"An Open Letter to NYC" is a song by American hip hop group

Beastie Boys Beastie Boys were an American rap rock group from New York City, formed in 1978. The group was composed of Mike D, Michael "Mike D" Diamond (vocals, drums), Adam Yauch, Adam "MCA" Yauch (vocals, bass), and Ad-Rock, Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz (voca ...

. It was released in November 2004 by

Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007) is an American record label distributed by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-based record label of note ...

as the fourth and final single from their sixth studio album, ''

To the 5 Boroughs ''To the 5 Boroughs'' is the sixth studio album by the American hip-hop group, Beastie Boys. The album was released on June 14, 2004 internationally, and a day later in the United States. The album debuted #1 on the ''Billboard'' 200, becoming ...

'' (2004). The single entered and peaked at number 38 on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

. The song was used during the opening credits of an episode of

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

's ''

Taxicab Confessions ''Taxicab Confessions'' is a television series of hidden camera documentaries that aired on HBO from 1995 through 2006. When passengers enter the cab, they are recorded with several small cameras hidden in the taxi. The producer prompts passeng ...

'', and is also included in the video game ''

NBA Street V3 ''NBA Street V3'' is a basketball video game developed by EA Canada and published by Electronic Arts under the EA Sports BIG label. It is the third installment in the ''NBA Street'' series, Originally released in February 2005 for the GameCube, ...

''. The group performed the song live during the 2004 MTV Europe Music Awards, on November 18, 2004 at the Tor di Valle Hippodrome, in Rome.

Composition

The song's lyrics talk about the group's affection for their hometown,

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. It alludes to the 9/11 terrorist attacks but also implies there are deeper flaws in the system people need to acknowledge and come together as a community, or suffer as a whole. The song samples "

Sonic Reducer "Sonic Reducer" is a punk rock song written by Cheetah Chrome and David Thomas during their tenure in Rocket from the Tombs, which made its recorded debut on the Dead Boys 1977 album '' Young, Loud and Snotty'' with a change of lyrics that were ...

" by

The Dead Boys The Dead Boys are an American punk rock band from Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the United States, U.S. U.S. state, state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. ...

, and also features a brief

sample Sample or samples may refer to: Base meaning * Sample (statistics), a subset of a population – complete data set * Sample (signal), a digital discrete sample of a continuous analog signal * Sample (material), a specimen or small quantity of s ...

of "New York's My Home" by

Robert Goulet Robert Gérard Goulet (November 26, 1933 October 30, 2007) was an American and Canadian singer and actor of French-Canadian ancestry. Goulet was born and raised in Lawrence, Massachusetts until age 13, and then spent his formative years in Cana ...

. The Goulet sample was cut from the ''

Solid Gold Hits ''Solid Gold Hits'' is a greatest hits collection by Beastie Boys, released in November 2005. In contrast to 1999's '' The Sounds of Science'' double-CD anthology, ''Solid Gold Hits'' is one CD consisting of tracks that were released as singles, ...

'' version of the song.

Track listing

12" vinyl

Capitol A capitol, named after the Capitoline Hill in Rome, is usually a legislative building where a legislature meets and makes laws for its respective political entity. Specific capitols include: * United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. * Numerous ...

— 7243 8 16523 1 2

CD

*Capitol — 6189572,

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...

Parlophone Parlophone Records Limited (also known as Parlophone Records and Parlophone) is a German–British record label founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch of the label was founded on 8 August 192 ...

— 70876 19857 2 8

Charts

In popular culture

In the pilot of '' Succession'' one of the main characters,

Kendall Roy Kendall Logan Roy is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the American HBO satirical dark comedy-drama television series ''Succession''. He is portrayed by Jeremy Strong. Kendall, as with the rest of the show's characters, was cr ...

, is introduced singing along to the song on headphones.

References

2004 songs 2004 singles Beastie Boys songs Capitol Records singles Songs about letters (message) Songs about New York City Songs written by Ad-Rock Songs written by Mike D Songs written by Adam Yauch {{2000s-US-single-stub