Jay-Z Unveils 'Decoded' Book Cover

Jay-Z is making his latest entrepreneurial move in the world of publishing, with the upcoming release of his first official book Decoded. Shawn Carter is teaming up with publisher Spiegel & Grau to release the tome, which provides insight into the lyrics and life of the man from Marcy Projects.

The book, boasting an inkblot from Andy Warhol’s Rorschach on its cover, tells the intimate stories behind 36 of Hov’s songs, with plans to release the book on November 16 as an eBook and an iPhone/iPad app that offers exclusive video and customizable content.

“When I first started working on this book, I told my editor that I wanted it to do three important things,” explained Jay-Z in a statement. “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.”