Jay-Z & Outkast

Jay-Z on Decoded

When you're famous and say you're writing a book, people assume that it's an autobiography--I was born here, raised there, suffered this, loved that, lost it all, got it back, the end. But that's not what this is. I've never been a linear thinker, which is something you can see in my rhymes. They follow the jumpy logic of poetry and emotion, not the straight line of careful prose. My book is like that, too.

Decoded is first and foremost, a book of rhymes, which is ironic because I don't actually write my rhymes--they come to me in my head and I record them. The book is packed with the stories from my life that are the foundation of my lyrics--stories about coming up in the streets of Brooklyn in the 80's and 90's, stories about becoming an artist and entrepreneur and discovering worlds that I never dreamed existed when I was a kid. But it always comes back to the rhymes. There's poetry in hip-hop lyrics--not just mine, but in the work of all the great hip-hop artists, from KRS-One and Rakim to Biggie and Pac to a hundred emcees on a hundred corners all over the world that you've never heard of. The magic of rap is in the way it can take the most specific experience, from individual lives in unlikely places, and turn them into art that can be embraced by the whole world. Decoded is a book about one of those specific lives--mine--and will show you how the things I've experienced and observed have made their way into the art I've created. It's also about how my work is sometimes not about my life at all, but about pushing the boundaries of what I can express through the poetry of rap--trying to use words to find fresh angles into emotions that we all share, which is the hidden mission in even the hardest hip-hop. Decoded is a book about some of my favorite songs--songs that I unpack and explain and surround with narratives about what inspired them--but behind the rhymes is the truest story of my life. (Amazon.com)

doomsdayer520 on Big Boi & Dre Present Outkast

In an interview for Spin magazine earlier this year, OutKast's Dre3000 said that hip-hoppers, funkers, and rockers can all dig OutKast. He concluded by saying "Aliens dig us too." Well, he was right about that. I'm a heavy rocker by nature, with a real sickness for classic funk, and I'm attracted to acts that can bend the boundaries between different genres. I'm also interested in rappers who put a lot of effort into creating the musical aspect of their sound, like Dr. Dre or Public Enemy. For all these reasons, I just love OutKast. These guys aren't the best rappers in the world, but they are meticulous with their musical constructions and their lyrics are very clever and often insightful. For their entire four-album career, OutKast has successfully married basic hip-hop to Southern soul and classic funk (mostly the George Clinton variety, of which their knowledge is exhaustive), and this has given them a distinct and impressive sound. This musical expertise and creativity is OutKast's true strength. If you don't have all their original albums, this collection is a great representative sample, although fans may wonder why there is only one song form the 1996 album *ATLiens* (curiously, the liner notes incorrectly state that there are two). The three brand new tracks here are not too impressive either, and are basically experiments in P-Funksmanship. But other than those few weaknesses, you get the cream of the OutKast crop, with classics such as "Ms. Jackson," "Rosa Parks," "Player's Ball," and a good selection of their best album cuts. (Amazon.com)


Some days just are better than the others. Thank you for the music.