No. 25

Empire State of Mind - Jay-Z & Alicia Keys (2009) Video - I typically roll my eyes when someone having just returned from the theater immediately places the movie in his/her top 10. There's no way to have a historical perspective for something that just arrived, so it's with great difficulty that I rank this song.

Songs rarely impress me upon first listen, so I believe it's noteworthy that the first time I heard it, I KNEW it was great. It's a crossover hit, in fact, Jay-Z's first Billboard No.1. Bill Simmons said he thinks this was the only thing for Jay-Z to prove himself as an artist, to replace Frank Sinatra's New York, New York as the song played after New York sports victories. It's iconic, it holds up to MANY repeated listens, and will hold up well over time. I'm not ashamed to put this in my top 25.