Genius

I received Jay-Z's Decoded as a Christmas gift last year from my husband (then fiance). I finally started reading it, and I LOVE it. Jay-Z is such a genius, as is my husband for purchasing this book.

My absolute favorite part so far is this:

"I was on the streets for more than half of my life from the time I was thirteen years old. People sometimes say that now I'm so far away from that life - now that I've got businesses and Grammys and magazine covers - that I have no right to rap about it. But how distant is the story of your own life ever going to be? The feelings I had during that part of my life were burned into me like a brand. It was a life during wartime.....I was part of a generation of kids who saw something special about what it means to be human - something bloody and dramatic and scandalous that happened right here in America - and hip-hop was our way of reporting that story, telling it to ourselves and to the world. "

- Shawn Carter (Jay-Z)