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Decoded Hardcover – November 16, 2010

by Jay-Z (Author)

4.7 1,881 ratings

Editors' pick Best Biographies & Memoirs

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Decoded is a book like no other: a collection of lyrics and their meanings that together tell the story of a culture, an art form, a moment in history, and one of the most provocative and successful artists of our time.

Praise for Decoded

“Compelling . . . provocative, evocative . . . Part autobiography, part lavishly illustrated commentary on the author’s own work, Decoded gives the reader a harrowing portrait of the rough worlds Jay-Z navigated in his youth, while at the same time deconstructing his lyrics.”—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

“One of a handful of books that just about any hip hop fan should own.”—The New Yorker

“Elegantly designed, incisively written . . . an impressive leap by a man who has never been known for small steps.”—Los Angeles Times

“A riveting exploration of Jay-Z’s journey . . . So thoroughly engrossing, it reads like a good piece of cultural journalism.”—The Boston Globe

“Shawn Carter’s most honest airing of the experiences he drew on to create the mythic figure of Jay-Z . . . The scenes he recounts along the way are fascinating.”—Entertainment Weekly

“Hip-hop’s renaissance man drops a classic. . . . Heartfelt, passionate and slick.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Print length

352 pages
Language

English
Publisher

One World
Publication date

November 16, 2010
Dimensions

7.62 x 1.12 x 9.4 inches
ISBN-10

1400068924
ISBN-13

978-1400068920
See all details

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Amazon Best Books of the Month, November 2010: Like its multi-hyphenate author, Jay-Z, Decoded is many things at once. At its core, Decoded is an eloquent and candid memoir detailing the story of a man who was born in a Brooklyn housing project, spent his teen years dealing drugs on the streets of Trenton, New Jersey, and grew up to be one of his generation’s most successful artists and businessmen. But Decoded is much more than a memoir: it is an intensely personal homage to hip-hop, as written by a man who so clearly adores the art form; it is a rare glimpse of the unexpectedly deep meanings behind the most recognizable rap lyrics of the last decade; and it is a truly moving collection of essays on topics ranging from Hurricane Katrina to the decline of the music industry. Unconventional type design, line drawings, and photographs visually emphasize the author’s message that rap is a form that transcends and defies easy categorization. There’s not much in the way of celebrity gossip here, but what we get, instead, is a gritty and enormously compelling look inside the cultural phenomenon of rap, from one of the men who contributed so much to its shape. --Juliet Disparte

Jay-Z on Decoded

When you're famous and say you're writing a book, people assume that it's an autobiography--I was born here, raised there, suffered this, loved that, lost it all, got it back, the end. But that's not what this is. I've never been a linear thinker, which is something you can see in my rhymes. They follow the jumpy logic of poetry and emotion, not the straight line of careful prose. My book is like that, too.

Decoded is first and foremost, a book of rhymes, which is ironic because I don't actually write my rhymes--they come to me in my head and I record them. The book is packed with the stories from my life that are the foundation of my lyrics--stories about coming up in the streets of Brooklyn in the 80's and 90's, stories about becoming an artist and entrepreneur and discovering worlds that I never dreamed existed when I was a kid. But it always comes back to the rhymes. There's poetry in hip-hop lyrics--not just mine, but in the work of all the great hip-hop artists, from KRS-One and Rakim to Biggie and Pac to a hundred emcees on a hundred corners all over the world that you've never heard of. The magic of rap is in the way it can take the most specific experience, from individual lives in unlikely places, and turn them into art that can be embraced by the whole world. Decoded is a book about one of those specific lives--mine--and will show you how the things I've experienced and observed have made their way into the art I've created. It's also about how my work is sometimes not about my life at all, but about pushing the boundaries of what I can express through the poetry of rap--trying to use words to find fresh angles into emotions that we all share, which is the hidden mission in even the hardest hip-hop. Decoded is a book about some of my favorite songs--songs that I unpack and explain and surround with narratives about what inspired them--but behind the rhymes is the truest story of my life.

