Jay Z's insightful look into hip hop...

"The story of the rapper and the story of the hustler are like rap itself, two kinds of rhythm working together, having a conversation with each other, doing more together than they could do apart..." (Jay Z, 10)

So there's been quite the hype about Jay's new book: Decoded. When I first posted a book of myself reading it on FB, I got almost as much feedback as I got about Willi Monfret's pic (and that was A LOT) lol.
Anyway, much to the dismay of some of my friends, I actually had pre-ordered Decoded, which was released on November 16. That day I went to pick it up the Eaton's Centre Indigo, and felt the sting of paying $40 (about $36 'cause I'm an "irewards member" *eyeroll*). Lemme just make it clear, I like saving money just as much as the next person, but I'm not exactly stingy; as an English major I've learned to never pay FULL COVER PRICE for a book.


So I got this book, and I hopped on the subway to make my way to class, and as I'm flipping through it I can't help but smile. I mean, I've seen "compilation" type memoirs before, but this is somehow different- it's actually kinda visually appealing. The pages change in colour, font style/size, imagery, use of text, photography, and lyrical analysis- like this, for example:

So anyways, due to the great old learning structure at U of T, I wont be able to actually ready the entire thing until winter break.
I read about the first 40 pages or, just to get a feel for it, and I guess you could say I almost had mixed feelings about it. I mean, some of things I read, I just had the instinct to either roll my eyes or dismiss them as over-exaggerations. Luckily though, that didn't really happen too often.

 I also found myself asking, what does Jay Z mean to us?- if he actually felt warranted to publish a bio. Well essentially, he means a lot to us- us as in hiphop listeners but also as in pop culture contributors/consumers; the latter provides a huge audience to the likes of Jay Z. Essentially, Jay Z is one of the most successful artists in a genre he watched spring up, and then helped to grow and expand. Jay Z, I would argue, is hiphop's Leonardo Da Vinci. Okay, Okay, before you start cursing at your screens, just consider what kind of comparison I'm trying to draw here. Take into account things like: what these artists have contributed to their respective art forms, how mainstream audiences respond to each artist, the level of undeniable talent each artist possesses, the parallel myths and exaggerations surrounding the two (Illuminati, anyone?), their places as pop cultural icons, and their huge successes both as artists and as manipulators of their environment (Da Vinci was a better inventor than artist, and Jay-well, we all know that all that money aint from rapping, alone).

I actually found it to be for the most part, insightful, thoughtful, and really explanatory. Jay is someone who has been there to see hiphop bloom, so at the very least, he can provide some insight into this growth. He's had first-hand experience with some of the events that have shaped this art form, like hearing Run D.M.C's "Sucker M.C.s" record for the first time, the debut of the first hiphop radio show (hosted by DJ Red Alert), and the first hiphop performance to be broadcast on TV.

Plus, as arguably one of the best lyricists of our time, you've gotta appreciate the innate writer who dwells within Jay Z the rapper. Jay has mastered the English language in the way our favourite authors have. He's mastered punchlines, metaphors, double entendres, complex rhymes, and knows how to manipulate his extensive vocabulary.

Finally, as one of the most successful hiphop artists, Jay necessarily understands, or has a legitimate perspective on hiphop. He does a good job of paralleling this with his own personal life, like in my favourite passage (so far, of course):

"My life after childhood has two main stories: the story of the hustler and the story of the rapper, and the two overlap as much as they diverge... People sometimes say that now I'm so far away from that life- that I have no right to rap about it. But how distant is the story of your own life ever going to be? The feelings that I had during that part of my life were burned into me... 

I went dead broke and got hood rich on those streets. I hated it. I was addicted to it. It nearly killed me. But no matter what, it is the place where I learned not just who I was, but who we were, who all of us are... It's my core story... that core story is the one that I have to tell... 

The story of the hustler was the story hiphop was born to tell- not its only story, but the story that found its voice in the form and, in return, helped grow the form into an art... 

Rap is also entertainment- and art... hustling is the ultimate metaphor for the basic human human struggles: the struggle to survive and resist, the struggle to win and make sense of it all..." (Jay Z, 18)