Local video goes viral on Youtube

"Nassau State of Mind," a viral spoof of Jay-Z's "New York State of Mind," is the first listing to pop up on a search of Youtube under the keyword "Nassau." The video is a parody of the South Shore Five Towns local lifestyle co-created by early twenty-something Hewlett High School graduates Tyler Gildin and Cody Milch, along with several of their friends from the North Shore.

A search of the video appears above a clip of rocker Lenny Kravitz in the Bahaman Nassau, and above the Grateful Dead playing at Nassau Coliseum — checking with more than 852,000 views as of Oct. The video was first posted on Aug. 13.

The lyrics lampoon life in Nassau County. "Livin' right in Woodmere/Went to Hewlett High School/Mercedes by the driveway/Mezuzzas by the front door/Everyone's a lawyer/Welcome to the South Shore," raps Gildin in a muscle-shirt.

The North Shore isn't spared of satire either; "Wanna move to Great Neck/Become an oral surgeon/ ... /Maybe Roslyn Harbor/ But that's a lot of bills/ Suffolk's for the working class/We gotta annex Dix Hills."

Local stores like Max and Gino's and Mother Kelly's are given shout-outs.

"We're kids in our 20s making a funny video," said 20-year-old Gildin, who is an aspiring stand-up comedian. "Some people think it's bragging, or showing off, but it's a parody of a lifestyle."

Gildin first conceived of sticking to satirizing Hewlett or the Five Towns, but realized a pan-county parody would attract a wider audience -- and more hits. His friend, Evan Krumholz of Jericho, contributed the lyrics pertaining to Nassau's North Shore. The entire project took Gildin, Krumholz, and Nash Prince of Syosset, who did the music, four days to write, a day to shoot and nearly three days of editing. 

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