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‘Songs from the Hole’: The story behind JJ’88’s documentary and visual album
Actors gaze up to the sky during JJ’88’s “ROOT” in the hip-hop artist and former inmate’s documentary and visual album Songs from the Hole. Before the song starts, protagonist and producer James “JJ’88” Jacobs describes meditating on his and others’ redemption while incarcerated and in solitary confinement.
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“‘I’m dangerous,’ they said.”
Through tears over the phone, James Jacobs, the hip-hop artist who goes by the stage name of JJ’88, tells his father that the hearing to reduce his sentence was denied. In April 2004, a 15-year-old Jacobs shot and killed an 18-year-old at a party in Bellflower, Calif. At the time he received the letter rejecting his request for a resentencing in 2020, he had lived more years in prison than outside of it.
“They don’t believe me. They don’t believe who I am,” he continues. “They said that all the work that I’m doing, my art and my advocacy work … they said that it’s not real. They say I am a clear and present threat to the community.”
In 2020, Jacobs was denied a hearing to reduce his prison sentence. His father, pictured here, grapples with the news while trying to comfort his son.
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As his father tries to comfort him, an automated voice cuts in: “You have 60 seconds remaining.”
Filmmaker and director Contessa Gayles was in the room with Jacobs’ father as he received that call.
“I remember, too, after that moment, obviously being incredibly concerned for you and your well-being,” Gayles tells Jacobs during an interview with NPR, “but I hesitated, for a long time, to ask you if you wanted to continue with the film. … I just was too afraid for your answer.”
The pair had been working with Jacobs’ producer on a documentary and visual album together. But he said he did want to continue.
“I’ve seen hard moments in film before, I’ve seen hard moments talked about in music — really hard moments — and this was one of the hardest moments in my life,” Jacobs says. “I love [Shakespeare’s] Titus Andronicus — it’s a tragic story, and I remember reading that and I was, like, ‘this is art too’ — it doesn’t always have to be this fairytale Disney ending that I was used to, as a kid and as a fan of films. Some stories end in, ‘this guy found spiritual enlightenment but died in prison.’ That’s the wisdom of the world, I guess. That’s the wisdom of our universe. I couldn’t argue with it, so I was comfortable [with continuing the film].”
Actor Miles Lassiter, as “kid James,” wears antlers in Songs from the Hole. Jacobs says it’s the image he’s asked about most often. “These antlers, along with being [for the song] ‘Most Hunted,’ are very gun-hunting, violent-culture — the experience, as a Black man, was that [Black men] were being hunted like deer, like buck in this country. And early references of Black men in this country — we were called Bucks. And so I thought — we [Jacobs and Gayles] thought — it was fitting … that this character represented the coming-of-age through antlers and the symbolism of being hunted with antlers on his head.”
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Songs from the Hole follows Jacobs’ story as he reflects on his coming-of-age within California’s state prison system, finds healing in an unlikely place and contemplates forgiveness. After meeting and befriending Gayles when she was on assignment for CNN at California’s Correctional Training Facility, commonly known as Soledad State Prison, in 2017, Jacobs and his producer, Richie Reseda, reached out with an ambitious idea: to direct and bring to life the visual album that Jacobs had written entirely from solitary confinement. The request reached Gayles at an important moment of her career: when she was ready to pursue independent filmmaking.
Gayles says she was inspired, during the making of Songs from the Hole, by the 2014 film Boyhood. “I was just thinking about representations that we have of white childhood and the plethora that exists of those depictions, and that often, with storytelling around Black people — Black young people — it’s very limited in scope. And so I was just meditating on, ‘[Richard] Linklater spent 12 years making [Boyhood] about white childhood,’ and I was just saying in my head, ‘we deserve to have as much space to be as indulgent and wide-ranging with how we tell the stories of Black childhood.’”
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Reneasha Jacobs holds a photograph of her and James’ older brother, Victor Benjamin. Benjamin was shot and killed on April 19, 2004.
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Actors reenact a memory from Jacobs’ childhood in Songs from the Hole. In the film, Jacobs says, “Memories are crucial in maintaining your sanity in prison. I remember — maybe accurately or inaccurately — but I remember things from my childhood and relive them, sitting on that bunk, and it reminds me that I was a person and I am a person before being incarcerated.”
