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Posts Tagged ‘bedford stuyvesant’

New York is a city that has been an inspiration to artists for years. The city has inspired film, television, music, paintings, plays, and the list goes on and on. There is no city in the world that has been used as an inspiration in so many mediums as has New York City. Rent, a famous Broadway play highlighting the life of young New Yorkers living with Aids and living standards in the city. It quickly became a cultural phenomenon and was made into a musical for the big screen in the early 2000′s. Sex in the City is another show that has become a cultural phenomenon of the 90′s. The show follows four women as they date and learn life lessons in New York. The fashions of the show were replicated by women of all ages and the characters lived in the hearts of many. This series was turned into a movie as well. Unlike rent, the movie version was a continuation of the series and showed what the lives of the characters ended up becoming. It was a heartfelt movie that continued the phenomenon into another decade. Living in New York is a dream to so many people. Click here to find a place for the night in New York City. Be inspired like so many others.

Jay z and Alicia Keys were both inspired by the great city in their duet/ collaboration “Empire State of Mind”. The song lyrics feature dozens of references of places in the city. Even exact addresses are listed in reference to certain lifestyles in New York. The song highlights the city as being a melting pot of immigrants. Dominicans get a shout out in a line referencing Broadway in Harlem, an area with a large cluster of Dominicans. Anna Wintour also gets a shout out as the editor in chief of Vogue magazine. Bedford-Stuyvesant , New York, is where rapper Notorious B.I.G. grew up. Jay Z pays homage to the deceased rapper by shouting out his name and home town. Along with the famous streets and neighborhoods that Jay Z references throughout the song, he also references some of the darker sides of the city. Several drug references are made and also the addiction to the fast pace lifestyle of the streets. He mentions that is easy to get lost in the big city. Alicia Keys sings about the dreams that are made about the city, the inspiration that comes from the big lights and the feeling of being reinvented.