How did this “Get Out” star get in as an executive producer on HBO’s upcoming Jay-Z docueries?
HBO announced on Thursday that the “99 Problems” rapper was teaming with legendary music producer Rick Rubin on a biographical eight-part docuseries set to bow in the fall.
The release noted that Rubin and Jay-Z are executive producing with Daniel Kaluuya. But the actor’s name made for a record-scratch moment. Though Kaluuya’s track record is wildly impressive, including winning a best supporting actor Oscar for “Judas and the Black Messiah,” we see no actual tracks of the music variety on his resume that would make him an obvious collaborator on the project, “JAŸ-Z IN 8.”
Turns out the British actor, who starred in Jordan Peele’s horror films “Get Out” and “Nope,” met Rubin when he appeared on the famed hip hop and rock producer’s “Tetragrammaton” podcast in 2023.
Sources close to the project tell us that the two kept in touch, and in 2024 Rubin showed Kaluuya two episodes of the planned Jay-Z series. The actor “had great notes and thoughts,” one source says. So, Rubin brought him on as executive producer for all eight, and they’ve been working on the project together for more than two years.
Incidentally, both Rubin and Kaluuya are pretty enigmatic. Rubin is known to go barefoot in the studio for spiritual reasons. And who could forget all that talk in 2022 about Kaluuya firing his CAA agents and reportedly hanging on the “Nope” set with a holistic spiritual advisor dubbed “Heir Holiness?” (He is now repped by WME.)
Meanwhile, Kaluuya is a fan of Jay’s cinematic work. In a 2022 cover story for The Hollywood Reporter, the “Black Panther” star shared his Covid lockdown diary, which included watching every film Jay-Z’s Roc-A-Fella Records produced, including “Paid in Full” and “Paper Soldiers,” chronologically.
As for “JAŸ-Z IN 8,” Rubin — who famously produced Jay-Z’s “99 Problems” off “The Black Album” — plays the role of interviewer, and the two sit down to “discuss his music, lyrics, life experiences, and creative process,” according to a release.
Jay-Z is touring in July and recently changed his name, yet again, to be stylized as JAŸ-Z, we reported.
