Why is "27th Street Between 11th and 12th" Mentioned as "Off the Hook"?

January 4, 2005 5:11 PM

In the song "Don't Get Gassed," Erick Sermon (under the name Def Squad presents Erick Onasis) delivers this line:

I'm off the hook like 27th Street between 11th and 12th / All by myself

Where in Manhattan is this referring to, specifically? What's the significance of this location?
posted by rxrfrx to Media & Arts (9 answers total)

Just a guess, but it's close to where the Jacob Javitts center is located, at one point heavily populated by hookers & drug dealers.

May also refer to a locaton in Brooklyn.
posted by skwm at 5:56 PM on January 4, 2005

It's not the Javits Center..the Javits center starts at 34th. It's Chelsea Piers. I don't know why that's off the hook though. Are you sure it's referring to Manhattan? It could be any other city or, like skwm said, it could be Brooklyn, Queens, etc.

How old is the song? Cuz there are some upscale strip clubs there now, like the Hustler Club. There are also alot of sound studios and production houses over there on the West Side.

If you don't know anything about Manhattan, that area which is on the West Side close the the Hudson River and the West Side Highway is basically a no man's land of no trains and very little conveniences. Which means back in da day it was hooker, drugs and bike gang central.
posted by spicynuts at 6:09 PM on January 4, 2005

It's Chelsea Piers. I don't know why that's off the hook though.

You'll pardon a country mouse, but there's no fishing happening there, is there?
posted by yerfatma at 6:10 PM on January 4, 2005

Response by poster: off the hook + Chelsea Piers = pun on a longshoreman's hook? that would be witty.

the song is from '99 or so. and sermon's originally from long island... so yeah, maybe it's not manhattan. hmm.
posted by rxrfrx at 6:26 PM on January 4, 2005

Given the context of the song's lyrics (picking up hoes, &c.), I think it's pretty clear what he means -- and indeed, the World Sex Guide confirms that 27th is a street known for prostitution. Really, for a while the broader Chelsea/Hell's Kitchen area was a perfect (for the, um, consumer) brew of seediness and convenient access to Midtown and the tunnels, but I haven't been to the City in years. One reading of the lyric is that he's got a girl; another is that 27th has been cleaned up and he doesn't.
posted by dhartung at 8:20 PM on January 4, 2005

Megaclubs Tunnel and Twilo were located on 27th between 11th and 12th. IIRC, these clubs each had capacity for 3000-6000 people. They often featured international DJs, and were frequently shut down for excessive drug violations. Today there are probably clubs with different names at the same locations.

More importantly, if the song was made in '99 as rxrfrx points out, then Tunnel and Twilo were operating in that time (ahhhh the halcyon days of being a college freshman in nyc...).
posted by The Michael The at 9:39 PM on January 4, 2005

I don't think 11th hits 27th in Brooklyn, the park makes the streets go all squiggly.

I would go with clubs/drugs/sex. That area is still popular with velvet rope fetishists.

..and chelsea piers was pretty much wasteland until they renovated it this century, methinks.
posted by Jack Karaoke at 11:19 PM on January 4, 2005

Yeah, that's a hooker zone. Loose play on 'hook'/'hooker'.
posted by ikkyu2 at 1:21 AM on January 5, 2005

Response by poster: thanks guys!
posted by rxrfrx at 2:32 AM on January 5, 2005