Netflix and JJ’88 Host Premiere Party in L.A. for Song From The Hole Documentary
August 13, 2025, Netflix hosted the World Premiere of Songs From The Hole, an innovative new documentary-visual album at the Tudum Theater, with rapper and documentary writer/protagonist JJ’88, writer/director Contessa Gayles, and producers richie reseda and David Felix Sutcliff.
The crew of the film, along with JJ’88 and his family, welcomed an array of high-profile special guests, including D Smoke, Bas, and Vic Mensa, who moderated a Q&A following the film, among others.
At 15, he took a life. Three days later, his brother’s life was taken. A moving chronicle of forgiveness, family, and the transformative power of art, SONGS FROM THE HOLE weaves music and mixed-media storytelling into an innovative documentary visual album.
Through clear-eyed narration and lyrical journal entries, incarcerated musician James “JJ’88” Jacobs reveals his innermost struggles as a person who has both committed and experienced violent harm. While serving a double-life prison sentence, he searches for healing and peace as he comes of age in this documentary-musical odyssey composed behind bars.
In a unique creative process director Contessa Gayles (The Feminist on Cellblock Y, Founder Girls, The Debutantes) collaborated with protagonist/writer JJ’88 and producer/music producer richie reseda to interweave the collective storytelling of the film’s non-fiction participants, with imagined memories, dreams and spiritual dialogues set to JJ’88’s original music. The result is a powerful mix of truth-telling and dreaming that reveal the potential for healing and liberation within us all.
Director: Contessa Gayles
Songs Written and Performed by: JJ’88
Writers: JJ’88, Contessa Gayles
Producers: Contessa Gayles, richie reseda, David Felix Sutcliffe
Co-Producer: JJ’88
Executive Producers: Jenny Raskin, Lauren Haber, Geralyn White Dreyfous, Regina K. Scully, Meadow Fund, dream hampton
Production Companies: Cocomotion Pictures and Question Culture
Songs From The Hole EP tracklist:
- Letter To The Homies
- MostHunted
- Betrayal
- The Haunting
- Steel Grave
- Overwhelmed
- SeaFloor
- WakeUp
- Rise and Shine
- N8tive Psalms
- ROOT
- NoTimeToW8ste
- Here Now