JAŸ-Z, Alicia Keys — Empire State Of Mind

The New York anthem from JAŸ-Z's The Blueprint 3 is back across the global charts today, appearing on 63 country and platform rankings after a brief gap. Built on Alicia Keys' soaring chorus and a piano hook that has functioned as the city's unofficial theme for over a decade, the track pairs JAY-Z's borough-by-borough tour of Manhattan with a refrain designed for stadium singalongs. Directed by Hype Williams with a cameo from Spike Lee, the music video leaned hard into the same civic mythology. It remains one of the most durable crossover records of the late-2000s rap-pop era, with the Spotify master well past 1.6 billion streams. Its broad presence today underlines how completely it has settled into evergreen rotation.