Viraldice: Surprisingly, THIS Is the Unexpected Song That Made New Yorkers Stop and Have a Dance Party in the Subway

very major city in the world has a reputation – a generalization of the character of the city which may or may not be a 100 percent accurate, but is at least on the nose enough to make its inhabitants wince (unless, of course, this reputation is a nice one).

London is filled with very polite rich people who enjoy selling multimillion dollar apartments to oligarchs and absolutely despise talking to strangers. Lagos is overwhelming and full of innovators who may or may not be Nigerian Prince scammers.  Paris is filled with snobs who love making love, drinking wine, and talking with a cigarette dangled between the fingers. Los Angeles is filled with Hollywood hangers-on who do a lot of drugs and love to surf.

And then there's New York...

 

Ah... what do you say about New York?

It’s one of the financial and cultural capitals of the world, home to Wall Street and the fashion district and a myriad of notable museums, galleries, studios and all other types of artsy corners. New York is vibrant, expansive, and it’s well – rude.

New York has a (well-earned) reputation for being a tough city, which means New Yorkers have a reputation for being tough.

And brusque. And loud. And rude. And aggressive – but very fashion-forward (well, the rich New Yorkers, anyway). The point here is, New York doesn’t have the most salubrious reputation.

But then, no one expects it to.

That’s part of the charm of New York. Where else do people enjoy being yelled at by the workers at their local diner – okay, so maybe the Soup Nazi is fictional – and are proud of spotting scammers at a hundred paces? Where else are the rats so bold they take entire slices of pizza for lunch?

New York has a certain je ne sais quoi, which spurs people to be their best, their most artistic.

It is this same je ne sais quoi that has birthed some of the greatest artists of our time – artists that include New York’s own daughter, Cardi B. Now, before you get your underwear in a twist, we’re not saying Cardi B is one of the greatest artists of our time. She has a looong road to go before she can prove the kind of lasting pop culture dominance a Beyonce or Rihanna.

She is, however, top in the lists of the most dominant musicians of the year.

Her song “Bodak Yellow” is the unexpected hit of the year (unexpected mainly because the rapping is not very good). Despite this, “Bodak Yellow” is one of those feel-good eagworms that twists into your cerebral cortex and won’t let go.