JAY Z's Hometown Pride

When you think JAY Z, you think Brooklyn, past and present. The bleak, scrappy "Where I'm From" recounts hard-luck tales over a concrete beat that echoes with distant voices. Yet the American dreamer's exuberance for his home turf comes through powerfully on the grandiose, anthemic "Empire State of Mind". And in a nod to his early days, the sleek, glossy ambience of "The City Is Mine" is prophecy and homecoming in one.