The Feminist on Cellblock Y<\/a>\u201d \u2014 early on in their film\u2019s roughly five-year production. Drawing on 15-minute jail calls with Jacobs, interviews with his family and old photos, the filmmakers weave a compelling tale that blends inspired visuals and documentary footage with revelations about Jacobs\u2019 real-life testimony, all set to his poignant music. The result is a redemptive story in which Jacobs finds peace, understanding and, most of all, the radical power of forgiveness.<\/p>\n![\"At](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/693936a7260000dac3836a11.png\")
At age 15, a grieving Jacobs (portrayed by Myles Lassiter throughout “Songs From the Hole”) was sent to prison with a double-life sentence, during which he turned to music to find healing and accountability for the violent harm he both committed and experienced.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s ultimately what makes \u201cSongs From the Hole\u201d \u2014 the 96-minute film and the accompanying hip-hop album Jacobs wrote and recorded while incarcerated \u2014 such a resonant display, unlike anything else to emerge from within the U.S. prison system. The project isn\u2019t another examination of modern incarceration that focuses solely on Jacobs\u2019 time behind bars, but rather his personal transformation during those years, using a musical odyssey to take viewers on an emotional coming-of-age journey that he is still grappling with himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a completely different approach to telling an incarceration story because it is music first and centers \u201988\u2019s own artistic expression, first and foremost, as the tool and main vehicle for telling his story,\u201d Gayles explained to HuffPost.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnlike most of the world, we respect incarcerated people beyond just the fact that they\u2019re incarcerated,\u201d reseda added. \u201cI feel like our film centers the spirit of a human, as opposed to centering the system that oppresses them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hence, you never see the inside of the prison where Jacobs served 18 years of a life sentence in the film. Gayles said the choice was both accidental and deliberate, spurred during her preinterview calls with Jacobs amid the COVID-19 pandemic that ultimately became the film\u2019s main narration.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe started recording them once we realized that, with COVID-19, we couldn\u2019t get into the prison,\u201d she explained. \u201cThen, when things opened back up, we decided that actually was a much more effective way to tell the story. That was a creative solution that made a lot more sense for our film.\u201d<\/p>\n
A humanizing one, too, as the approach smartly allowed \u201cSongs From the Hole\u201d to delve even deeper into Jacobs\u2019 moving story, which began long before he killed a young man on April 16, 2004, and was convicted of murder.<\/p>\n
![\""Our](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/6939761c19000096ee7f3c03.png\")
“Our intention was to share our family’s story, in the hopes that people can see themselves in it,” Jacobs said of his visual album’s aim. “And then also to have people who may not be impacted [by the prison system] see the humanity of those of us who endure what we endure.”<\/p>\n
Before Jacobs was sent away to a California state prison, he grew up in North Long Beach. He was raised in a supportive family: his father, William, was (and still is) a preacher and his mother, Janine, directed the church\u2019s children\u2019s choir, in which Jacobs and his sister, Reneasha, sang. Their older brother, Victor, meanwhile, watched over them throughout their childhood, even when he, like Jacobs, was drawn to the streets.<\/p>\n
Jacobs, a rapper, singer and songwriter, had a love for music growing up in the church, identifying it mostly as a spiritual tool, he said. However, he didn\u2019t begin using it as a means of self-expression \u2014 and, by extension, a cathartic outlet \u2014 until he needed it most, when he went away to prison as a teen.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wasn\u2019t taking it that seriously until I was incarcerated,\u201d the rapper shared with HuffPost, \u201cwhere I was like, I can actually write these songs and talk to some of the homies who in here locked up with me. And we could talk about our life and escape through this and process what we\u2019re going through.\u201d<\/p>\n
Incarceration not only revealed Jacobs\u2019 musical gifts but also other creative talents, like his knack for envisioning vibrant storylines and turning them into tangible narratives, much like those seen throughout \u201cSongs From the Hole.\u201d <\/p>\n
![\"Myles](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/6939361e19000077de7f3bda.png\")
Myles Lassiter, right, as Jacobs and Jovon Times as his older brother, Victor Benjamin, in a visual sequence from “Songs From the Hole.”<\/p>\n
Several of the film\u2019s music videos feature young actors portraying Jacobs and his older brother during their adolescence, capturing moments of both joy and anguish \u2014 from witnessing Victor\u2019s arrest to the tragic moment he was shot and killed. Other visuals illustrate Jacobs\u2019 inner turmoil during his incarceration, such as a half-animated sequence in which an actor embodying him stands helpless behind cell bars while Jacobs raps about \u201clivin\u2019 in a steel grave.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not formally trained,\u201d Jacobs said of writing the visual album\u2019s music video treatments, crediting assistance from Gayles\u2019 \u201cbrilliant edits\u201d and reseda\u2019s additions. \u201cBut I do have a love for film. Growing up, especially when I was in YA and juvenile hall, and even when I went to adult prison, I did read scripts [and] treatments. I was interested in music videos, filmmaking and the process.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jacobs continued, \u201cHonestly, because my creative process comes with not just sounds in my head, with these lyrics and melodies, but also visuals, and being a very visual person, it was easy to write the [treatments] down.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t necessarily easy to make it into a more cohesive piece,\u201d he added. \u201c… [But] over time, and through Contessa\u2019s mentorship and guidance, it became more of a cohesive story for our intention.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\""Songs](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/693936e6190000e6de7f3bdf.png\")