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![Actor Myles Lassiter portrays young Jacobs lying in the bed of a pickup truck, holding a toy gun, during the song, "Most Hunted." Jacobs says the visual was important to him because "in the song itself, I mentioned ... a couple of references to 'Friday,' one of them being during the hook, 'the government launched four drones. Still, I need a Glock to walk Smoke home. I'm not a man with it. I'm a man without it.' And those lines kind of hint toward quotes from the film 'Friday,' which is where Craig [played by Ice Cube] is in the room with his father. He just discovered that his father just discovered that he owns a gun. And [his dad] says, "Back in my day, we would use these," [referencing his fists]. Are you a man or are you not?" And [Craig] says, 'I'm a man without it. I'm a man without this gun.' And I knew when I first saw that, that I was like, 'I'm a man without a gun, but in this world, they don't see a man unless I have a gun."](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/3840x2076+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F73%2Fbf%2F5306a1244a41b25fddca6158fdfd%2Fsfth-most-hunted-truck-bed.jpg)
Actor Myles Lassiter portrays a young Jacobs lying in the bed of a pickup truck, holding a toy gun, during the song, “Most Hunted.” Jacobs says the visual was important to him because “in the song itself, I mentioned … a couple of references to ‘Friday,’ one of them being during the hook, ‘the government launched four drones. Still, I need a Glock to walk Smoke home. I’m not a man with it. I’m a man without it.’ And those lines kind of hint toward quotes from the film ‘Friday,’ which is where Craig [played by Ice Cube] is in the room with his father. He just discovered that his father just discovered that he owns a gun. And [his dad] says, ‘Back in my day, we would use these [referencing his fists]. Are you a man or are you not?’ And [Craig] says, ‘I’m a man without it. I’m a man without this gun.’ And I knew when I first saw that, that I was like, ‘I’m a man without a gun, but in this world, they don’t see a man unless I have a gun.’”
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Throughout its production, the visual album quickly evolved into a documentary, heavily inspired by Beyoncé’s Lemonade. Where Beyoncé added poetic interludes between songs, in Songs from the Hole, the audience learns about Jacobs’ story and how his music spiritually liberates him while simultaneously being among the reasons officials cited for not considering his request for resentencing.
Gayles uses messages Jacobs wrote while in solitary to portray his vision for the album. When asked about the decision, Galyes says, “We really made use of 88’s handwriting because it was so much a part of his process.” She said she also felt “it would be more impactful to have the audience experience 88 in a similar manner to his loved ones … which is primarily over phone calls and letters.”
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Reneasha Jacobs, James’ older sister, holds an old photograph of herself and her two brothers from when they were kids. James shot and killed someone on April 16, 2004. Three days later, their older brother was murdered.
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The film relies heavily on Jacobs’ letters and recorded phone calls, through which he, Gayles and Reseda talk about the album’s production. The letters consist of scripts, shot lists and lyrics. Through the calls, Jacobs serves as the film’s narrator, speaking about his life and the symbolism of the imagery he’d dreamt up in solitary. The film explores cultural themes that touch on Black boyhood, familial relationships, growing up in the church, crime, forgiveness and redemption.
Actor Devonte Hoy depicts Jacobs forgiving the man who murdered his brother. In the film, Jacobs says, “Tears start coming down my face. And I said, ‘Man, you killed my brother.’ And the first thing out of his mouth was, ‘I’m sorry for what I took from you, bro.’ … And I just told him, ‘Man, I forgive you. If you want my forgiveness, you have it.’ And I got up and left.”
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Jacobs was released in 2022, after serving 18 years in prison.
Now, with the film streaming on Netflix and the team holding screenings in prisons across the country, Jacobs says he hopes the parole board commissioners who kept him locked up think differently about him if they see the film.
“If only you understood me, you’d see my humanity,” he says in the film.
“I would absolutely love to show this film to the commissioners that told me I was a danger to society,” he told NPR. “I would love it. I can’t wait to catch word that they watched it so that I can see — let’s talk again; I don’t even have to go to board, but I would love to talk to you now.”
Hoy depicts an older Jacobs talking to his father through glass during a visitation. In the film, Jacobs says he had just finished writing two verses of his song “Steel Grave,” and rapped both verses over the phone for his dad. When he finished, Jacobs says his father asked him, “What happens to the character? You just described he was in this dark world. Does he ever come out?”
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Songs from the Hole is currently streaming on Netflix. Find more of JJ’88’s work at linktr.ee/jj_eightyeight and on Instagram, at @jj_eightyeight, and more of Contessa’s work on her website, ContessaGayles.com, or on Instagram, at @contessagayles.
Pentagon officials said on Friday that they were pulling 5,000 troops from Germany and would redeploy them to the United States and other posts overseas.
The Defense Department is also canceling a plan developed under the Biden administration to place a missile-equipped artillery unit in Europe.
