Jay-Z to release book in November

On Tuesday, November 16, 2010, Shawn “JAY-Z” Carter and publisher Spiegel & Grau, an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group, are set to release Decoded, the first book written by the multi-platinum, 10 time Grammy Award winning entrepreneur and icon.

Unique in every sense, Decoded is a narrative journey through the lyrics and life of one of the most prolific artists of our time.

Featuring an image of Andy Warhol’s Rorschach on the cover, the beautifully designed, fully-illustrated book decodes 36 songs from JAY-Z’s extensive catalog.

By telling the stories behind some of Jay-Z’s most famous and provocative lyrics, Decoded offers an intimate, first-hand account of an artist, his work, and the culture that so powerfully shaped him.

In addition to the hardcover release, Random House will publish Decoded as an eBook, as well as an interactive iPhone/iPad application that will include exclusive video and customizable content that will allow users to delve into a deeper Decoded experience.

“This is a book that could only have come from JAY-Z. Every aspect of it reflects his style and ambition and heart. The unique structure he devised – combining intense personal narratives with revealing ‘decodings’ of some of his most powerful lyrics – underlines his central mission for the book: to use his famously layered and poetic lyrics and his one-of-a-kind life story to tell a wider story about the world he grew up in and the transformative power of hip-hop. JAY’s rigorous attention to every detail of the book, right down to the book’s jacket, which he art directed, was impressive, and the depth of his thinking – about his experiences and lyrics, but also about the creative process, the poetry of hip-hop, and the art of life – was a constant revelation. This is a book that will offer gratifying surprises and insights to both the long-time JAY-Z fan and to the reader who might meet him here for the first time.” -- Chris Jackson, Executive Editor, Spiegel & Grau

FROM DECODED

“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.” - JAY-Z