“Songs From the Hole” producer richie reseda immediately resonated with Jacobs’ music when the men met in a California prison. “There was a deep spiritual draw that I had to his work,” he told HuffPost.<\/p>\n
The collaboration of \u201cSongs From the Hole\u201d came about somewhat naturally. It began shortly after Jacobs met reseda, a fellow musician and formerly incarcerated producer, after being transferred to the same prison. Coincidentally, this was right around the time reseda had recorded, produced and released his own album on his 25th birthday while still behind bars.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen \u201988 came to the prison, everybody was telling me, you need to meet this kid,\u201d the producer recalled to HuffPost. \u201cAnd when we did meet through our homie Talib \u2014 who\u2019s still fighting for his freedom now \u2014 I was like, he could rap very well; he could sing very well.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHis approach to the stories that he was telling was not one that was glorifying nor judging,\u201d reseda continued. \u201cThere was also a deep spiritual draw that I had to his work. There was a spiritual commitment in his work, and he knew what he wanted. He also put in the time to be clear about what his vision was for the project.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to reseda, who also produced the original music for \u201cSongs From the Hole,\u201d Jacobs drew heavy inspiration from classic soulful works like D\u2019Angelo\u2019s \u201cVoodoo\u201d and Kendrick Lamar\u2019s \u201cTo Pimp a Butterfly\u201d when shaping his visual album\u2019s creative direction. That made the producer even more excited about the vision Jacobs was intent on pursuing in an effort to share his lived truth.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really got to know his story through making the music with him,\u201d said reseda, noting that he initially didn\u2019t understand the intricacies of Jacobs\u2019 journey, including how he unknowingly met the man who murdered his brother.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we finished [the album], we just knew it was too big,\u201d reseda continued. \u201cIt wouldn\u2019t do it justice to just have it posted online. This album had the power to heal community. That\u2019s how it felt to me, so we were like, let\u2019s do a visual album.\u201d<\/p>\n
Enter Gayles, whom Jacobs and reseda already knew from appearing in her 2018 documentary on a rising feminist movement within their all-male prison. According to reseda, the two were particularly impressed by Gayles\u2019 approach to the subject, specifically how she portrayed it with authenticity without including prison officials or anyone who represents the institution.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd so I trusted her with this story,\u201d the producer continued of \u201cSongs From the Hole,\u201d jokingly adding that Gayles was also \u201cthe greatest and only director that we knew\u201d for the project.<\/p>\n
Luckily for them, \u201cshe said yes to directing it.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Jacobs,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/6939374226000041c4836a13.png\")
Jacobs, right, pictured with his real-life brother, Victor, and their mother, Janine.<\/p>\n
The first time Gayles heard the tracks that would become the \u201cSongs From the Hole\u201d album was during her last day of filming \u201cThe Feminist on Cellblock Y,\u201d when Jacobs and reseda were performing in the prison\u2019s gym.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey had the rental keyboard in the gym on a trash can, and richie was on the keys, and \u201988 was singing and rapping some of the songs,\u201d the director remembered. \u201cSome of their friends were gathered around and knew all the lyrics.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI was really taken with, one, their friendship and collaboration,\u201d she added, \u201cbut also with \u201988\u2019s talent with the lyricism [of his songs].\u201d<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t until after Jacobs and reseda asked Gayles to helm their visual album that she got to hear the more polished cuts of the \u201cSongs From the Hole\u201d tracks that the two recorded together in prison. And after receiving Jacobs\u2019 handwritten lyrics through snail mail, \u201cI got to see the storytelling and the intricate poetry that\u2019s in there, and really appreciate it more,\u201d Gayles noted.<\/p>\n
It was over the course of more conversations that the filmmaker connected the dots between Jacobs\u2019 story and the context in which his gut-honest music was written in the hole. <\/p>\n
Jacobs spent much time in that 6-by-6 cell, lying on the floor, thinking about the most devastating month of his life and the \u201cworst thing\u201d he had ever done. Between taking another young man\u2019s life and being in the same prison as the man who took his older brother from him, not to mention no longer having his own freedom, grief weighed heavily on his spirit. Music, oftentimes, was his escape from that cycle and circumstances, and so Jacobs made a habit of making beats on his chest or bunk that eventually became full-blown confessional songs. In the midst of this therapeutic journey, Jacobs was able to forgive his brother\u2019s killer, who, before knowing his true identity, inspired him to reflect on the significance of his own wrongdoings and repent.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was like, whoa, this is incredibly powerful,\u201d Gayles said of the revelation, which is all the confirmation she needed to help bring \u201cSongs From the Hole\u201d to life.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike richie said, [the film] has the potential to really affect culture and heal community through the music and the story,\u201d Gayles said. \u201cAnd if we can figure out a way to make them sing together, then we\u2019d have something really special.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Before](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/6939378b190000ffde7f3be1.png\")
