Jay-Z will be releasing his autobiography “Decoded” on November 16.

The book mixes first-person memoir with detailed discussions of his most famous lyrics. It also included interviews with Jay-Z’s family and friends as well as the rapper, himself. Over its 336 pages, “Decoded” will trace Jay-Z’s life from his childhood in Brooklyn’s Marcy Projects to his years as a teen drug dealer to becoming a hip-hop superstar. The hardcover, illustrated book will also explore Jay-Z’s creative process.

However, “Decoded,” which he collaborated with The Source editor Dram Hampton to create, has been completed for several years. Jay-Z was simply hesitant about releasing it.

He told Rolling Stone in their June 2010 cover story of him,

“It’s too much. For the book, I was interviewed, people close to me were interviewed. So I was learning a lot of things I didn’t know as a child,” Jay-Z told RS. “It’s not anything I haven’t said in the past, in songs. It’s just more detailed. A song is three minutes long. A book doesn’t have to rhyme, and it has no time limit, so you can say exactly how everything went.”

Since Decoded was completed several years ago, it remains unclear whether the book will feature additional chapters detailing Jay-Z’s last few years, including The Blueprint 3, his 360 deal with Live Nation, being a part owner of the New Jersey Nets and, his most guarded subject, his marriage to Beyoncé.