{"id":870323,"date":"2026-10-04T09:28:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T09:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/870323\/"},"modified":"2026-10-04T09:28:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T09:28:08","slug":"jay-z-in-8-episodes-5-6-things-we-learned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/870323\/","title":{"rendered":"‘JA\u0178-Z in 8’ Episodes 5 & 6: Things We Learned"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tEpisodes five and six of JA\u0178-Z in 8 <\/a>premiered on HBO Max on Friday night (Oct. 2). Hov and Rick Rubin <\/a>continued to peel back the layers on Jay-Z\u2019s<\/a> discography, ranging from Reasonable Doubt to 4:44 and even Jigga\u2019s reunion with Ye (formerly Kanye West<\/a>) on Donda in 2021. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe pair of episodes dive into Ye\u2019s \u201cJAIL,\u201d \u201cU Don\u2019t Know,\u201d \u201cPolitics as Usual,\u201d \u201cRegrets,\u201d \u201cIgnorant S\u2014,\u201d \u201cHovi Baby,\u201d \u201cKill Jay-Z,\u201d \u201c99 Problems,\u201d \u201cThreat,\u201d \u201cDead Presidents II\u201d and \u201cPublic Service Announcement (Interlude).\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tEpisode six features the quote that has gone viral of Jay-Z being highly complimentary of West\u2019s artistry. Although he doesn\u2019t provide an exact look at where their relationship stands today, following Ye\u2019s derogatory attack<\/a> on Jay\u2019s children last year. <\/p>\n

\n\tHov also details how Goodfellas inspired \u201cThreat,\u201d \u201cPublic Service Announcement\u201d nearly not making The Black Album, while a journalist inspired the third verse on the track, and much more.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s been refreshing to see the 56-year-old rap mogul candidly open up about his family life, relationships with the likes of Biggie Smalls<\/a> and break down the intricacies of his brilliant wordplay, which may have gone over the average fan\u2019s head. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cNothing was difficult,\u201d Jay told\u00a0Billboard\u00a0<\/a>when asked if it was hard to reflect on anything in the documentary. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t difficult at all. It was easy. The ease of the conversation with Rick [Rubin]; he\u2019s super curious about life [and] music. We share the same love for music. It was an easy conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHere are eight things we learned from episodes five and six below. Tune into the JA\u0178-Z in 8<\/a> finale on Friday night (Oct. 9) on HBO Max.<\/p>\n

\tCalls Ye \u201cOne of the Most Brilliant Creatives\u201d of Our Time<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile it remains unclear where Jay and Ye currently stand after West attacked Hov\u2019s children in a derogatory social media rant last year, the respect for West\u2019s artistry and their decorated collaborative history remains. \u201cOne of the most brilliant creatives we\u2019re gonna see. He is as advertised,\u201d Jay said. <\/p>\n

\n\tJay recalled meeting West 25 years ago heading into The Blueprint at a studio where Ye fittingly was calling himself the \u201csavior of Chicago\u201d while standing on top of a table, a pure belief in himself that\u2019s never wavered. He also broke down the debates they had when reuniting on Donda\u2018s \u201cJAIL\u201d in 2021, where Jay referenced West\u2019s MAGA pivot.<\/p>\n

\tJay and Ye Argued Over His \u201cRed Cap\u201d Line on \u201cJAIL\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWest and Hov reunited The Throne on Donda\u2018s \u201cJAIL\u201d in 2021. Ye took issue with Jay\u2019s bar referencing him aligning with Donald Trump and wearing a MAGA hat. \u201cStop all of that red cap, we goin\u2019 home,\u201d Hov raps on the track. <\/p>\n

\n\tJay recalled them arguing for a couple of weeks<\/a> as Ye felt uncomfortable about the line, but Hov had no plans of changing it. He looked at it as a \u201cblanket of protection\u201d since he also calls himself out on the verse, which goes on to shrewdly incorporate West song titles in his bars.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere was issues there and it was almost acknowledging the elephant [in the room]. I also know if it was switched, he would stand by the artistic integrity of what he created,\u201d Jay said. <\/p>\n

\n\tYe left Jay-Z\u2019s verse as it was and \u201cJAIL\u201d scored a Grammy win for best rap song in 2022 and reached the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100. <\/a><\/p>\n

\t\u201cThe Blueprint\u201d Was Largely Recorded in a Weekend<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile discussing the Ye-produced \u201cU Don\u2019t Know,\u201d Jay opened up about how the foundation of the 2001 album was crafted in just a weekend, as nine tracks were recorded for The Blueprint in a span of a few days. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBink started the album and then Kanye and Just Blaze was just everyday coming back and forth. Kanye would come with a track and Just would come back with this,\u201d Jay recalled. \u201cThis album was made over a weekend. This album [had] nine songs in a weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHov continued, \u201cWe tinkered with things the rest of the month, but every song that was done during that weekend it was \u2018U Don\u2019t Know,\u2019 \u2018Song Cry,\u2019 \u2018Heart of the City.\u2019 It took a minute to finalize and really nail in the chorus and put a female\u2019s voice under [it].\u201d<\/p>\n

