Cover Art: Jay-Z's "Decoded" Book

I know, I know, you hate Jigga now b/c he's so damn corporate...and yes that line of Yankee's gear he came up with is..well, it makes Rocawear look ill nowadays...No matter how you feel about Mr. Carter, I think we'd all agree that is first 2 to three albums (and maybe a few recent ones *cough* "The Black Album" *cough*) are pretty worthy. His new book Decoded promises to decipher some of Jay's better work. 36 of his joints will be examined and their will be illustrations as well.

Might not be a Tao Of The Wu type deal, but it could be okay...here's Hov's take:

"When I first started working on this book, I told my editor that I wanted it to do three important things. The first was to 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.”

hmmm, poetry? violent and chaotic crossroads? Powerful experiences? Sounds like a winner, I'm down...

-BIG D O