A lot of the time, when someone in New York City says they’re going “upstate” it means they’re going to prison. Most of the state prisons are north of the city, some practically on the Canadian border, and songs like Mobb Deep’s “Up North Trip” have helped some slang terms about New York lockups spread to other states—so in some places, “up top” won’t actually be in the frozen north, just an area where some country corn-and-cow-christ-on-a-stick bullshit is going on. In NYC, city folk call pretty much anything north of the Bronx “upstate,” even spots in Westchester County like Yonkers… some crackers have no clue that New York extends seven hours north to Montreal and eight hours northwest to places like Buffalo—and when you’re way the hell out there, it’s like you’re in the Midwest.
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