Review

“Compelling . . . provocative, evocative . . . Part autobiography, part lavishly illustrated commentary on the author’s own work, Decoded gives the reader a harrowing portrait of the rough worlds Jay-Z navigated in his youth, while at the same time deconstructing his lyrics.”—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

“One of a handful of books that just about any hip hop fan should own.”—The New Yorker

“Elegantly designed, incisively written . . . an impressive leap by a man who has never been known for small steps.”—Los Angeles Times

“A riveting exploration of Jay-Z’s journey . . . So thoroughly engrossing, it reads like a good piece of cultural journalism.”—The Boston Globe

“Shawn Carter’s most honest airing of the experiences he drew on to create the mythic figure of Jay-Z . . . The scenes he recounts along the way are fascinating.”—Entertainment Weekly

“Hip-hop’s renaissance man drops a classic. . . . Heartfelt, passionate and slick.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Book Description

Decoded is a book like no other: a collection of lyrics and their meanings that together tell the story of a culture, an art form, a moment in history, and one of the most provocative and successful artists of our time.

About the Author

JAY-Z (Shawn Carter) is one of the most successful hip-hop artists and entrepreneurs of all time.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

I saw the circle before I saw the kid in the middle. I was nine years old, the summer of 1978, and Marcy was my world. The shadowy bench-lined inner pathways that connected the twenty-seven six-story buildings of Marcy Houses were like tunnels we kids burrowed through. Housing projects can seem like labyrinths to outsiders, as complicated and intimidating as a Moroccan bazaar. But we knew our way around.

Marcy sat on top of the G train, which connects Brooklyn to Queens, but not to the city. For Marcy kids, Manhattan is where your parents went to work, if they were lucky, and where we’d yellow-bus it with our elementary class on special trips. I’m from New York, but I didn’t know that at nine. The street signs for Flushing, Marcy, Nostrand, and Myrtle avenues seemed like metal flags to me: Bed-Stuy was my country, Brooklyn my planet.

When I got a little older Marcy would show me its menace, but for a kid in the seventies, it was mostly an adventure, full of concrete corners to turn, dark hallways to explore, and everywhere other kids. When you jumped the fences to play football on the grassy patches that passed for a park, you might find the field studded with glass shards that caught the light like diamonds and would pierce your sneakers just as fast. Turning one of those concrete corners you might bump into your older brother clutching dollar bills over a dice game, Cee-Lo being called out like hardcore bingo. It was the seventies and heroin was still heavy in the hood, so we would dare one another to push a leaning nodder off a bench the way kids on farms tip sleeping cows. The unpredictability was one of the things we counted on. Like the day when I wandered up to something I’d never seen before: a cipher—but I wouldn’t have called it that; no one would’ve back then. It was just a circle of scrappy, ashy, skinny Brooklyn kids laughing and clapping their hands, their eyes trained on the center. I might have been with my cousin B-High, but I might have been alone, on my way home from playing baseball with my Little League squad. I shouldered through the crowd toward the middle—or maybe B-High cleared the way—but it felt like gravity pulling me into that swirl of kids, no bullshit, like a planet pulled into orbit by a star.

His name was Slate and he was a kid I used to see around the neighborhood, an older kid who barely made an impression. In the circle, though, he was transformed, like the church ladies touched by the spirit, and everyone was mesmerized. He was rhyming, throwing out couplet after couplet like he was in a trance, for a crazy long time—thirty minutes straight off the top of his head, never losing the beat, riding the handclaps. He rhymed about nothing—the sidewalk, the benches—or he’d go in on the kids who were standing around listening to him, call out someone’s leaning sneakers or dirty Lee jeans. And then he’d go in on how clean he was, how nice he was with the ball, how all our girls loved him. Then he’d just start rhyming about the rhymes themselves, how good they were, how much better they were than yours, how he was the best that ever did it, in all five boroughs and beyond. He never stopped moving, not dancing, just rotating in the center of the circle, looking for his next target. The sun started to set, the crowd moved in closer, the next clap kept coming, and he kept meeting it with another rhyme. It was like watching some kind of combat, but he was alone in the center. All he had were his eyes, taking in everything, and the words inside him. I was dazzled. That’s some cool shit was the first thing I thought. Then: I could do that.

