This is absolutely the coolest story I’ve read in some time! Not only because of the chain of events that took place, but the story teller, Brooklynite Amit Wehle, has some HILARIOUS commentary. Amit currently resides at Jay-Z’s old “stash spot” at 560 State Street…an address Hov had popularized in his “Empire State Of Mind” collab with Alicia Keys. As if that’s not cool enough as it is, both the address and his Jewish heritage helped him to have two separate “moments” with Jay during the week of his Barclays Center shows! And the two were totally unrelated, just pure coincidence! Below, read the tale of how Jay-Z ended up borrowing Amit’s menorah, which scored him VIP Barclays tix..and then how days later, he got an email from Jay asking if he could come visit! Not knowing it was his menorah connect!
Want two VIP tickets to Jay-Z’s sold-out opening night show at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, followed by a private meeting with the hip hop don a few days later? No problem. Just buy a piece of Judaica and live in his old stash spot, the 560 State Street apartment building immortalized in “Empire State of Mind.” Yes, this is a multi-culti Brooklyn hip hop tale for the ages.
At 6:30 PM on Friday, September 28, I was leaning against my apartment building, the very building Jay-Z put on the map when he name-dropped the address in his chart-topping anthem with Alicia Keys. In the song he recites his street hustler-to-rap icon story, made possible only in his hometown: “Took it to my stash spot, 560 State Street,” he rhymed of his old pad, where, in the late 1990s, a young Shawn Carter sold drugs and worked on the music that would be his ticket off the streets.
That Friday I was doing what most Brooklynites in my ‘hood were doing: staring at the Barclays Center, the borough’s beautiful new arena, and imagining how dope it’d be to see Jay-Z christen it. Not two hours later I was on the VIP line, standing next to Dave Chappelle, collecting my two tickets to see the Jigga-man himself tear down the house he (sort of) built.
How did all this happen? It all started with a phone call from my brother-in-law, Nate Fish. Our exchange went like this:
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