Dec. 3, 2010 | The Clarion
Arts & Life
Page 7
jay-z decoded
Book Review: Jay-Z's
memoir 'Decoded'
By AM Breland of The Daily Texan
via UWIRE
From even before its release, rapper
Jay-Z made it apparent that his new
memoir, “Decoded” was going to be
an ambitious piece of work through its
extremely unique marketing campaign.
HiphopDX, reported that in efforts to
create buzz about the book, excerpts
were to be featured in random places
ranging from the bottom of hotel pools,
to the sides of buildings, to subways,
to pool tables. In typical Jay-Z fashion,
the product ends up living up to the
hype.
Decoded itself reads more uniquely
than most memoirs. Jay-Z still maintains a focus on his own story, but
instead of keeping his narrative singular. Decoded comes off as several
things: a social statement, a chronicling of hip-hop’s rise, and, of course,
the personal recollections. The unique variance of styles and intentions
woven throughout.
In that fashion of jumping from tangent to tangent to create an interwoven
story line, Jay-Z also he even admits to being non-linear and instead prefers
to jump around in his story telling, creating whatever image he desires as
the product of the chopped up elements he puts into his work, creating a
beautiful flowing output.
The story starts of illustrating the days of a nine-year-old in the
Marcy Houses housing project in Brooklyn, a little section of Brooklyn,
discovering the magical burgeoning world of hip hop and rapping that was
developing on the streets of New York. Very quickly, though, crack cocaine
made it’s infiltration into his community and it wasn’t long before he, like
everyone that surrounded him was hustlin’ and dealing coke to get by.
“I went straight,” he said, “[I] stopped selling drugs — but I also didn’t
accept the false choice between poverty and breaking the law.”
So often celebrities write in their memoirs of vice’s they often get over
for the sake of their career It can be minor like in Kelly Slater’s scenario,
junk food, or extreme like Anthony Kiedis’s longstanding addiction to
heroine. Jay-Z’s main vice oddly enough was hustling. Throughout much
of the early portion of his life he sold drugs, something that would scar
him and strengthen him for the years to come.
He wrote about the intensity and harrowing experiencing of having
friends die and constantly watching your back to the point of near mental
breakdown and paranoia and how despite that, he was consumed by the
lifestyle. There was always the hopes of achieving something better As he
illustrates, though, hustling is an integral part of street culture and often a
problem that often is overlooked or severely mishandled.
Though an interseting part of the book, this where Jay-Z crosses over into
messy territory. Throughout the book, his arguments range from racism
amongst police, to government policies designed to perpetuate social
disparities amongst difference races of people in America, with the word
“nigger” spattered throughout. While these arguments are all interesting,
philosophically engaging, and sound, some, especially the latter feature
concrete warrants.
In this sense. Decoded has the opportunity to be much more intellectually
fulfilling but blows it as Jay-Z makes overarching statements about the
state of things in the government in comparison with the “hood,” without
concrete evidence. Despite this he does provide an interesting springboard
Turkey Spinach Pinwheels
from Chef Boy-ar-Dave
Average Cost of Meal: $8 - $10
Time of Preparation: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 0 minutes
Serving Size: 5
Ingredients:
5 Flour Tortillas
10 Slices of Turkey Breast
1 Bag of Spinach
1 8 oz. Cream Cheese
1 Cup of Yogurt
Instructions:
• Mix in a medium sized bowl the cream
cheese with the yogurt.
• Spread the creamy mixture evenly onto each
tortilla.
• Put an even amount of turkey into each
tortilla.
• Put an even amount of spinach into each
tortilla.
• Roll up the tortilla as tightly as possible and
refrigerate for 10 minutes.
• Slice into one inch pieces and serve.
of social and political ideas that the reader can assess in their own time,
he’s simply and perhaps unnecessarily passing the work of research to
the reader though.
Jay-Z also makes compelling points outside intense controversy. Towards
the end, he starts to break himself down theologically and philosophically
on a deeper level than anywhere else in the book, making an already
entertaining and insightful read, into something even more.
“Decoded” also features lyrical breakdowns at the end of every chapter,
in which he describes many different aspects, inspirations, and motivations
behind his words and the poetry he creates with them. While usually
intriguing and unique, the breakdowns can become burdensome and
annoying as they break the flow of the narrative.
Ultimately the experience is subjective and up to the reader in that sense.
“Decoded” is in many ways just that — a look inside Jay-Z’s head and
the world he lives in and has lived in decoded, and made sense of, for
anyone to take a look at.