That night, I started writing rhymes in my spiral notebook. From the beginning it was easy, a constant flow. For days I filled page after page. Then I’d bang a beat out on the table, my bedroom window, whatever had a flat surface, and practice from the time I woke in the morning until I went to sleep. My mom would think I was up watching TV, but I’d be in the kitchen pounding on the table, rhyming. One day she brought a three-ring binder home from work for me to write in. The paper in the binder was unlined, and I filled every blank space on every page. My rhymes looked real chaotic, crowded against one another, some vertical, some slanting into the corners, but when I looked at them the order was clear.

I connected with an older kid who had a reputation as the best rapper in Marcy—Jaz was his name—and we started practicing our rhymes into a heavy-ass tape recorder with a makeshift mic attached. The first time I heard our voices playing back on tape, I realized that a recording captures you, but plays back a distortion—a different voice from the one you hear in your own head, even though I could recognize myself instantly. I saw it as an opening, a way to re-create myself and reimagine my world. After I recorded a rhyme, it gave me an unbelievable rush to play it back, to hear that voice.

One time a friend peeked inside my notebook and the next day I saw him in school, reciting my rhymes like they were his. I started writing real tiny so no one could steal my lyrics, and then I started straight hiding my book, stuffing it in my mattress like it was cash. Everywhere I went I’d write. If I was crossing a street with my friends and a rhyme came to me, I’d break out my binder, spread it on a mailbox or lamppost and write the rhyme before I crossed the street. I didn’t care if my friends left me at the light, I had to get it out. Even back then, I thought I was the best.

There were some real talents in Marcy. DJs started setting up sound systems in the project courtyards and me and Jaz and other MCs from around the way would battle one another for hours. It wasn’t like that first cipher I saw: the crowds were more serious now and the beat was kept by eight-foot-tall speakers with subwoofers that would rattle the windows of the apartments around us. I was good at battling and I practiced it like a sport. I’d spend free time reading the dictionary, building my vocabulary for battles. I could be ruthless, calm as fuck on the outside, but flooded with adrenaline, because the other rapper was coming for me, too. It wasn’t a Marquess of Queensberry situation. I saw niggas get swung on when the rhymes cut too deep. But mostly, as dangerous as it felt, it stayed lyrical. I look back now and it still amazes me how intense those moments were, back when there was nothing at stake but your rep, your desire to be the best poet on the block.

I wasn’t even in high school yet and I’d discovered my voice. But I still needed a story to tell.

FIRST THE FAT BOYS GONNA BREAK UP

Hip-hop was looking for a narrative, too.

By the time the eighties came along, rap was exploding, and I remember the mainstream breakthroughs like they were my own rites of passage. In 1981, the summer before seventh grade, the Funky Four Plus One More performed “That’s the Joint” on Saturday Night Live and the Rock Steady Crew got on ABC Nightly News for battling the Dynamic Rockers at Lincoln Center in a legendary showdown of b-boy dance crews. My parents watched Soul Train every Saturday when we cleaned up, but when my big sister Annie and I saw Don Cornelius introduce the Sugar Hill Gang, we just stopped in the middle of the living room with our jaws open. What are they doing on TV?

I remember the 12-inch of Run-DMC’s “It’s Like That” backed with “Sucker M.C.’s” being definitive. That same year, 1983, the year I started high school, Bambaataa released “Looking for the Perfect Beat” and shot a wild-ass video wearing feathered headdresses that they’d play on the local access channel. Annie and I would make up dance routines to those songs, but we didn’t take it as far as the costumes. Herbie Hancock’s “Rockit” came out that year, too, and those three records were a cultural trifecta. Disco, and even my parents’ classic R&B records, all faded into the background. Everywhere we went there were twelve-pound boom boxes being pulled on skateboards or cars parked on the curb blasting those records. DJ Red Alert debuted his show on Kiss FM and Afrika Islam had a show, “Zulu Beats,” on WHBI. The World’s Famous Supreme Team did a show you had to catch early in the morning. Kids would make cassettes and bring them to school to play one another the freshest new song from the night before. I’m not gonna say that I thought I could get rich from rap, but I could clearly see that it was gonna get bigger before it went away. Way bigger.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ One World; First Edition (November 16, 2010)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1400068924
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1400068920
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.4 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.62 x 1.12 x 9.4 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #152,659 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #77 in Rap & Hip-Hop Musician Biographies
- #93 in Rap Music (Books)
- #630 in Rich & Famous Biographies

