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"In &amp;quot;Empire State of Mind,&amp;quot; Jay-Z declared that he&amp;apos;s &amp;quot;the new Sinatra.&amp;quot; And in a  New York Times op-ed, writer James Kaplan argues that Jay&amp;apos;s assertion that Sinatra had &amp;quot;a little tougher [upbringing] than mine&amp;quot; is wrong. Kaplan, author of the recent Sinatra biography The Voice, writes: &amp;quot;In fact, Jay-Z, who grew up with a single mother in the drug-and-bullet-riddled Marcy housing projects in Brooklyn, had a much tougher youth than Frank Sinatra, who was the only child of upward-striving, financially comfortable parents in Depression-era Hoboken, N.J.&amp;quot;\r\nPhotos: Jay-Z and Eminem&amp;apos;s NYC Blowout With Kanye West, Chris Martin, Drake and Nicki Minaj\r\nThe article &amp;#x2014; which was published to commemorate what would have been Sinatra&amp;apos;s 95th birthday &amp;#x2014; further examines connections between the late singer and hip-hop. &amp;quot;Sinatra&amp;apos;s unfortunate flirtations with the Mafia later on &amp;#x2014; much like the gangsta affectations of many rappers &amp;#x2014; had more to do with being a wannabe, an idolator, than any actual mob affiliation,&amp;quot; Kaplan writes. (In his new memoir,  Decoded  , Jay discusses his days as a drug dealer at length.)\r\nYet that affectation, Kaplan argues, was far from Sinatra&amp;apos;s greatest strength &amp;#x2014; in fact, the opposite was. Sinatra&amp;apos;s &amp;quot;vulnerability is at the core of his magic,&amp;quot; he writes. &amp;quot;There was an operatic intensity to Frank Sinatra&amp;apos;s existence. ... The conflicts filter into the molecules of his music. We hear, we respond.&amp;quot; Indeed, he writes that Eminem&amp;apos;s &amp;quot;Not Afraid&amp;quot; is a stellar example of how the best rappers attain a similar goal, exposing &amp;quot;the sorrow and humanity that underlie the swagger.&amp;quot;\r\nStraight Outta Hoboken [New York Times]"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/new-york-times-jay-z-had-tougher-upbringing-than-sinatra-20101213>