\tJay Still Doesn\u2019t Think He Fully \u201cCracked\u201d \u201cYoung Forever\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYoung Forever\u201d served as the fifth single of 2009\u2019s The Blueprint 3, which reached the Billboard Hot 100\u2019s <\/a>top 10. However, whenever Jay thinks back to the Ye-produced cut, he doesn\u2019t think he fully nailed rapping over the Alphaville sample. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI knew what I wanted to say, but I wanted to find a special way to [deliver it] with my performance,\u201d he explained. \u201cI never cracked it. Still, to this day, when I hear that song, I\u2019m like,\u00a0ugh.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tMartin Scorsese\u2019s \u201cGoodfellas\u201d Inspired Hov on \u201cThreat\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tJay joined forces with 9th Wonder on the production side for \u201cThreat,\u201d which landed on 2003\u2019s The Black Album and featured an interlude from comedian Cedric the Entertainer. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe Brooklyn rap deity explained that a\u00a0scene from Italian mob boss classic Goodfellas actually inspired The Black Album standout. Hov painted the picture of Joe Pesci\u2019s Tommy DeVito character hilariously peppering Billy Batts, who is played by Frank Vincted, with a series of violent threats. Jay actually name-drops Pesci on his final verse. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cGangsters are hilarious. The way they see life is really funny. People think a gangster is this brute who doesn\u2019t speak or doesn\u2019t know how to speak,\u201d Hov said. \u201cTo create a business like the ones that have been created, you have to be intelligent. You just use your intelligence in a different way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tJay Still Remembers His Verse From an Unreleased Rick Rubin Collab<\/p>\n

\n\tJay took a detour from decoding Reasonable Doubt\u2018s \u201cPolitics as Usual\u201d to jump into an unreleased collaboration he had recorded at an unknown time with Rick Rubin, and Hov still remembers his verse to this day. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI got so much trouble on my mind\/ Refuse to lose, and my nephews need new shoes\/ And I chew food like it\u2019s going out of style\/ So take that blaow\/ Fall way back\/ I\u2019m always strapped\/ Like Nike Airs\/ Right here\/ Under the belt, with one in the air\/ Anybody out there know anybody realer\/ Any amount of hunger make any n\u2014a a dealer\/ That\u2019s why in any hood they feel us\/ I don\u2019t walk around with a gun cause it\u2019s in style\/ I walk around with one because I ain\u2019t trying to miss my child,\u201d he effortlessly raps.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe rap mogul used that as an example of explaining how he\u2019s just a product of his environment and detailed to Rubin how different neighborhoods live by different codes and street politics depending on where you\u2019re from. <\/p>\n

\tHe Doesn\u2019t Have Many Regrets in Life<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile everyone has things in life happen that they wish they could change, Jay doesn\u2019t live with many regrets in life, instead looking at them as opportunities to live, learn and do better going forward. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m in a place where I\u2019m more so things happen. You try to learn and you try to do better. I would say I have more of those feelings,\u201d he said. \u201cI want to do better, be a better person, be a better friend, be a better human being\u2026 Only think about the past as a form of correction\u2026 I don\u2019t have many regrets; that\u2019s life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u2018Got Beef With Radio If I Don\u2019t Play They Show\u2019<\/p>\n

\n\tOf course, Jay and Rick Rubin delved into their \u201c99 Problems\u201d collaboration, which included his beef with radio. Hov spoke about radio stations like Hot 97 attempting to blackball him on the airwaves if he would go to their competitor stations. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAt that time, you\u2019ve become the premier artist in the city \u2014 everyone\u2019s trying to squeeze you. The radio stations are like, \u2018If you go to our competitor across the street, we\u2019re not gonna play your record.\u2019 And I would never play those politics,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\n\tJay didn\u2019t understand the logic because the same radio stations were playing tracks from all of his competitors in the rap game as well. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThat didn\u2019t last long, cause I stood my ground,\u201d Jay added. \u201cI was like, I\u2019m not having it\u2026 I don\u2019t know if they was used to dealing with that kind of personality.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t


\n\tSign Up<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Episodes five and six of JA\u0178-Z in 8 premiered on HBO Max on Friday night (Oct. 2). Hov…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":870324,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[88,3867,1010,216,498,49142],"class_list":["post-870323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-genre-hiphop","tag-hbo-max","tag-music","tag-music-news","tag-tv-film"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=870323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/870324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=870323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=870323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=870323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}