Jay-Z’s got a new book that will be hitting stores this fall.
The book, titled Decoded, will be part memoir, part analysis and discussion of Jay-Z’s lyrics. The book traces Jay-Z’s origins in Brooklyn’s Marcy projects to his current status as one of the biggest stars in America. Jay-Z collaborated on the 336-page book with former editor of The Source, dream hampton.
In his recent cover story with Rolling Stone magazine, Jay addressed the book, which was initially titled The Black Book and was to be released around the same time as his 2003 album, The Black Album.
“It’s too much. For the book, I was interviewed, people close to me were interviewed. So I was learning a lot of things I didn’t know as a child,” Jay-Z told RS. “It’s not anything I haven’t said in the past, in songs. It’s just more detailed. A song is three minutes long. A book doesn’t have to rhyme, and it has no time limit, so you can say exactly how everything went.”
Jay-Z also admitted he was most affected by parts of Decoded that concerned his father, who abandoned the family when Jay-Z was 11.
“It was still wrong, at the end of the day, but he did stick around at a time where it wasn’t particularly cool or popular,” Jay-Z said. “He married my mom at a time when guys were just leaving, and you’d never even meet your dad. So it made me ease up a little bit in how I felt about him.”
Since Decoded was completed several years ago, it remains unclear whether the book will feature additional chapters detailing Jay-Z’s last few years, including The Blueprint 3, his 360 deal with Live Nation, being a part owner of the New Jersey Nets and, his most guarded subject, his marriage to Beyoncé.
Decoded is out November 16th.