Eliade also makes a connection between the moon and vegetation, describing how intoxicants
were used as a conduit to the divine. Substances such as soma and hoama were only drank by the
gods in archaic religions, yet, by imbibing these substances, the believers were able, albeit fleetingly,
to share in the divine mode of being.\footcite{IntroRel3} \textit{Empire State of Mind} offers this
promise as well in four points of the song.  The first refers to when he was climbing out of the ghetto
in Brooklyn by ``Copping down in Harlem'' essentially purchasing cheap street drugs in Harlem to
sell for a profit in Brooklyn.  It's how he started on his road to sacredness.  He also returns to this
theme of drugs as the stepping stone to success, with the line ``Welcome to the melting pot, corners
where we selling rock''\footcite{Empire} referring to the selling of crack cocaine.
%American immigration is known as the melting pot, where all those who come to live become one, under the umbrella of the title American.
Later in the song he confesses to still imbibing even though he has reached his measure of success:
\small
\textsc{
\begin{tabbing}
\hspace{3cm} ``\=Say what up to Ty Ty, still sipping mai tai \\
\>Sitting courtside, Knicks and Nets give me high fives\\
\>Nigga, I be spiked out, I can trip a referee\\
\>Tell by my attitude that I am most definitely from''\footcite{Empire}
\end{tabbing}
}
\normalsize

He is drinking with his best friend at a sporting event, where he is so powerful he is revered by the
sporting heros themselves and he can do as he pleases.  Even so far as interrupting the game by
tripping the referee.  He is all powerful everyone waits, hanging on what his next move will be.
%This inference of power over other sporting heros is also evident in his refrain: ``Catch
%me at the X with OG at a Yankee game/Shit, I made the Yankee hat more famous than
%a Yankee can"\footcite{Empire}.  Here is he referring to the heros of the New York Yankee
%baseball team, their fame and brand recognition cannot confer the same power that him
%wearing a Yankee cap can.

That his sense of power and level of access to the divine exceeds all others is also referred to in
the encoded phrase
``If Jeezy's paying Lebron, I'm paying Dwayne Wade''\footcite{Empire}
This quote is in reference to the price of a kilo of cocaine. In Trae's song ``24-23'' rapper Young
Jeezy raps ``I used to play Kobe, now I play Lebron''\footfullcite{Jeezy}, making reference to the
numbers the basketball players' on their jerseys to the price of a kilogram of cocaine.
Kobe is number 24 and Lebron is number 23, so Young Jeezy is stating that he now pays \$23,000
rather than \$24,000 when he was not so successful.
Wade's jersey number is 3 so in response, Jay-Z is saying that he pays a mere \$3,000 and has
more access to the powerful intoxicant than Young Jeezy.  In fact, more access to the divine than any of us.