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Jay-Z

Author of Decoded

52+ Works 875 Members 11 Reviews

About the Author

Includes the name: Z Jay

Image credit: Alex Johnson from Ft. Lauderdale FL, USA

Works by Jay-Z

Decoded (2010) 642 copies, 7 reviews
The Black Album (2003) 28 copies, 1 review
8 Mile: Music from and Inspired by the Motion Picture (2002) — Contributor — 23 copies, 1 review
The Blueprint (2001) 22 copies, 1 review
Collision Course (with DVD) (2004) 17 copies
Reasonable Doubt [Explicit] (1998) 13 copies
4:44 (2017) 12 copies
Vol. 2, Hard Knock Life (1998) 10 copies
The Blueprint 3 (2009) 10 copies
American Gangster (2007) 8 copies
Kingdom Come (2006) 6 copies
Vol. 1 - In My Lifetime (1997) 5 copies

Associated Works

More Myself: A Journey (2020) — Narrator, some editions — 232 copies, 5 reviews
Good Girl Gone Bad: Reloaded (2007) — Contributor — 54 copies
Speakerboxxx/The Love Below (2003) — Contributor — 51 copies
The Greenprint: Plant-Based Diet, Best Body, Better World (2018) — Introduction — 36 copies
Miss E... So Addictive (2001) — Contributor — 25 copies
Space Jam: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1996) — Contributor — 24 copies, 1 review
Under Construction (2002) — Contributor — 22 copies
The Great Gatsby: Original 2013 Motion Picture Soundtrack (2013) — Contributor — 18 copies
This Is Not a Test! (2003) — Contributor — 9 copies
The Lion King: The Gift (2019) — Contributor — 2 copies
Black Is King [2020 TV special] (2020) — Actor — 2 copies

Tagged

:stored in=hiphop (4) American (9) audio (10) autobiography (21) biography (22) calibre (4) CD (15) currently-reading (4) double album (3) ebook (12) Gen (8) goodreads (5) hip hop (53) Jay-Z (14) Kindle (3) lyrics (4) memoir (23) mp3 (7) music (60) Music - Rap/Hip Hop (4) New York (3) non-fiction (37) poetry (6) rap (21) rap music (4) rap musicians (3) to-read (38) ~gensnd (8) ~SND (8) ~vn12 (7)

Common Knowledge

Members

Reviews

12 reviews
This was a great book about the music and the person behind it and then...Jay-Z went too far. It turned political and anti-police. I could spend my time (and yours) detailing out where he went wrong, politically speaking, but what good would that do.

If you can get past his ignorant view of politics and law enforcement the rest of this book is top notch! He takes you through his life getting into the rap scene and the hows and why of the genre itself.

The poetry of the hip-hop/rap scene is show more what makes it so popular...especially when you add the syncopated rhythms the seem to fit like a glove. Jay-Z expounds on this quite a bit and talks to the fact that there is more to much of the music than just what the words are...many times the deeper meaning adds to the draw.

I enjoyed this book overall (and I still will listen to Jay-Z’s music even though I dislike his politics) and would recommend it to both those that like the genre and those that don’t...they might learn something
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dream hampton did an excellent job telling Jay-Z's story, exposing his feelings, raw and real for the world to see and decoding his many lyrics from his musical catalogue. I loved every second of this book.
Interesting. I like Jay-Z, but I don't necessarily know all of his music. Still, I liked reading about his childhood and how he got started as a rapper -- he seems like a good guy. The Kindle version of this was a little difficult to maneuver. I hate that I have to click buttons to get to the footnotes for all of the songs, so I only read about the songs I knew.
I'm not a hip hop person and I don't have much exposure to Jay-Z. But I'm interested or just say curious about the gangster rapper life. Hence I picked up this book.

Jay-Z seems like a grounded person and he writes about his music, the lyrics, their deeper meaning, life on the street, the music industry, other musicians, God and the black American president. This book is just long enough to give you an insight into his life without being over the top.
½

Awards

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Statistics

Works
52
Also by
11
Members
875
Popularity
#29,265
Rating
3.9
Reviews
11
ISBNs
32
Languages
3

Charts & Graphs