JJ'88 joins Shelf

This past March at the SXSW film festival, James “JJ’88” Jacobs premiered his award-winning Netflix Original documentary-visual album, Songs From the Hole. The project details his journey from a young boy shaped by the church, the streets of North Long Beach, California and the 18 years he spent incarcerated to freedom. JJ’88 spent his time in prison cultivating his passion for music—honing his craft in freestyle sessions and writing the majority of the project in solitary confinement. He was released from his life sentence in 2022, and through Songs From the Hole, is now sharing his story with the world—harnessing music as both a testimony and tool.

We sat down with JJ’88 to talk about his journey, his creative process, and some of the musicians that inspired his sound. What follows is a heartwarming, candid, and inspiring conversation that left us eager to see the visual-album. Songs From the Hole will premiere on Netflix on August 13th. Listen to the lead single, “Here Now” and make sure to follow JJ’88 on Shelf to get real-time updates on the media he’s consuming.

ShelfMAG: How did the process of making music while you were serving your sentence shape your sound and your voice as an artist?

JJ'88: I think it shaped my sound by being in isolation. There's not a lot of access to music, so I had to rely a lot on music that I grew up listening to or could remember and that really influenced why my sound is so vintage and retro versus kind of sounding like these newer artists that are out. As far as my voice goes, just being incarcerated, you have a lot of things that you living through, you're surviving, and the things that you and your homies are going through.

ShelfMAG: Who would you say are some of your biggest influences musically? And how do they show up in “Here Now,” or in the project as a whole?

JJ'88: I would say D'Angelo. Even in “Here Now,” you can hear it's very soulful. It has a very neo-soul sound. Any of the Soulquarians, to be honest, have also influenced my sound and it’s why my music sounds the way it sounds.

ShelfMAG: I could imagine that the whole project feels like it's very personal. It's your own journey, it's your own experiences, but it also feels collective, like you're speaking for more than just yourself. While you were in the process of creating, who did you imagine speaking to or for?

JJ'88: I think I'm speaking for me and the homies. I talk a lot about what we go through with me and my homies, and people who come from where I come from go through. Some songs I'm speaking to them, like in “Letter to the Homeless” and then songs like “Most Hunted” or “Here Now” I’m talking to people that may or may not come from my experience, but, you know, just being able to share my story with them feels good.

ShelfMAG: You've lived, I feel like more lives than most people—as a kid, as a young person, growing up as an inmate, as an artist, and now a storyteller. How do you navigate all those different identities now? And which version of you kind of leads when you're in the studio?

JJ'88: I've never been asked that. That's crazy. I guess the version that leads in the studio is the one who has the most to say—the part of me that has the most to say. And that could be my inner child. That could be like my inner street n***a. It could be any given part of my character speaking. It really just depends on the inspiration.

ShelfMAG: What does it mean to you to premiere your story on a platform like Netflix?

JJ'88: It means a lot. I think they have something like 290 million subscribers. It means that 290 million people in 190 countries around the world will have access to things I wrote sitting on the top bunk in prison.

ShelfMAG: It's probably extra empowering knowing that so much of it was made behind walls that a lot of people never really see. So, you're shedding light on not just your story, but a larger conversation at hand. I wanted to ask you about the spiritual thread that also runs through your music and your story in your life. What role does faith or belief play?

JJ'88: I mean, without God, I wouldn't be, to put it simply. I spent a lot of time with my music, but oftentimes before, when I was in the hole, before I would write a song or, you know, go into creative mode, I read scripture. Most of the time it was the Bible, but at times it'd be other holy scriptures, like the Quran or the Torah, or anything spiritual. I’d read it, meditate or pray, and then write. So I think that part of my creativity is just being able to center with myself, center with spirit, and write whatever right from the feeling.

ShelfMAG: Was that how the process of writing “Here Now” felt?

JJ'88: Yeah, actually. I wrote Here now in freedom. It's one of the only songs on the album that I wrote in freedom. And we were up in the Santa Cruz Redwood Mountains, in this cabin doing this thing for two weeks where we just kind of built a studio out of this cabin and hung out and made music. Being able to be present is what helped me write. Just being able to talk about my arrival and do that through the lens of speaking about the things I've been through and how it distinguishes me from other rappers. A lot of rappers ain't from where I'm from. They didn't live what I live. So, you know, I had to get centered there to do that, to make that distinction.

ShelfMAG: How has the transition back into public life changed your relationship to music? Has your creative process changed at all?

JJ'88: Yeah, it's harder to write. It's harder to be creative out here. It's harder for me to kind of just be free and inspired because there's so much going on. It's like nobody stops. And in prison, you’re stuck. I feel like I ain't got no time, especially not in New York. Life feels like I ain't never got enough time to actually sit down and think about fully what I'm what I'm doing unless I go to the woods—unless I go on, like, a little retreat, you know. So I have to get away from the everyday freedom to enjoy it.

ShelfMAG: What item on your Shelf is most likely to stay there forever?

JJ'88: Voodoo by D'Angelo, Here, My Dear by Marvin Gaye, Reasonable Doubt by Jay-Z. I got a long list—especially when it comes to music.

ShelfMAG: I'm definitely going to be stalking your shelf. I'm liking what I'm hearing.

JJ'88: I like this idea of shelf. That's kind of dope.

Curious about what else JJ’88 is into? Get real-time updates at shelf.im/jjeightyeight