On “Renegade,” his 2001 collaboration with Eminem, Jay-Z asks, “Do you fools listen to music or just skim through it?” It’s a line he references while retracing the contours of his decades-long career during “Jay-Z in 8,” HBO’s eight-part docuseries in which he sits down with producer and industry legend Rick Rubin to dissect both hits and deep cuts from his discography. People think, he says, that “this music is just all about glorifying the lifestyle or all about money and cars. It’s like, you’re not listening.”
\n\nThe question of whether anyone tuning in is missing the meaning behind the lyrics is purely rhetorical when it comes to “Jay-Z in 8,” a thoroughly technical yet often superfluous exploration of the rapper’s life and career. Directed by Rubin, the docuseries is set in Paris’ Palais Brongniart, where Rubin cues up songs, seemingly at random, that Jay then unpacks, often word by word. It’s a reinforcement not just of Jay-Z as a whip-smart lyricist but of rap as an art form itself, a medium for opportunity and introspection.
\n\nJay-Z has, of course, attempted a similar exploration of his lyrical acuity in the 2010 pseudo-memoir “Decoded,” where he annotated 36 songs and shared…
Original source: https://variety.com/v/tv/