Jay-Z wrote his memoirs ‘Decoded’ in 2010, or did he? He is now been sued by writer Patrick White, who pretends that the hip hop star stole portions of his own book. According to AllHipHop, this is what White explained in his hand-written complaint:
‘In 2009, my personal computer was compromised, resulting in my personal work to be used in Jay-Z's book Decoded which was released in 2010.’
‘After purchasing the book in 2011, and reading it, the work seemed very similar to the book I had been writing on my personal computer.’
‘The book contains various expressions/colors/phrases, which correlates to my work. After contacting or attempting to contact the co-author, I got no reply.’
It seems to be a pretty serious accusation, and co-author Dream Hampton as well as publisher Random House are also named in the lawsuit that White submitted last week; he is seeking damages for copyright infringement and invasion of property.
You have to wonder, if White’s personal computer was stolen, how did it end up into Jay-Z’s hands? He doesn’t say. If he really has a similar book on his personal computer, it should be found as nothing never totally disappears on a computer, but if he is a total fraud, I wonder what evidence he could bring, and so, what is the point of his lawsuit?
On the other hand, you have to think about something, if the story was stolen from somebody else, how can Decoded be what it pretends to be,… a memoir? This is probably some hoax, or could it be that Jay-Z isn't sampling only for his rap songs?