Customer Reviews:
4.7 1,881 ratings

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Customer reviews

1,881 global ratings

How customer reviews and ratings work

Customers say

Customers find the book to be a good, interesting read that enables them to read with satisfaction and comprehension. They also say it gives great insight on what it takes to be a great writer. Readers describe the writing style as intriguing, descriptive, and well-crafted. They mention the art quality is stunning and one of the best pieces of art they've ever purchased.

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Readability Insight Writing style Art quality Value for money

148 customers mention "Readability"143 positive5 negative

Customers find the book interesting, saying it's the best hip-hop book they have read to date. They say the process enables them to read with satisfaction and comprehension, and gain a better appreciation of hip-hop. Readers also mention the fantastic images and compelling story.

"...This process enabled me to read with satisfaction and comprehension, and to gain a better appreciation of hip-hop...." Read more

"...happy reading with some great tributes, fantastic images, and a compelling story." Read more

"This is a phenomenal book. I'm very happy that Jay-Z has gotten to the point in his life that he can reflect in long form...." Read more

"...Decoded is a great read, and a book I expect will expand some people's minds (at least a little)." Read more

79 customers mention "Insight"79 positive0 negative

Customers find the book captivating and refreshing. They say it does a great job explaining the meaning behind the words. Readers also mention the book is more about music and poetry, suffused with stories. They appreciate the philosophical views and the wonderful way Jay Z interprets his music.

"...(i.e., his lyrics are replete with brilliant metaphors/double entendres)...." Read more

"...The end result is an unexpected love letter to Rap culture (distinct from Hip Hop culture), and a deeper (also unexpected) acknowledgement of the..." Read more

"...Decoded was the perfect title and conveys multiple meanings. Jay-Z has the lyrics to many of his songs "decoded"...." Read more

"...is an auto biography, a book of poetry, bible, a text book, a reference manual, a blueprint, but most importantly.... A roadmap on becoming `Dope'...." Read more

34 customers mention "Writing style"30 positive4 negative

Customers find the writing style intriguing, well-crafted, and descriptive. They say it's a great read for inspiring words and stories. Readers also mention the author does a pretty good job on writing down important events in his life that have shaped him.

"...The lyrics are seen in corresponding chapters with an extensive footnote section where he explains why he wrote some of the more cryptic lines...." Read more

"...This well crafted auto-biography in many ways runs parallel to his music in the aspect that it is inspired stream of conscious, contains vivid..." Read more

"...I find him well-spoken and an excellent business man - It is for these reasons that I chose to buy and read his book..." Read more

"...This is not a literary classic, its Jay-Z story, an impressive rendition of himself by himself...." Read more

24 customers mention "Art quality"24 positive0 negative

Customers find the book visually stunning, saying it's one of the best pieces of art they have ever purchased. They appreciate the fantastic images and decent illustrations. Readers also mention the internal layout is impressive and the pages are crisp and clean.

"...So, happy reading with some great tributes, fantastic images, and a compelling story." Read more

"...music in the aspect that it is inspired stream of conscious, contains vivid imagery, and layered metaphors...." Read more

"...The most beautiful, heart-wrenching, and captivating part of this book is Jay-Z’s keen ability to plant the reader firmly in his shoes...." Read more

"...The art direction, overseen by Jay-Z, looks really good. Honestly, they should make this book a coffee-table edition...." Read more

9 customers mention "Value for money"9 positive0 negative

Customers say the book is well worth the money.

