Jay-Z: 'My new book will show that rap is poetry'

Jay-Z has revealed that his new book will show that "rap is really poetry".

The rapper, who releases Decoded on November 16, explained that his book will look at the social and political thought behind rap music.

"[I want to show] that rap is really poetry," he told MTV. "It's not just a bunch of guys putting rhyming words together."

"There's thought behind it and there's cleverness and there's inspiration," he continued. "There's social reason and there's political reason and there's angst and there's anger and all these different things inside music."

Jay-Z also goes on to say that the genre can often be misunderstood and that some people don't realise the "depth behind the writing".

"For the casual listener - people who don't listen to rap - what they do is listen for buzz words," he said. "So if somebody say 'bitch' or somebody say one of those buzz words, it's like, 'Aw, there they go again.' But they don't realise the depth behind the writing."

Jay-Z will release 'The Hits Collection Volume 1' on November 23, plus will perform alongside Coldplay at a New Year's Eve show in Las Vegas.