Let Me Hear a Rhyme

Jasmine faints easily, plus she’s annoyed by everyone’s nosiness and gossip, so she leaves the crowded living room and goes to Steph’s bedroom for some air and quiet. Before losing Steph, Jasmine, Steph, and Carl also lost their father to murder. Now, Jasmine often wears her father’s Africa-shaped medallion around her neck. She normally keeps her hair natural, but her mom made her straighten it for the funeral. Steph’s room reminds Jasmine how much she misses him. When their father died, they hid in there together, but now she’s alone, until Quadir appears to check on her.

Steph didn’t let his friends in his bedroom often, and Quadir is impressed by the music and movie posters. Jarrell also appears. There’s also a stereo with a three-CD changer, but it’s broken. It was a gift from their dad and Steph loved it. There are tons of CDs, some of which include Steph’s own tracks that he recorded. He was at a studio the night before his murder. The kids find a bunch of notebooks with his rhymes and lyrics in them. They press “play” on the stereo to see what music he was listening to—it’s his own music. Jarrell asks to have the tape and Jasmine agrees, even though she kind of wants to keep it for herself.

Jarrell and Quadir, “Quady,” left the reception for their hangout spot outside a nearby bodega, Habibi’s, where they often spent time with Steph. Jarrell is disappointed that his first funeral was for someone so close. Jarrell and Quady lament how Steph died so young even though he was talented and had great potential. A car drives by playing Tupac; it has only recently become locally acceptable to play west coast rap music due to the battle between the east and west coasts. Jarrell thinks this battle was pointless because now Tupac and Biggie are both dead for no good reason, and so is Steph.

Another neighborhood teenager named Dante appears, shares his condolences about Steph, and asks the boys if they know who killed him. They don’t. Jarrell was partially expecting Dante to know, but he acts like he doesn’t. Dante invites the boys to a party at their friend E. Rocque’s place later. Quady’s girlfriend, Ronnie, will be there, even though she wasn’t at Steph’s funeral.

The narration flashes back to when Steph, Jarrell, and Quady skipped school and are waiting in a crowd to see Biggie’s funeral procession drive by Biggie’s former home in Brooklyn. They see the procession, and everyone cheers. Steph’s crushed by Biggie’s death because Biggie’s music helped Steph process his father’s death, but now Biggie is gone, too.

Biggie’s music plays, and the crowd dances, celebrating his life. Police approach and start pepper spraying people and pushing Jarrell on the ground. Steph and Quadir rush the officer so Jarrell can escape. A girl asks the police why they can’t let people celebrate a life or mourn a lost loved one. Steph, Jarrell, and Quadir run away, back to the bodega near their apartments. The boys ask Steph to rhyme about Biggie and he does.

In the present, Quadir and Jarrell go to E. Rocque’s party, which is packed and fun as usual. Quadir feels like Steph would want him to socialize and keep living life even though he’s gone. Quadir’s girlfriend Ronnie is there and Jarrell fusses at her for not coming to Steph’s funeral. She claims she didn’t know her presence was expected. Quadir is annoyed she didn’t come and is also annoyed by how superficial she is. However, because she’s pretty and wealthy and everyone says Quadir is lucky to be with her, he avoids fights with Ronnie and keeps many thoughts to himself. He tells her it’s fine she didn’t come, and she argues that people die all the time, so Quadir should forget about Steph’s death. This bothers him, but he says nothing. E. gets the boys drinks. Jarrell and Quadir give the cassette tape of Steph’s raps that they took from his room to the DJ, without saying whose music it is. The DJ, DJ Cash, plays it and everyone loves it.

Jasmine has been listening to Lauryn Hill’s album since Steph got it for her, but he was killed the day afterward. Jasmine and her mom clean the apartment, and her mom says that she’s going back to work soon. Jasmine thinks it’s too soon but reflects that her mom probably doesn’t have a choice because of bills. Mom asks Jasmine if Quady and Jarrell took anything from Steph’s bedroom; Jasmine says “no” even though they took a cassette tape. Mom claims the police are investigating Steph’s murder and that she knows nothing new yet. Jasmine thinks they’ll probably never find any suspects if they haven’t yet. Jasmine sees a police envelope in her mom’s bedroom, so she takes it.

