State Property

Rapper Memphis Bleek and his Roc-A-Fella crew star in this gritty urban crime drama based on actual events. Determined to make big cash, local Philly thug Beans (Beanie Siegel) forms a gang he dubs the A.B.M. (All 'Bout Money) and declares that all his rivals better "get down or lay down." Bleek, Jay-Z, Omillio Sparks, Freeway, and Damon Dash are some of his friends and enemies along the way. Beans earns plenty of cash, and a nice home in the suburbs for his family, but like all movie gangsters he doesn't know when to quit. The body count rises, his old lady (Sundy Carter) gets kidnapped, and incarceration threatens when a surviving victim decides to rat Beans out to the cops.

First-time director Abdul Malik Abbot smartly eschews any morality, romance or phony glamour in favor of a practical, no-nonsense, sex-and-violence approach. The film's real strength, however, is the naturalistic performances of the actors and their ease with the quotable, expletive-rich dialogue. STATE PROPERTY should delight viewers schooled in rap music and gangster films, but others may find themselves needing subtitles to decipher the thick slang. It's filmed on digital video, blown up to 35mm for theatrical release.

African American Cinema | African American Culture | Big City | Crime | Drugs | Gangs | Rap Artists | Rap Music | Theatrical Release | Urban Crime | Urban Life | Urban Violence