We just can’t get enough of “Granite State of Mind,” a spot-on New Hampshire-style parody of Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind” that’s been tearing up You Tube.
When Boston-based DJ Paul Dailey played a gig the other night at the Red Door, a deep-house nightclub in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, he decided to program it after a night of tracks like:
Heyday (Paul Ritch Remix) – Barem
Pocket Full Of Prose – King Roc
Back Down – Oliver Giacomotto
Washing Machine – Mr. Fingers
Give It To Me Baby – Rick James
“It went down well,” said Dailey when we asked him how the song went down. The first refrain:
NEW HAMPSHIRE
LAND WHERE THERES NO INCOME OR SALES TAX
THERE’S NOTHING MUCH TO DO
HERE IN NEW HAMPSHIRE
THESE TREES WHERE LEAF PEEPERS DRIVE TO
MAPLE SYRUP IS PRO-DUCED
THIS IS NEW HAMPSHIRE, HAMPSHIRE, HAMPSHIRE
“It kind of caught everybody off guard as the Red Door is a chill kind of deep house lounge,” said Dailey, who became friends with the club’s booking agent and spins there a half-dozen times a year. “I think for the first few seconds they thought it was Jay-Z. But as soon as they heard the chorus, they all started to get into it and were both laughing and dancing. People like to feel a sense of community, and when you get a room full of happy, drunk people listening to a song about their home state, it is bound to go over well.”
“Probably the first and last time I would play it, but in the moment it worked well.”
