Book review: 'Decoded' by Jay-Z

Jay-Z is a great American artist — and he'd be the first to tell you so. "Decoded" is an elegantly designed, incisively written bid for cultural legitimacy by a man whose XXL ego is underscored by an equally outsized inferiority complex (as big egos so often are).

To Jay-Z's credit, this hip-hop art book is not just one man's memoir. It's also a passionate defense of a musical form that's often as misunderstood as this complicated spokesman. Just as it's hit the economic skids, hip-hop has a champion on a rescue mission. By making his story not merely part of, but subservient to, a much larger cultural narrative, the rapper who was born Shawn Carter 41 years ago on Dec. 4 performs the sort of heroic act that could grant him redemption for the sins that haunt "Decoded." If he could just get out of his own way.

"Decoded" is not Mr. Beyoncé Knowles' long-awaited autobiography, "The Black Book." Jay-Z decided against telling all and canceled that contract. After reading "Decoded," I can't help but wonder if Jay-Z blinked because there are too many skeletons in the onetime crack dealer's closet. Instead, "Decoded" is part art book, part lyrical compilation (and explication) and part personal narrative. For Jay-Z, the personal is historical. He wanted "Decoded" to do three things, he writes: "make the case that hip-hop lyrics — not just my lyrics, but those of every great MC — are poetry if you look at them closely enough. The second was I wanted the book to tell a little bit of the story of my generation, to show the context for the choices we made at a violent and chaotic crossroads in recent history. And the third piece was that I wanted the book to show how hip-hop created a way to take a very specific and powerful experience and turn it into a story that everyone in the world could feel and relate to."

A Rorschach painting by Andy Warhol, rather than a photo of the celebrity author, gives the book a golden, conceptual cover. Inside, lavish photos and illustrations again depict not Jay-Z but his heroes and friends: Biggie Smalls, Quincy Jones, Michael Jordan, Lauryn Hill. "Decoded" credits the author with art design, but in the acknowledgments, Jay-Z thanks Rodrigo Corral Design. Similarly, Jay-Z is the sole listed writer, but he thanks journalist dream hampton (his erstwhile coauthor on "The Black Book"), who has said she was a collaborator.