Actors gaze up to the sky during JJ’88’s “ROOT” in the hip-hop artist and former inmate’s documentary and visual album Songs from the Hole. Before the song starts, protagonist and producer James “JJ’88” Jacobs describes meditating on his and others’ redemption while incarcerated and in solitary confinement. Courtesy of Netflix hide caption toggle caption Courtesy of Netflix “‘I’m dangerous,’ they said.” Through tears over the phone, James Jacobs, the hip-hop artist who goes by the stage name of JJ’88, tells his father that the hearing to reduce his sentence was denied. In April 2004, a 15-year-old Jacobs shot and killed a 20-year-old at a party in Bellflower, Calif. At the time his request for parole was denied in 2021, he’d lived more years in prison than outside of it. “They don’t believe me. They don’t believe who I am,” he continues. “They said that all the work that I’m doing, my art and my advocacy work … they said that it’s not real. They say I am a clear and present threat to the community.” …