Shawn Carter's Decoded

Decoded was a glimpse into the rough environment of world known artist Shawn Carter, or better recognized as Jay-Z. In this book, Carter gives a clear analysis of not only his lyrics, but also the meaning of each lyric. He goes into detailed memories to steer the audience in the direction of a better understanding and acceptance to a different perspective than of those that are given via social media. In order to accomplish this, Jay-Z delves into three main topics. Firstly, he hoped to make a valid argument that hip-hop lyrics from any rapper are poetry if you looked behind the lines and examined them enough. While aiming to do that, Jay-Z was also determined to tell the story of his generation and the day to day life experience that he and other fellow rappers had to endure. In discussing his youth, he also included the reasoning behind some …show more content…
In part one, Hov speaks of how rap is a different form of poetry. Instead of the words playing the only role, the beat is a vital tool for any rapper. When the beat is set, then that is when it allows the rapper to find their own rhythm with their life speaking lyrics (Carter 14). In his book, Jay-Z encourages the reader to compare the making of poetry to rap. He does this by answering the question on why hip-hop is controversial. Just like poetry, rap has a way of challenging you to think about the words in front of you in different ways. Jay-Z states that people do not know how to listen to the entirety of the music, only choosing to pay attention to the beat. Similarly, rap can be deceptive. Jay-Z explained that listeners tend to take a literal interpretation and make fast opinions, and in order to fully appreciate the work just like any poetry piece you must listen to the song (even the trivial ones) and figure out what is really being said (Carter 78