A review. Jay-Z's book. Decoded.

Thanks to Lacey I left Nashville and headed to the beach with Jay-Z's new book: DECODED, in tow. I've been a big Hov fan for years although in retrospect don't have all of his albums (will have to work on that). The book reads very easily (finished in 4 days) and is a compilation of his life stories and a diagnosis of his lyrics.

The book is filled with cool pictures, art, and other eye-catching pages that help the flow of the book and enhance it's feel of a really nice professional book with the credibility of the streets- I bet Random House can't say that about too many of it's titles.

In the first few chapters I felt that Jay was dumbing down the explanation of his lyrics a little too much as it started to feel like the book was written for middle-class white people that make up a large portion of his fan base. But as the book progresses the lyrical diagnosis gets a little more in depth and seems less patronizing.

I have always respected Jay and his music and DECODED just pulled it all together for me and gave me additional insight into a hard-working, pretty damn smart man.