NEW YORK, June 26 -- The opening exchange in HBO's first teaser for JAY-Z IN 8, released Thursday, runs less than a minute. Rick Rubin says the pain is what made the work possible. Shawn Carter, who has been making work for thirty years, responds that this is not quite how he sees it. You do not say the pain is necessary, he says. You do not invite it. But when it arrives, you use it.

That brief exchange is all HBO has shared publicly about the eight-part documentary series the network announced Thursday morning, the same day Reasonable Doubt, Jay-Z's debut album, turned 30. The series, described as a candid and intimate conversation years in the making, will debut on HBO this fall, with no specific premiere date attached. It is a Tetrag...