The Missed Opportunity of the Jay-Z Documentary Series

Jay-Z in 8, HBO's documentary on the rap giant, covers his life and career in an effort to reshape his image, without any pressure. Why is he so fixated on the court of public opinion? In the closing part of Jay-Z in 8, HBO's recent eight-part documentary series about his life and career, the billionaire rap giant spoke with record producer Rick Rubin about the song 'Family Feud' from his 4:44 album. He explained one of its lines: 'Al Sharpton in the selfie mirror'

On the finale of Jay-Z on 8 , HBO's recent eight-part documentary series about his life and career, the billionaire rap mogul spoke with record producer Rick Rubin about the song Family Feud from his 4:44 album. He explained one of its lyrics, "Al Sharpton takes a selfie in the mirror/How's he or Peel Cosby gonna help me?", in which he blamed civil rights leader Sharpton and disgraced actor-comedian Cosby for constantly criticizing rap music. He called Sharpton an "extortionist" who goes "from place to place" and demanded: "You want our support ... give us the money." Listening to him chastise Sharpton, I thought about how he doesn't see himself as the same.

Beginning in 2019, Jay-Z partnered with the NFL as director of entertainment, choosing to select the Super Bowl halftime players and working with the league on other community efforts. Former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick recently claimed that the deal was made after NFL owners decided it was a "black face" to help them quell black anger after Kaepernick was blackballed by the league for kneeling during the national anthem as a form of protest against police brutality. Jay-Z was criticized for downplaying Kaepernick's goals for personal gain, tarnishing his reputation with many fans who saw him as the anti-rebel character he criticized in the documentary.

Jay-Z is on 8 attempts to improve his public image. The series kills him, a 30-year-old work alongside his life and times. In the sleek, black-and-white episode, which was shot sometime in 2024, Jay explains his musical history in an interview with 63-year-old Def Jam founder and producer Rubin. It's a polished, understated watch. The two sit at a table in an empty room at the Palais Brongniart events center, the former French stock exchange, as Rubin picks songs from Jay-Z's catalog and uses them as springboards for broader topics like his relationship with his parents, his creative process and broader cultural observations. The final episode, which aired on October 9, finds Jay-Z defending racism and proposing generational wealth as the cure. To hear him dismiss social justice movements by claiming "we never come together" to push for change, and discuss inequality through mundane observations, shows how little thought he has actually given to rooting out systemic oppression.

Rubin offers no pushback. Throughout the series, his lack of deeper questions fails to give the conversations the depth they need. Rubin as an amazing spectator tasked with polishing Jay-Z's legend. This is the opposite of what a dialogue series needs. (For example, a more thorough interviewer asks Jay-Z, who raps about his marriage to Beyoncé, "What's better than a billionaire? Two," if redistributing $2 billion would be better for society as a whole.) At one point in the episode, Jay-Z, the world's richest musician, refers to the black bourgeoisie as "them." A poignant follow-up from Rubin would have been to ask Jay exactly what made him feel apart from that group. Instead, like most of the series, Rubin nodded in agreement. His complementary presence turns what could have been a basic music documentary into a hagiography. And Jay-Z probably wanted it that way.

Over the years, the 56-year-old from Brooklyn has rapped about several ugly truths in his life: shooting his brother, selling drugs to loved ones, cheating on his wife, feeding drug abuse for profit. He touched on some of those themes in Jay-Z on 8 and gave his best content to the documentary. There is also some interesting trivia. She reveals that the second verse of 99 Problems is based on a true story, reveals how Uncle Bochy inspired her to come up with the moniker, and says that she's too self-conscious to be vocally experimental like Beyoncé. But he also has limitations.

In 2005, she stopped her Black Book memoir with the Hamptons Dream writer because, she said, the process had become too personal. Later that year, she told Rolling Stone, "I know people really want to know about me, and I thought that was fine, but as I got closer and closer, I said, 'What am I doing?'" Since then, she has been more specific about her access and rarely gives interviews. He doesn't want to be provoked against his will, but he also doesn't let public narratives go unnoticed, offering public responses to critics.Verses and stadium performances. He compulsively seeks to control the story, almost always in forums that don't allow discussion or pushback.

An eight-hour conversational set with Jay-Z required someone with a deep knowledge of hip-hop and an instinct for pointed questions (I wonder if there's a profession they could seek out?) In part three, Rubin plays the title track from 2017's 4:44 , a deeply vulnerable track in which he feels deeply what he feels and feels. And while Jay-Z apologizes for his behavior in the song, he doesn't necessarily promise to be a better husband. Seven years later, as a husband or father, Rubin offers no advanced thoughts on life as a husband or father, instead offering a vague statement: "Do you feel like progress has been made?"

When Rubin asks if life is more dangerous for him now or in his drug dealing days, Jay chooses the latter. He says his attitude toward powerful industry figures who punish him for not doing what they want is, "I don't care what you do. I don't care." But if he really is "already home," as he rapped in a 2009 song boasting about his job satisfaction, why is he so focused on the court of public opinion? And more importantly, why isn't he risking anything by joining artists including Macklemore to speak out against multiple genocides abroad and Donald Trump's fascism? Someone who is not willing to agree with the passion, has done it those disciplines

The age of crack and the ploy of black supremacy (in which black capitalists claim that the revolution will only happen by buying black-owned companies) has denied many generations of black freedom in different ways. Jay-Z is the figurative scene of both crimes. He earned his legacy with brilliant music that describes the drug game with cinematic power, contextualizing his actions in the way a professor of socioeconomics might explain to his cohort. But he rarely mentions the tension of his third act as a billionaire music mogul in the world of "The Rich." Here, Rubin never asked him.