Posted by Katherine St Asaph on 10/03/2011 at 10:50 AM News

The Popdust Files: decoded, jay-z, re-releases, the throne

However does one decode the artwork for Jay-Z’s memoir/lyric compendium Decoded showing up again on Life and Times, scant on details? Here’s one way: it’s promoting a re-release of the book, originally released in November of last year, with the new version out November 1. New in this paperback edition: another chapter, more illustrations and three more songs included: “I Know” and “Lost Ones” and “Young Gz.”

There’s also a new afterword, part of which Rap Radar reports will read like this:

What still excites me about rap is that it’s an open thread, a cipher that listeners find their own meanings in. The point of this book is not to settle arguments or transform rap songs into neat stories with a beginning, middle, and end. Rather, I’m trying to point readers to some ideas and information, get them to see deeper into the music than they saw before and learn more about worlds different from their own (or find new ways of looking at the worlds they already know)—to find their own meanings and connect them back to their own lives. I want readers to see the craft and learn the context—and I want them to still be able to feel the magic, and enjoy the show.

Notably absent from the announcement: anything specifically dealing with The Throne, although it’s plausible some details might work their way in there.