Belmont Stakes Replacing Sinatra With Jay-Z, Making Last Lunge at Relevance

Are you going to watch the Belmont Stakes? (You do remember that both the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winners are out, right?) No? Well, how about if Jay-Z’s new New York anthem was replacing Frank Sinatra’s classic “New York, New York”?

No? Still? Oh.

Well, then, this news isn’t for you.

⇥In his massive hit “Empire State of Mind,” Jay-Z raps that he’s “the new Sinatra.” And it turns out he wasn’t joking.⇥⇥⇥⇥During Saturday’s 142nd running of the Belmont Stakes, “Empire” will be played as the horses are brought out onto the race track, replacing Sinatra’s classic “New York, New York,” according to a spokesperson for the New York Racing Association.⇥⇥⇥

⇥⇥“[It’s] the quintessential 21st century theme song for New York City,” an NYRA official told The Associated Press.⇥⇥⇥

Interestingly, the NYRA official did not go on to call horse racing the quintessential 21st century sport.Look, I’m a young guy, and I happen to like hip-hop and “Empire State of Mind” in particular. But my passing interest in horse racing is almost exclusively a result of adults I knew while growing up liking the sport. And those people watch these races for the traditions—“My Old Kentucky Home,” a blanket of black-eyed susans. They will not be happy with this change, despite Hov’s prophecies about and fascination with Sinatra making a fair amount of success; even if Sinatra’s song itself replaced “Sidewalks of New York” in 1997, it at least sounded perfect for the sport of kings and New York. “Empire,” despite glossy, optimistic piano and a timeless hook from Alicia Keys, isn’t quite the same.

It’s also amusing that a song with references to buying cocaine should be played before a horse race, considering the sport’s problems with drugs. But I guess no one’s going to watch the Belmont, so no one will come up with that, right?

(HT: Rap Radar.)

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