"This book is well worth the money. Before reading any reviews, I was expecting a book full of all his lyrics and explanations for them...." Read more

"...n it is worth every penny. it is a book u will read over n over. and goo back at any time n look up lyrics threw out his carreer...." Read more

"Good book, as I am a huge jay-z fan, and it was a good price. Delivered in good condition I believe it was a Christmas gift." Read more

"A great book at a very good price for all Jay-Z fans who appreciate his lyrics and art and even for those who are new fans or just have not listened..." Read more

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Baseball Fan

Discovering Hip Hop

Reviewed in the United States on January 7, 2011

Verified Purchase

I've always enjoyed a broad spectrum of music, ranging from classical to jazz; from popular to reggae; from stage/screen to R&B Soul; from ragtime to country. However, although I've enjoyed some of the rhythms of rap and hip-hop, I've never really become enamored with this music genre for two reasons: (1) I've usually had difficulty understanding the meaning of the lyrics, and (2) some lyrics clearly convey violent messages. The main reason that I read `Decoded' (by Jay-Z, aka, Shawn Carter) is that it was highly recommended by Oprah. After reading Jay-Z's fascinating book (which decodes the lyrics of 36 of his songs), I'm able to see rap and hip hop music in a different light. Specifically, I found Jay-Z's lyrics to be a form of poetry that contains many positive messages for listeners.

In `Decoded' Jay-Z candidly states that when he was growing up in the Marcy Projects in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, he lived the life of a hustler (i.e., a street level drug dealer). As Jay-Z explains, through his lyrics he is attempting to share his life story with the listeners. As he puts it, the story of the hustler is the ultimate human story, the story of struggle.

In the lyrics of `Public Service Announcement' Jay-Z relates the difficult conditions that cause many inner city kids to become hustlers in the first place. Specifically, (in the decoded version of these lyrics) Jay-Z states, "...And we---the hustlers at the street level---definitely didn't invent the poverty and hopelessness that drove a generation of desperate kids to start selling drugs..." In the decoded version of his song titled, `December 4th' Jay-Z states, "I'm making the point that poverty, as bad as it is, was one reason why I ended up hustling, but there were deeper reasons, demons that I had stemming from abandonment." However, Jay-Z's lyrics avoid placing the total responsibility for the perpetuation of the `hustling lifestyle' on the `acrid' environment in which hustlers live/operate. By contrast, Jay-Z places a fair amount of the responsibility on the shoulders of the hustlers, themselves. Specifically, (in the decoded lyrics of `Public Service Announcement') he states: "...But then there's a point where I'm not so innocent anymore. It's when I `do it twice'. The second time is not out of desperation to survive or to resist the status quo, but out of greed for the spoils of the game." Moreover, in the decoded version of `American Dreamin', Jay-Z warns young people against getting drawn into hustling, when he states: "...(the lyrics are) meant to show how impossible it is for anyone to have the level of vision you'd need to make the dream of the hustler really come true. There are too many threats, too many hazards; even the smartest, most discerning hustler can't anticipate it all. This song is like the blues. It's about the inevitable tragedy of the hustler's life, the inevitable piercing of the hustler's dream. It's about a wish that can't come true. Can it?"

The art work and photography in `Decoded' is outstanding throughout. Moreover, to facilitate comprehension Jay-Z's thirty-six (36) songs are grouped into broad categories, each corresponding to a particular theme. Jay-Z exhibits extraordinary lyrical skills (i.e., his lyrics are replete with brilliant metaphors/double entendres). Accordingly, I found it necessary to read this book carefully, in accordance with the following deliberative process:
1. I read the lyrics for each particular song aloud (I had previously learned that poetry should always be read aloud).
2. I (silently) read Jay-Z's decoded version of the song.
3. I watched (and listened to) the video of the particular song on YouTube while following the lyrics in the book.
This process enabled me to read with satisfaction and comprehension, and to gain a better appreciation of hip-hop.

In summary, `Decoded' tells the story of a human being (Jay-Z, aka Shawn Carter) who used to be a street hustler, but who has since turned his life around via talent, hard work and determination. Today he is an elite rapper, a skilled artist, and a highly successful entrepreneur who has become very rich, but also gives back via acts of charity and philanthropy towards various groups. As Jay-Z points out, via hip-hop, he aims to make the lifestyle of the hustler visible through the lens of one who has actually lived `that life'; and in the process, to share with youngsters and other readers some life lessons that he has learned the hard way. In the future I plan to listen to more of Jay-Z's songs, and to hopefully gain a better appreciation for hip-hop in the process. I would recommend this book to everyone (young, old and in between), regardless of whether or not they are hip-hop aficionados.

