‘Songs From the Hole’ Review: The Mesmerizing Story of a Rap Album Created Behind Bars That Helped a Convict Find Redemption

variety.com:

Todd Gilchrist editor Visual albums — a bunch of videos strung together to commemorate the release of new work from a musical artist — typically either feel like shameless promotion or a vanity project. “Songs From the Hole” not only earns the label honestly, but actually takes this co-called next-level artistic endeavor to, well, another level: Chronicling the incarceration of James “JJ’88” Jacobs, who went to jail at age 15 for murder, co-writer and director Contessa Gayles combines nakedly vulnerable reflections from Jacobs with poetic recreations for a deeply affecting experience, both musically and dramatically. “Songs From the Hole” immediately lays out the landscape of James’ crime and its repercussions: three days after killing a man on the streets of Los Angeles, James’ older brother Victor was murdered, leaving their parents to grieve the death of one child and the imminent incarceration of another.

Fifteen years into a 40-years-to-life sentence, James has turned to music to explore his feelings about his circumstances, even as his father, William, mother Janine, sister Renaesha and fiancée Indigo petition for his release — or even a less harsh re-sentencing — from the outside.

In between, James’ music articulates thoughts, feelings and experiences that he cannot express except via scratchy collect calls made from jail.

Gayles enlists a group of actors to portray him and his family, and otherwise dramatize the events portrayed in his songs. The combination feels especially powerful given that he lived many of the stories he tells in his verses and is not merely conjuring his cinematic narratives for the purpose of entertainment.