In 2010 Jay-Z and Alicia Keys had a smash hit that landed at number 21 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart for the year. "Empire State of Mind" was that song and was written as a tribute to the City of New York.

Anytime you have a smash hit, it is bound to have covers and parodies made of it, and Portland native Seth Crockett, who was 20 years old at the time, decided to write a version of the song for Portland.

We ended up hearing about his creation and had to have him on The Q Morning Show to talk about it. At some point, we thought it would be great to make a video for the song and enlisted the help of Shea Murphy of Fat Sheamus Productions to help create a top-quality production.

Shea's vision was to re-create as best he could, a shot-for-shot version of the Jay-Z video with Meredith, me, and Lori taking over different roles, along with a whole bunch of extras, and dancers from Vivid Motion. The final product was pretty amazing.

We shot the video over a couple of days. Once during the day and another at night on the steps of One City Center and it was bone-chilling cold for both shoots. That cold is still fresh in my mind. The wind chills had to be below zero, but we got it done.

Take a look at the video here and then watch the video by Jay-Z that inspired it to see how similar the shots are.

Despite that cold, this was a lot of fun to do, and like any video project, there were a lot of people to thank for it. So, thirteen years later, let's take a second to thank them once again.

Roll credits.

Based on Empire State of Mind originally performed by Jay Z and Alicia Keys

Lyrics by...Seth Crockett

Vocals performed by...Seth Crockett and Meredith Manning

Directed and Edited by...S.P. Murphy

Executive Producer...Tim Moore

Starring...Jeff Parsons, Lori Voornas and Meredith Manning

Special appearances by...Rob Steele, Bob Marley, Brian Brinegar and Henry W. Longfellow

And featuring...Ashley Steeves, Amanda Murphy, Rachel Veinot, Benjamin Webber, Tim Nickerson, Conrad Carpenter, Amy Geiseke, John Larson III, Catherine Pachico, John Gerdes, Michelle Boreman, Zack Locke, Brian Miller, Scott Potter, Ryan Flemming, Jacqueline Boudreau, Demetirus Paulus, Caelistis Paulus, William Ballou, Kathleen Young, Sachiko Hunter-Rivers, Joel Rivers and Seth Crockett

The Dancers...Gerry Shannon, Ali Shannon, Aaron Mitchell, MJ Emerson, John Larson, Amanda Murphy and David A. Van Duyne

Choreography by Gerry and Ali Shannon of Vivid Motion Video and Stills by...S.P. Murphy and Briana Wiley Fat Sheamus Productions - http://fatsheamus.com 

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