First…know that Jigga Man’s book is a fully-illustrated book that decodes 36 songs from JAY-Z’s extensive catalog. By telling the stories behind some of Jay-Z’s most famous and provocative lyrics, Decoded offers an intimate, first-hand account of an artist, his work, and the culture that so powerfully shaped him. And then…

Here’s what Jigga Man had to say about it:

When I first started working on this book, I told my editor that I wanted it to do three important things. 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.

And now…

This is EbenGregory.com…telling you to hit the jump to see Jigga break down some of his lyrics.