The moves will return U.S. forces in Europe to the level they were in 2022, before Russia began its war in Ukraine, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the planning process. Last year, the Pentagon redeployed a brigade in Romania and did not send replacement forces.
Sean Parnell, a Pentagon spokesman, said in a statement that the withdrawal would be completed over the next six to 12 months.
“This decision follows a thorough review of the department’s force posture in Europe and is in recognition of theater requirements and conditions on the ground,” he said.
The Defense Department — particularly during both of President Trump’s terms — has for several years considered decreasing the military presence in Germany. But senior defense officials privately made it clear that they wanted the move to be seen as a punishment for Germany, whose recent comments about the U.S. war in Iran have annoyed Mr. Trump.
Earlier this week, Germany’s chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said Iran had “humiliated” the United States, and he questioned how Mr. Trump planned to end the conflict.
“The Americans obviously have no strategy,” Mr. Merz said.
Mr. Trump then took to Truth Social, his social media site, to vent.
“The United States is studying and reviewing the possible reduction of Troops in Germany, with a determination to be made over the next short period of time,” he wrote on Thursday.
Later, he added: “The Chancellor of Germany should spend more time on ending the war with Russia/Ukraine (Where he has been totally ineffective!), and fixing his broken Country, especially Immigration and Energy, and less time on interfering with those that are getting rid of the Iran Nuclear threat, thereby making the World, including Germany, a safer place!”
On Friday, while announcing the decision, a senior Pentagon official said that Germany’s failure to contribute to the Iran war effort had frustrated the United States, and that the country’s rhetoric was inappropriate and unhelpful.
The announcement, and the criticism of Germany, represents a shift for Pentagon officials, who recently had praised Germany’s efforts to increase military spending and take over more of the burden of supporting Ukraine.
Even if the Pentagon pulls 5,000 troops out of Germany, the country would still host the second-largest U.S. troop presence in the world, at more than 30,000, behind only Japan.
Defense officials say the United States depends on its bases in Germany to stage many of its operations in the Middle East, Europe and Africa.
The Iran war has made that clear. Many U.S. troops evacuated from bases in the Middle East that were targeted by Iran were moved to Germany. And many of the U.S. troops wounded in the war have been taken to Germany — to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center near Ramstein Air Base — for treatment.
The U.S. military’s Africa Command and European Command are also headquartered in Germany.
Defense officials said the reduction would not directly affect Landstuhl or other medical facilities in Germany where U.S. troops receive care.
Mifepristone tablets sit on a table at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Ames, Iowa, on July 18, 2024.
Charlie Neibergall/AP
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Charlie Neibergall/AP
A federal appeals court has restricted access to one of the most common means of abortion in the U.S. by blocking the mailing of mifepristone. A panel of the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is requiring that the abortion pill be distributed only in-person at clinics. Since the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade and allowed enforcement of abortion bans, prescriptions by mail has become a major way that abortions are provided — including to states where bans are in place. The decision sets up a likely appeal to the Supreme Court.
A federal appeals court has restricted access to one of the most common means of abortion in the U.S. by blocking mailing of prescriptions of mifepristone.
A panel of the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is requiring that the abortion pill be distributed only in person at clinics.
“Every abortion facilitated by FDA’s action cancels Louisiana’s ban on medical abortions and undermines its policy that ‘every unborn child is human being from the moment of conception and is, therefore, a legal person,’” the ruling states.
Judges have long deferred to the Food and Drug Administration’s judgments on the safety and appropriate regulation of drugs.
FDA officials under President Donald Trump have repeatedly stated the agency is conducting a new review of mifepristone’s safety, at the direction of the president.
The judges noted in their ruling that FDA “could not say when that review might be complete and admitted it was still collecting data.”
In a court filing, Louisiana’s attorney general and a woman who says she was coerced into taking abortion pills requested that the FDA rules be rolled back to when the pills were allowed to be prescribed and dispensed only in person.
A Louisiana-based federal judge last month ruled that those allowances undermined the state’s abortion ban but stopped short of undoing the regulations immediately.
Since the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade and allowed enforcement of abortion bans, prescriptions by mail have become a major way that abortions are provided — including to states where bans are in place.
“This is going to affect patients’ access to abortion and miscarriage care in every state in the nation,” said Julia Kaye, an ACLU lawyer. “When telemedicine is restricted, rural communities, people with low incomes, people with disabilities, survivors of intimate partner violence and communities of color suffer the most.”
Mifepristone was approved in 2000 as a safe and effective way to end early pregnancies. It is typically used in combination with a second drug, misoprostol.
