#238 Jay Z: Decoded

**David Senra** (0:00)
I want to tell you about a one time only limited event that I don't think you're going to want to miss. I am doing a live show with Patrick O'Shaughnessy from the Invest Like the Best podcast in New York City on October 19th. Patrick has interviewed over 300 of the world's best investors and founders for his podcast. I've read over 300 biographies of history's greatest entrepreneurs for my podcast. We'll be talking about what we learned from seven years of podcasting, sharing our favorite ideas and stories, and doing a live Q&A. There will also be special event-only swag. If you live in New York City, I think it's a no-brainer. But if not, I think it's a great excuse to fly in. I've already heard from a bunch of people that bought tickets. They're flying in from other cities. Some people are flying in from other countries. That's setting the bar really high, so I will have at least four shots of espresso, or four energy drinks before or during the show, so we can make it a night that you'll never forget. If you're interested in attending this unique live event, I will leave a link down below. I highly recommend you get your tickets today, and I hope I get to see you in New York on October 19th.
It was the 70s, and heroin was still heavy in the hood.
Unpredictability was one of the things that we counted on. Like the day when I wandered up to something I'd never seen before, a cipher.
But I wouldn't have called it that. No one would have back then.
I shouldered my way through the crowd towards the middle.
It felt like gravity pulling me into that swirl of kids. No bullshit, like a planet being pulled into orbit by a star.
His name was Slate, and he was a kid I used to see around the neighborhood. An older kid who had barely made an impression on me.
In that circle though, he was transformed. Like the church ladies touched by the spirit. And everyone was mesmerized. He was rhyming, throwing out couplet after couplet, like he was in a trance. For a crazy long time, 30 minutes straight off the top of his head, never losing the beat. Riding the handclaps. He rhymed about nothing. The sidewalk, the benches. Or he'd go in on the kids who were standing around listening to him. And then he'd go in on how clean he was. How nice he was with the ball. How all the girls loved him. Then he'd start rhyming about the rhymes themselves. How good they were. How much better they were than yours. And how he was the best that ever did it. All he had were his eyes, taking in everything and the words inside him.
I was dazzled. That's some cool shit, was the first thing I thought.
Then, I could do that.
That night, I started writing rhymes in my notebook. From the beginning, it was easy, a constant flow. For days, I filled page after page. Then I'd bang out a bead on the table, my bedroom window, whatever had a flat surface, and practice from the time I woke in the morning until I went to sleep.
I saw it as an opening, a way to recreate myself and reimagine my world.
After I recorded a rhyme, it gave me an unbelievable rush to play it back, to hear that voice.
Everywhere I went, I'd write.
If I was crossing a street with my friends and a rhyme came to me, I'd break out my binder, spread it on a mailbox or lamp post, and write the rhyme before I crossed the street.
Even back then, I thought it was the best.
I'd spend my free time reading the dictionary, building my vocabulary.
I could be ruthless, calm as fuck on the outside, but flooded with adrenaline.
I wasn't even in high school yet, and I discovered my voice.
That is an excerpt from the book that I'm going to talk to you about today, which is Jay Z's memoir, and it's called Decoded.
Before I jump back into the book, just real quick, I get messages every week for people asking how they can buy gift subscriptions to Founders for other people. There's always a link in the show notes on the Misfit feed. You'll see buy a gift subscription, and if you don't see it there, you can always go to founderspodcast.com. And you'll see it in the header. And you can buy a gift subscription for like a few months, a year, and now there's a lifetime gift subscription option as well. Okay, so this podcast is gonna be similar to when I read All the Way Back on Founders, number 219 I read the biography of Anthony Bourdain. And the reason this is similar is because before I read the biography of Anthony Bourdain, I had read his books, I watched almost every single episode of his shows. I was a massive, massive fan. He had a huge influence on my life. And it's the same way with Jay Z. I've been listening to his music repeatedly for over two decades. I'd watch interviews with him. I'd take notes on what he says. I have a folder on Instagram that is labeled Motivation. And so when I come across something that just hypes me up or just a good idea, I put it in there. And then I just go to that folder whenever I have a few minutes and just watch videos. And a lot of them also have, it's also Jay Z just dropping pieces of advice or lessons that he learned through his life. And I cannot believe it's taken me this long. I have no excuse to head, cannot believe it's taken me this long to read this book. I remember going to a friend's house back in 2010, 2011, and it was on its coffee table. And I remember picking it up and leafing through it. I'm like, wow, this is amazing, I should read this. And so it's taken me more than a decade to circle back around, but I'm very, very glad. Once I got read it, I could just could not believe how good it was. So I wanna go back to the part of the introduction. It's in the very first chapter. And I just wanna pull out a couple of thoughts I had as I went through some of these highlights I just read to you. When he's seeing this kid in a cipher, which is just in the early days of hip hop, it's just one person sitting in the middle, wrapping, sometimes it's one person, sometimes it's a few and they're battling, whatever the case is, and just people surrounded by them. This is the first time Jay Z is seeing that happen. He's watching it for a while. But it was interesting what came to his mind. He's like, that's really cool, and I could do that.