Key Takeaways
- Jay-Z praises Ye as "one of the most brilliant creatives we're ever going to see" in episode six of the HBO docuseries JAY-Z In 8, directed by Rick Rubin.
- The exchange happens as Rick Rubin plays "Jail," the Donda opener featuring Jay-Z, and frames Ye's fallout over his turn toward extremism as a kind of confinement.
- Jay-Z says Ye still holds "this reverence as his big brother" despite the rift, even after freestyling in March about Ye insulting his children.
- The eight-part black and white series covers 27 songs across two days of April 2023 interviews and continues with new episodes weekly through its Oct. 9 finale.
Jay-Z is speaking warmly about Ye again, calling his former collaborator "one of the most brilliant creatives we're ever going to see" in his new HBO docuseries, Jay-Z in 8.
The rapper went further in the same exchange, describing a bond he believes is still intact.
"No matter what, he's always ... had this space for me and this reverence as his big brother," Jay-Z says. "Obviously he does his things ... but I know he hasn't lost that feeling."
The conversation unfolds in episode six, while Rick Rubin plays "Jail," the Donda opener that featured Jay-Z.
Rubin frames the fallout over Ye's turn toward extremism as a kind of confinement, likening it to being in jail.
"In some ways, he was removed from the community," Rubin says. "It was not by choice, because he was being himself."
The same episode has Jay-Z walking through his verse line by line, unpacking "No cap" and his references to The Throne, the name attached to his and Ye's Watch the Throne album.
The eight-part series is directed and produced by Rubin, who cut "99 Problems" with Jay-Z for The Black Album back in 2003. Shawn Carter, Rubin, and Daniel Kaluuya executive produce under the Tetragrammaton and HBO Documentary Films banners.
Shot in black and white, it runs through 27 songs from the catalog, among them "4:44," "The Story of O.J.," "Family Feud," and "No Church in the Wild."
Rubin sat with Jay-Z across two days in April 2023, several hours of conversation covering his life and more than 25 records. The series premiered Sept. 18, five days after its world premiere at Lincoln Center's Metropolitan Opera House.
Two new episodes land each week through the Oct. 9 finish, which leaves the back half of the series, and any response from Ye, still to come.