Because of rare cases of excessive bleeding, the FDA initially imposed strict limits on who could prescribe and distribute the pill — only specially certified physicians and only after an in-person appointment where the person would receive the pill.
Both those requirements were dropped during the COVID-19 years. At the time, FDA officials under President Joe Biden said that after more than 20 years of monitoring mifepristone use, and reviewing dozens of studies involving thousands of women, it was clear that women could safely use the pill without direct supervision.
Friday’s ruling sets up a likely appeal to the Supreme Court.
The conservative-majority high court overturned abortion as a nationwide right in 2022 but unanimously preserved access to mifepristone two years later.
That 2024 decision sidestepped the core issues, however, by ruling that the anti-abortion doctors behind the case didn’t have legal standing to sue.
A federal jury convicted former Representative David Rivera of Florida on Friday, finding him guilty of conspiracy and six other crimes for secretly lobbying officials in Washington on behalf of the Venezuelan government in 2017 and 2018.
Prosecutors presented evidence during the five-week trial in Miami showing that Venezuela’s state-run oil company had secretly hired Mr. Rivera’s consulting firm for $50 million to lobby members of Congress and the White House for a thaw in U.S.-Venezuela relations.
The revelation ran contrary to how Mr. Rivera, a Republican, had portrayed himself in public. He made a political career, first as a state lawmaker and later as a congressman, as a strident anti-Communist. Mr. Rivera served in Congress from 2011 to 2013.
He had previously been the subject of several state and federal investigations into improper campaign dealings. He was also found guilty in the criminal case of failing to register as a foreign agent and money laundering, and faces about 10 years in prison.
His defense lawyers in the criminal case had argued that Mr. Rivera was not working for Nicolás Maduro’s government but rather surreptitiously trying to oust him. They also said that Mr. Rivera did not need to register as a foreign agent because his firm’s contract was with an American company, PDV USA, a U.S. subsidiary of the Venezuelan state-run oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela, and not with the state-run company itself.
The 12-member jury also convicted one of Mr. Rivera’s associates, Esther Nuhfer, on four charges. Prosecutors said that Mr. Rivera, 60, split the secret contract earnings, which ultimately amounted to about $20 million after the company terminated the contract, with Ms. Nuhfer and two people who were not charged in the case. Ms. Nuhfer, 52, is a political consultant based in Miami.
Roger Cruz, an assistant U.S. attorney and the lead prosecutor, said in his closing argument on Tuesday that Mr. Rivera and Ms. Nuhfer decided to keep the contract secret because of “greed.”
“Without their keeping it secret, they would not have got a single penny,” he said. “If anyone found out, their careers would be over.”
The trial drew widespread attention when it began because prosecutors called Secretary of State Marco Rubio to testify against Mr. Rivera, his longtime friend and former housemate in Tallahassee when they both served in the Florida Legislature.
Mr. Rubio, who has not been implicated in any wrongdoing, was a Republican U.S. senator from Florida in the years that Mr. Rivera was secretly lobbying for Venezuela. Mr. Rubio held two meetings with Mr. Rivera at that time and testified in court that he had no idea about Mr. Rivera’s secret contract.
Other prosecution witnesses included Brian Ballard, a major lobbyist and top fund-raiser for President Trump, and Hugo Perera, one of the other two men who admitted to taking part in the conspiracy. Mr. Perera was not charged because he agreed to testify against Mr. Rivera and Ms. Nuhfer.
Mr. Perera testified that Mr. Rivera and Ms. Nuhfer had kept the contract secret because they knew it would create a political scandal if it became public. Defense lawyers noted that Mr. Perera, a developer who had served prison time for cocaine trafficking and tax fraud in the 1990s, was allowed to keep the roughly $5 million he made from the Venezuela deal.
One of the defense witnesses was Representative Pete Sessions of Texas, a Republican, who testified that he worked with Mr. Rivera in 2017 to try to persuade Mr. Maduro to step down and hold presidential elections. Mr. Sessions also said that he did not know at the time about Mr. Rivera’s secret Venezuela contract.
Edward R. Shohat, one of Mr. Rivera’s defense lawyers, told jurors in his closing argument that prosecutors had tried to confuse them. “All that he was about was removing Mr. Maduro,” Mr. Shohat said of Mr. Rivera.
David O. Markus, a defense lawyer for Ms. Nuhfer, said she had signed onto the contract “in good faith,” believing it was with a U.S. subsidiary. She would never “in a billion years” have tried to help the Maduro government, Mr. Markus said.
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