Mom says Jasmine should pick up Steph’s final paycheck from his job at a shipping company. Jasmine goes there, but the manager says Steph never worked there and he’s never heard of Steph. On the way home, Jasmine runs into her crush, Drama, and his girlfriend Tania, who also attended E.’s party. Jasmine asks why nobody invited her; Tania argues parties aren’t Jasmine’s “scene” due to her fashion choices and interest in politics and poetry. This offends Jasmine and makes her miss Steph even more because Steph accepted her even though she’s “different.”

Jarrell hangs out with his friend Mack in the courtyard of B-Voort. Mack is dressed in fancy clothes and a lot of jewelry, as usual. Nobody tries to take his jewelry because he’s tough. A bunch of kids are outside playing, and an ice cream truck stops by. Mack offers to buy ice cream for all the kids. Most of them accept, but a girl named Tamika refuses and glares angrily at Mack as if she doesn’t want his dirty money. Mack hands a few hundred dollars to the ice cream man. Jarrell thinks it’s nice Mack is buying the kids ice cream, even though his other friends dislike Mack.

Quadir and Jarrell are struggling to stay positive with their best friend gone. Only one paragraph about Steph was in the newspaper, and it offered no answers, nor did it do Steph’s story justice. Ronnie is planning a super-fancy 16th birthday party, where Quadir will perform in a group dance number with Ronnie and her friends. Jarrell makes fun of him for this when he hears that Ronnie has also forced Quadir into costume changes.

The boys are excited about the new issue of Vibe, which has an interview with Pierce Williams, a rep from Red Starr Entertainment who signed a rapper from Bed-Stuy named Fast Pace. Jarrell has been listening to Steph’s music, and Quady says they could create an album of Steph’s music—rappers come out with posthumous albums all the time. Jarrell points out that the rappers were already famous before dying. Quady still wants to try because Fast Pace got signed just from one freestyle.

Quadir and Jarrell share their plan with Jasmine. They want to make an album and get Steph a record deal while pretending that he’s still alive. Jasmine points out that this would get complicated once people find out he’s dead. The boys still want to do it, to prove how talented Steph was and to share his music with the world. Jasmine asks about Steph’s job, but the boys don’t know where Steph actually worked. Jasmine agrees to help them with their plan if they help her find out who killed Steph. Jarrell doesn’t want to snoop around about murders because it would be dangerous. Jasmine says Steph would do it for any of them, so they owe it to him. The boys agree.

The kids search Steph’s room for more music, going through boxes of tapes, CDs, and notebooks under his bed. Jasmine opens one box and finds a gun and a hundred vials of crack cocaine. Quady sees it but Jarrell doesn’t, and they don’t tell him. They also find a pager with several missed calls, as if someone’s been searching for Steph but doesn’t realize he’s dead.

The kids decide to put Steph’s upbeat hits on an A side, and deeper, more thoughtful songs on a B side. Jarrell leaves and Quady and Jasmine listen to Lauryn Hill. Jasmine feels attracted to Quady, he leaves abruptly when they almost kiss.

Steph is in Jarrell’s bedroom, eating candy from their annual end-of-summer trip to Coney Island. Jarrell explains that music files can be put on computers and copied now. Steph thinks Jarrell’s computer must have been expensive, but Jarrell says someone gave him a deal. The computer was stolen, and Mack sold it to him at a reduced price. Jarrell feels like he has to learn “survival” from people like Mack, whereas Steph was fortunate to have a dad who taught him morality. Steph encourages Jarrell to attend college and study computers so he can get a good job as an adult. Jarrell’s not sure about college because nobody from his family has gone, plus it’s expensive. Steph says Jarrell can get financial aid, then influence others to attend college too.

Steph opens a shoebox, asking if he can borrow Jarrell’s shoes, but instead, he sees something upsetting instead. Jarrell claims it’s not his, and that he’s holding it for Mack. Steph says it’s wrong.