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Emayatzy Corinealdi as Jax Stewart and Morris Chestnut as Corey Cash in Episode 210 of "Reasonable Doubt."HuluDuring the Season 2 premiere of “Reasonable Doubt,” Hulu’s legal drama about high-powered criminal defense attorney Jacqueline “Jax” Stewart (Emayatzy Corinealdi), the subject of mortality cues up another high-profile murder case waiting to be tried in court.The protagonist, still reeling from the traumatic events of her near-fatal kidnapping in the Season 1 finale, gets a call from her best friend, Shanelle (Shannon Kane), who confesses that she just killed her NFL star husband, JT (Christopher Mychael Watson), after another domestic violence incident.
The aftermath of the homicide and Jax’s inner turmoil are both set against the backdrop of the opening episode titled “Can I Live,” named after the classic track featured on Jay-Z’s critically acclaimed debut album, which shares the same name as the television series.Advertisement Jay-Z’s “Reasonable Doubt,” released in 1996, is the seminal masterwork that helped birth a hip-hop legend, arguably the best in the game.
Mafioso rhymes about a hustler lifestyle and upbringing in Brooklyn’s Marcy Houses kick-started Jay-Z’s ascent to the upper echelon of rap.Decades before creating a show with nods to Jay-Z’s landmark album, veteran TV writer Raamla Mohamed was an avid fan of the New Yorker’s way with words.“I was in high school when ‘Reasonable Doubt’ came out, and I’m dating myself, obviously,” Mohamed muses over a morning Zoom call.
“I just remember we had to use the carpool for school, and someone put in the CD, and I remember the first song I heard was, ‘Can I Live’...I never heard anyone rapping over [a beat like that].
It just was so gangster.”As a high schooler, Los Angeles native Mohamed cherished Jay-Z’s “Reasonable Doubt” (her favorite Jay-Z album) for opening her eyes to more pockets of gritty regional rap, from the East Coast to the Sout...