A Damn Shame: McDonald’s That Jay-Z Mentions in “Empire State Of Mind” Now A Parking Lot

A city that has seen increasingly seen its history bulldozed in favor of development has lost another beloved landmark: The McDonald’s that Hov mentions in “Empire State Of Mind”. The Mickey D’s on 125th and Broadway in Harlem was incredibly popular with residents, and evidently with a young Shawn Carter. While the physical location has now been completely demolished, its legacy is captured forever in the famous lines:

“I used to cop in Harlem,
All of my Dominicano's right there up on Broadway, Pull me back to that McDonald's”.

A closer investigation of the lyrics reveals that Jay-Z likely went to the McDonald’s after buying weed. Perhaps he went to the McDonald’s and bought the weed there. In the parking lot? The bathroom? Maybe just sitting at a table? Maybe he and his friends (many, if not all of whom, are Dominican) went to the McDonald’s after they had already smoked? While we may never know exactly what the lyrics allude to, it’s a sobering thought to think that all of that history has been paved over.

Gabby Franklin, who has lived in Harlem her entire life, weighed in on the impact the closure has had, “It’s really devastating. It was a really special place. One of the only McDonald’s in Manhattan with a drive thru and everything. Towards the end they even had those touch screen ordering things. And they always said that they had the limited edition sauces, but a lot of the time they didn’t. But that’s not on them. I had to take that up with McDonald’s corporate. But just to think that Hov shouted it out, and then they just tore it down. How could they do that?”

A Flexx correspondent managed to track down a former employee, who wished to remain unidentified, at the now demolished establishment. When asked if they could verify Jay-Z’s frequent patronage, they added, “Uh, I don’t know, I guess probably when he was younger? I worked there when it closed, and I’m in high school, so I don’t really think I’m the best person to ask. Which song was it in again? I feel like it doesn’t really make sense for him to make something like that up so, yeah.” 

The new parking lot is exclusively to be used as a drivers ed lot for the teenage children of Columbia professors.