Decoded by Jay-Z / 308 pages. Read in 36 days

Jay-Z put his all in this book. His story starts off with him growing up in the Marcy Projects in 1978. From there he shares many interesting details about his childhood. He shared moments of balancing his life as a long-time street hustler, musician, and entrepreneur. Jay-Z shares his experiences with Jaz and their trip to London to shoot the video Hawaiian Sophie. At the time, Jaz was one of the best rappers from Marcy Projects. His bad experiences after his trip to London caused him to put his hopes of being a musician on hold. Instead, he hit the streets harder as a hustler. It wasn’t until years later when he found the confidence to give “music for a living” a try. Overtime, Jay became one of hip-hop’s best music icons. In this book, Jay shares how he fell in love with music as a child, how he became aware of ciphering, and when his passion for writing had him putting lines on brown paper bags. He discusses his relationship with Big Daddy Kane and how he got to be in his video. Jay shares the story of how Memphis Bleek was discovered, his moments with President Obama, the cross-country free shows he did to help with the election, his run-in with the law, how a hip-hop cop followed him for every show and every club performance for seven years, how he felt watching Beyonce sing from the crowd during the inauguration, how he believed he was the Michael Jordan of Recording, how he was turned down from using the copyrights to Hard Knock Life, his defense for not being a churchgoer, the start of Roc-A-Fella Records with his friends, and his friendship with Oprah Winfrey. Jigga discussed how important it is to write down business plans when it comes to visualizing your success. Jay-Z shares a secret of how he personally competes with himself to be the best. He also shares many details about his lyrics/albums and what they meant to him. Some of the songs he discussed in more detail were December 4th, In My Lifetime, Brooklyn’s Finest, Beach Chari, and Big Pimpin (Jay spent over a million dollars for this video shoot). This book did not go into any details about his relationship with his wife like expected, but it did shed light on how smart and wise Jay-Z is as a man. One of the reasons it took so long to read this book is because it took time to take in the lyrics, the definitions, and wording explanations. After reading this book, you will definitely come to appreciate his knowledge of and love for music.