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Jonah Bromwich decodes Decoded so you don’t have to.

1. I knew Marcy Projects wasn’t Mt. Holyoke before I started Decoded but three scenes from Jay’s old neighborhood really struck me. According to Jay, kids in Marcy would go up to “leaning nodders” (heroin addicts ) and push them off the benches they were sleeping on “the way kids on farms tip sleeping cows.” (pg. 4) And girl gangs like the Deceptinettes (the female version of the Decepticons) were “broads who would just walk up to grown men and punch them in their faces so hard they’d drop.” (pg. 13) Finally, Hova’s first drug connect was murdered like “something out of a mob movie. They cut his balls off and stuffed them in his mouth and shot him in the back of the head, execution style.” (p. 15)

2. It turns out Jay had Hammer on the brain before he recorded his verse for “So Apalled.” He references Stanley Burrell twice. The first time, he notes that “even when [Hammer] was spinning around with his pants billowing all around him, you could see in his eyes that this was still a nigga from the hood. Sean is a bit more careful about hurting Hammer’s feelings in print though. In discussing the man’s fall he writes “It’s no dis to Hammer to say that it was shocking to watch it happen.” (pg. 93) He’s a bit less delicate when talking about Hammer’s attempt to become a gangster stating “Really? Please don’t. You don’t have to! (italics his). (pg. 249)

3. When discussing the Kanye-50 sales battle, Jay points out that he had his own battle with Curtis. Apparently, The Black Album and Beg for Mercy came out the same week and 50, (of course) “got on the radio and announced he was putting money on Beg for Mercy outselling Jay’s pseudo-retirement album. Not only did the G-Unit debut lose to The Black Album (despite containing the all-time classic single “I Smell Pussy”) but it also lost to the Resurrection soundtrack. Jay says that there was “something beautiful” about competing with Tupac rather than 50. (pg. 71)

4. Jay-Z thinks that “Beach Chair” is “one of the hidden jewels of his catalogue.” (pg. 278)

5. Jay’s first memory of Dame Dash might be tainted by their more recent history. When he describes their meeting he calls Dame “a Harlem dude through and through—flashy, loud, animated. According to Hov’ ‘Harlem cats “enter every room like it’s a movie set and they’re the star of the flick.” However he does give credit where credit’s due, remembering that Dame was “entertaining” but “serious, with real vision.” (pg. 237)

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