Before he was released from prison in 2022, Jacobs wasn’t sure he’d ever get to see the ideas he birthed for “Songs From the Hole” from the other side of a cell. “Being an incarcerated person, our visions for our lives, our art, it’s not often we get to see them while we’re in prison,” he said.<\/p>\n
The vision for \u201cSongs From the Hole\u201d was ambitious from the start. Still, putting it together while Jacobs was serving out his sentence \u2014 which included multiple, emotionally fraught attempts at parole, as seen in one particularly heartbreaking scene in the film \u2014 proved extraordinarily challenging throughout much of the project\u2019s lengthy development. <\/p>\n
Gayles noted that roughly one music video was filmed per month over the course of a year, with material still being rewritten up until the shoots. At the same time, interviews with Jacobs\u2019 family were conducted, a process that ultimately benefitted the visual album creatively and logistically.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs I was learning the story more deeply from everyone\u2019s perspective and getting to know them better, there were things that I was writing into the treatments that worked their way into the music videos,\u201d Gayles shared. \u201cThat was really intentional, but also like a gift that we had time in between each [music video] to continue to rewrite them and let the project be really iterative in that way.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the midst of this, Jacobs was still deeply involved in the filmmaking process, even from far away. He said reseda would often make trips to CVS or Walgreens to print out screenshots of dailies from the shoots and mail them to the musician so he could keep track of how his vision was coming together.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was a cool experience to be able to have some things that went from in my head to on paper to now seeing screenshots of things that were exactly in my head, too,\u201d shared Jacobs. \u201cThere were some things that started off one way in my brain, and over the course of collaboration, it took a fuller form. And then there were other things that were exactly how I saw it in my head, and it was just like, this is crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEspecially being an incarcerated person,\u201d he added, \u201cI just want to stress that our visions for our lives, our art, it\u2019s not often we get to see them while we\u2019re in prison. But I had the privilege of being able to collaborate with Contessa and richie and be able to see my visions and ideas come to fruition, while I wasn\u2019t even sure if I was going to be able to see them on the other side of the gate.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just cool knowing that it was happening.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"During](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/6939333f190000b9dd7f3bd8.jpg\")
During his time in solitary confinement, Jacobs would imagine performing for a crowd of thousands with a full orchestra behind him. In November, he performed songs from his visual album at a solo show in Los Angeles (pictured above), where he was backed by a live band.<\/p>\n
In 2022, Jacobs was released from his life sentence. No longer confined to imagining what \u201cSongs From the Hole\u201d might look like from inside a prison cell, he returned home about eight months into the film\u2019s editing process and eventually got to see it for himself, although that first viewing was admittedly tough with his time inside still painfully fresh.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was hard to watch,\u201d Jacobs said. \u201cI was trying to put myself in artist mode and think about this like an artist. But once we finished and started to show the film [publicly] early on, there were a couple of scenes that I was just gonna cry on automatically, because it took me back to that moment. Especially the moment of seeing me and my dad on the phone after hearing that I didn\u2019t get found suitable and paroled.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThat was a hard thing to watch fresh out of prison, because it was still fresh in my spirit,\u201d he continued. \u201cBut the more and more I watched it, the more and more it became clear that I\u2019m watching it from this side [as a free man].\u201d<\/p>\n
There was a time when Jacobs didn\u2019t know whether he\u2019d ever see the world beyond prison walls again. Since his release, though, he\u2019s been making the most of his freedom, screening his documentary-visual album in prisons, museums and community centers across the country as part of a collective healing movement, as well as pursuing music professionally.<\/p>\n
Just last month, the musician held a solo show in Los Angeles, performing tracks from \u201cSongs From the Hole\u201d for a crowd he once could only picture from behind bars. When I asked whether he had ever believed such a moment might be possible while he was incarcerated, Jacobs replied, \u201cI hoped it would.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI imagined being on stage in front of people and sharing this music,\u201d he said, a slight smile growing on his face as he excitedly described the theme of his live show, inspired by \u201cjam sessions in solitude.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn solitary confinement, I would have a full band,\u201d Jacobs shared. \u201cSometimes I would have a whole orchestra around me, and be in my cell, but in my mind, it\u2019s 50,000 people [in the crowd], and I\u2019m going nuts. And then when you peek into the window of the cell, it\u2019s just a guy standing there, a cappella, rapping lyrics.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI would imagine these moments,\u201d he concluded, \u201cand now that they\u2019re here, I\u2019m truly grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSongs From the Hole\u201d is streaming now on Netflix.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Music, in its purest, most potent form, doesn\u2019t just have the power to entertain; it also has the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":338400,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[49,48,5649,75,341,1316,37878],"class_list":["post-338399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-documentaries","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-netflix","tag-rap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/338400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}