Four Harlem friends -- Bishop, Q, Steel and Raheem -- dabble in petty crime, but they decide to go big by knocking off a convenience store. Bishop, the magnetic leader of the group, has the gun. But Q has different aspirations. He wants to be a DJ and happens to have a gig the night of the robbery. Unfortunately for him, Bishop isn't willing to take no for answer in a game where everything's for keeps.
Acting
Tupac's unhinged magnetism steals every frame he's in.
Direction
Dickerson's Harlem is a character suffocating its own people.
Sound
Hip-hop score that *is* the heartbeat, not backdrop.
Director
Ernest R. Dickerson
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Tupac and Epps actually attended the same performing arts high school; their chemistry was years in the making.
Released months before the '92 L.A. riots, its portrait of Black male friendship and desperation hit different in theaters.
US
