7/4/2023 0 Comments Decoded by Jay-Z4 performs the sort of heroic act that could grant him redemption for the sins that haunt “Decoded.” If he could just get out of his own way. By making his story not merely part of, but subservient to, a much larger cultural narrative, the rapper who was born Shawn Carter 41 years ago on Dec. Just as it’s hit the economic skids, hip-hop has a champion on a rescue mission. It’s also a passionate defense of a musical form that’s often as misunderstood as this complicated spokesman. To Jay-Z’s credit, this hip-hop art book is not just one man’s memoir. “Decoded” is an elegantly designed, incisively written bid for cultural legitimacy by a man whose XXL ego is underscored by an equally outsized inferiority complex (as big egos so often are). Jay-Z is a great American artist - and he’d be the first to tell you so.
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