‘JAŸ-Z in 8’ Finale: 5 Things We Learned From Episodes 7 & 8

The JAŸ-Z in 8 finale has arrived.

The final two installments of Hov’s HBO Max docuseries landed Friday evening (Oct. 9), with Rick Rubin helping the hip-hop legend unpack the stories behind key moments and releases from the latter years of his career.

Episode seven explores hits like “Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)” and “Empire State of Mind” (with Alicia Keys), as well as essential projects like The Blueprint 3 and Streets Is Watching. As Jay reflected on his hit-packed 2009 LP, he affirmed Rubin’s observation that the release marked a shift in his approach to album artwork. “I started getting into collecting art around that time,” the Brooklyn MC concurred.

Episode eight digs into some of Jay’s more heady, political work. He breaks down his exploration of intracommunity fighting amongst Black folk on “The Story of O.J.,” explains his challenging of existing power structures on the classic “No Church in the Wild” and draws a throughline of generational healing between “Family Feud” and “Legacy.”

Both episodes are a fitting close to the eight-part series, which used relatively broad strokes to paint the arc of Jay’s life and career. The episodes also bolster the docuseries’ overarching argument that rap is a quintessential American art form deserving of the same respect as any of the country’s foundational sounds and cultural spaces.

Directed by Rubin, JAŸ-Z in 8 is a Tetragrammaton production. Executive producers include Academy Award winner Daniel Kaluuya, Jay-Z and Rubin. Leila Mattimore and David Rohde also serve as producers.

The series arrives amid a celebratory year for the hip-hop mogul. He returned to the stage in an Afro during his buzzy headlining set at May’s Roots Picnic, which set the scene for his string of stadium-packing JAŸ-Z 30 concerts across Los Angeles, London, Paris, and, of course, New York City. Hov actually kicked off the trek in his hometown with three sold-out Yankee Stadium shows featuring a barrage of who’s who in the music industry, including Beyoncé, Rihanna, Eminem, Blue Ivy, Usher, Teyana Taylor, Slick Rick, Jaz-O, The-Dream, Clipse, Pharrell Williams and more.

Last week (Sept. 24), a woman who accused Jay-Z of raping her as a 13-year-old girl fully recanted her allegations, telling a federal judge that her claims were “false,” that she had mental health issues and that her ex-attorneys filed the case without the proper due diligence.

Here are five things we learned from episodes seven and eight below. The final two episodes of JAŸ-Z in 8 are now available to stream on HBO Max.