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 in 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 is referring to when he  was climbing out of the ghetto in Brooklyn by ``Copping down in Harlem'' which refers to him purchasing cheap street drugs in Harlem to sell for a profit in Brooklyn.  Its 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.
He continues later in the song, now that he is successful that he still imbibes in intoxicants:

\begin{quote}
``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{quote}

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, interrupting the game by tripping the referee.  He is all powerful, and all seems to wait, 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.


``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' have on their jerseys.  Kobe is number 24 and Lebron is number 23, so Young Jeezy is now so successful that he now pays \$23,000.00 for a kilo of cocaine rather than \$24,000.00 when he was not so successful. In response Jay-Z is saying that he is so much more successful and powerful he only pays \$3,000.00 for a kilo.  He has more access to the powerful intoxicant than Young Jeezy.  He has more access to the divine than all of us.