dream hampton did an excellent job telling Jay-Z's story, exposing his feelings, raw and real for the world to see and decoding his many lyrics from his musical catalogue. I loved every second of this book. ( )

Simply took me by surprise. Better than I expected. ( )

I know his name, I know who he rolls with, and I think I got it right. Who? Jigga.

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This was a great book about the music and the person behind it and then...Jay-Z went too far. It turned political and anti-police. I could spend my time (and yours) detailing out where he went wrong, politically speaking, but what good would that do.

If you can get past his ignorant view of politics and law enforcement the rest of this book is top notch! He takes you through his life getting into the rap scene and the hows and why of the genre itself.

The poetry of the hip-hop/rap scene is what makes it so popular...especially when you add the syncopated rhythms the seem to fit like a glove. Jay-Z expounds on this quite a bit and talks to the fact that there is more to much of the music than just what the words are...many times the deeper meaning adds to the draw.

I enjoyed this book overall (and I still will listen to Jay-Z’s music even though I dislike his politics) and would recommend it to both those that like the genre and those that don’t...they might learn something ( )

I'm not a hip hop person and I don't have much exposure to Jay-Z. But I'm interested or just say curious about the gangster rapper life. Hence I picked up this book.

Jay-Z seems like a grounded person and he writes about his music, the lyrics, their deeper meaning, life on the street, the music industry, other musicians, God and the black American president. This book is just long enough to give you an insight into his life without being over the top. ( )