the-A-baby-R-C-Y/So it's hard for me to let the larceny die"

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"I spit Brook-Brook-Brooklyn every time I bust/Radio's gotta play me though I cuss to much"

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"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"

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"I bet his wrists ain't bluish like this/And I'm from Marcy, you catch me on anybody's block"

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"Take a nigga brick, smack him, then you sell it back to them/Still there Brooklyn?"

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"You know when I heard that? When I was back home/I'm comfortable dogg, Brooklyn to Rome"

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"Sigel lock Philly up, Brooklyn is me/Matter of fact, the East Coast fuck took it from me"

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"Marcy raised me, and whether right or wrong/Streets gave me all I write in this song"

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"Imma floss til they throw me a Bed-Stuy parade"

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"For my Brownsville neighbors, how about some hardcore?"

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"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"

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"Troubled man, dare I say, I am Mar with the flow/I come up hard but I evolve with the flow"

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"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?"

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"All around the world/Brooklyn bombers/Detroit Players/Chi-Town, all around the world"

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"Said it ain't you from where it's at/Real niggas out in Brooklyn, so niggas don't clap"

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"Burn slow like blunts of hydro/Jiggaman, BK shit, y'all know"

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"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"

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"Can I get an encore, do you want more?/Cookin' raw with the Brooklyn boy"

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"From Marcy to Madison Square/The only thing that matters in just a matter of years"

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"Your boy back in the building, Brooklyn we back on the map/Me and my beautiful beeeeeitch in the back of the 'Bach"

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"I'm strong enough to carry Biggie Smalls on my back/And the whole BK, nigga, holla back"

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"Like it's '92 again and/And I got O's in the rental/Back in the Stuy again"

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"I do so much sauce with lines with someone who saw my climb/From Marcy to party where you soaking' up blue nine"

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"Brooklyn get paper/Tote bag thangs/We chase niggas around they own ball games"

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"Bed-Stuy, Brownsville CI/The best in the game since Daddy Kane and B.I."

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"I'm ballin' for real you pump faking' it/Manhattan keep on faking it, Brooklyn keep on taking it"

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"I'm in BK where it ain't every day you make it out/To be on top of yachts waving"

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"Born in Brooklyn, got a place in Manhattan/Going back to Brooklyn to escape the madness"

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"Iller than Albee Square Mall back in the 9-0"

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"I father, I Brooklyn Dodger them/I jack I rob, I sin./Aw man, I'm Jackie Robinson"

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"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"

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"Get your chain tooken, I may do it myself, I'm so Brooklyn"

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"Meanwhile I had Oprah chillin in the projects/Had her out in Bed-Stuy, chillin on the steps"

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"Mobb Deep shook it but Prodigy took it a lil' too far/Can't fuck with Brooklyn"

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"Yeah I'm out that Brooklyn/Now I'm down in TriBeCa/Right next to De Niro/But I'll be hood forever"

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"Took it to my stash spot, 560 State Street/Catch me in the kitchen like a Simmons with them pastries"

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"Me I'm out in Bed-Stuy home of that boy Biggie/Now I live on Billboard and I brought my boys with me"

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"Jimi Hendrix, I'm so left mode/Southpaw, I'm an outlaw"

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"Chi-town's D-Rose/I'm movin' the Nets to BK"

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