13 people found this helpful

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George Washington

A read that forces you to "Decode" to really get it

Reviewed in the United States on September 7, 2011

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I approached Decoded from a "businessman's" perspective to get insight on how and why Jay does what he does. Like his rhymes, his writing takes a moment to digest, and re-read (often over and over again) as I believe he operates strategically to the "tee." I say this that because during his developmental years (from his early teens into his mid to late 20's) he spent his life in an environment where first level thinking would get you killed, or in jail. Someone of Jay's caliber has to think and process multiple levels down as he took on a leadership role even during his time working in capacities that weren't productive to American society. Instead of staying in Brooklyn to sell drugs, he chose to take a pioneers route and explore new territory (which is the fastest way to get killed, or arrested - Jay reflects on this within his writing as well). Thinking about that perspective, you will see how and why he was successful, and many times within the book if you actually take time to read (I'm not saying that you didn't take the time to read, I'm just rambling a bit here) what he's writing, he even repeatedly notes it himself. Someone who chooses to title his book "Decoded" is not an average thinker, nor will a reader totally digest all he has to say in one reading. In a way, I believe Jay wants you to dig deeper into what he's always saying whether written or "spoken" word. Think about it....

He sold drugs, yes, but, from what I took from his writing was that he was always looking at a larger goal. He fully embraced rapping from age 9, so I'm sure he always had a goal of transitioning and using his "past" life to fuel his future. He personified his "hustler" status from day one, and from his many successes and failures (there are more than any would like to think) but it was Jay being real with Jay. Why no one knows much about his personal life? My opinion is that as anyone who is extremely successful, they keep their circles tight which likely keeps them successful. If you pick up any "how to be successful in business, or life" book, they all speak about having "think tanks" (think generalities with this term), thus meaning they keep their circles small.

All said, I am enjoying the book, and Jay offers many, many "gems" which show why and how he is where he is today. Additionally, if anyone is foolish to think this will be Jay's only book, I'll place all bets and say that within 5 years he will write a "business" book for all to gobble up, and likely delve deeper into his thinking during his drug dealing years, and how it ties into his latter thinking, and even influences his decisions today.

Jay - Z's book will force you to look at him how he views himself, as a hustler, artist, business, business-man, and HUMAN. He manages to weave personal trials and tribulations and turn them into meaninful songs which people from all backgrounds can relate to. His world is not exclusive, and if you've read any other books on "How to Be Successful" you will see how Jay, from a young age, even to this day fully embodies these characteristics which ensure continued success. I went on to purchase "The Seat of the Soul" by Gary Zukav. I know, the two don't seem to pair well together unless you've read "Decoded" yourself. So, happy reading with some great tributes, fantastic images, and a compelling story.

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AditC

Iconic

Reviewed in Canada on February 17, 2024

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An iconic book from an iconic artist. This is a must have for every hip hop fan, and it looks beautiful on a shelf.

Caio

JAY HOVA

Reviewed in Brazil on March 24, 2020

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Surpreendente

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Victoria

A must have...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 15, 2020

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I originally bought this for my partner, then had to get myself one after I read one or two pages while wrapping it up.
You have to look at this book with an elite mindset and when you do, you will be able to read between the lines and learn everything there is to know about having a mindset like the GOAT.
No it is not told in bullet points, it is told through stories and Lyrics - you may not see straight away what it is that you want to see - but if you know what you're looking for, its a gem!

JanBP

Amazing

Reviewed in Spain on December 4, 2019

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A lil piece of art.

Petru

un must per i fan

Reviewed in Italy on November 6, 2018

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Veramente bello, ti ispira. veramente ben fatto, un must per i fan di Jay Z anche se in inglese con l'aiuto di un dizionario è facilmente traducibile, ultra consigliato

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