The “Hawk Tuah” girl reinterprets Jay Z’s “Empire State of Mind” as you’ve never heard it before
Written by ABC AUDIO ALL RIGHTS RESERVED on August 9, 2024
We’re all guilty of misunderstanding the lyrics to popular songs — there are many website postings dedicated to it, in fact, but here’s one you may not have thought about and could have trouble hearing it any other way.
Haliey Welch, better known as the “Hawk Tuah” girl for her viral, onomatopoetic take on an oral sex practice, sat down with Bill Maher on his Club Random podcast and the topic turned to music.
While the 22-year-old said she prefers “old rap” to newer stuff, she’s certainly “heard of older” rappers like Tupac and Jay-Z, though she confesses she “doesn’t listen to them that often.”
Except that one song from Hova, she says, singing, “‘Concrete jungle-wet dream-tomato,’ you know, about New York.” For the record, the actual lyrics are “Concrete jungle where dreams are made of,” as sung by Alicia Keys in the hit.
“‘Wet dream tomato’?” Maher asked.
Her interpretation may just be her second viral moment, with one Facebook user clipping it and interspersing it with the real song. “Now I can’t unhear it,” the user said with “crying laughing” emoji.
Maher said he wanted to “mentor” Welch on how best to use her “chip” — that is her “sudden” fame — to “move past” her “origin story.”
He likened her to the Kardashians, who have become household names “from a sex tape.”
“That’s why it’s important to figure out your next step,” Maher warned. “America gets tired of s*** quick.”
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