Love Beats Rhymes

Rough street records freestyle battle is now about to commence!

Ladies and gentlemen, is Brooklyn in the house?

Is queens in the house?

Is money-makin' Manhattan in the house?

Is Staten island in the house? Where's the island at?

Guess they a no-show.

Let's go, y'all! Come on! Give it up!

Let the countdown begin!

Ten, nine,

eight, seven,

six, five,

four,

three,

two,

one!

You can feel it, people!

That boy on fire right there!

Can you feel it? Can you feel it in the air?

Si's finest, where you at? Where you at?

Ladies and gentlemen!

Si's finest has showed up!

And they brought a motherfuckin' coffin!

This fuckin' battle is on!

Listen...

Watch me work. Yo, pay attention y'all.

Hold up, hold up, wait, wait.

Choke!

Si's finest. Great performance tonight, guys.

Yeah!

Yeah, you all know! What's up, baby?

Yeah.

Naveen, when are you gonna hook us up with your boss?

Everyone knows you got the boss's ear.

Richard Reid is a busy man. I don't like to waste his time.

Waste his time? What you talkin' about?

Rough street records needs a group like Si's finest...

Hip-hop needs a group like Si's finest.

We got somethin' for everybody.

A strong female rapper.

Undeniable skills.

You guys just won five grand tonight. What else do you need?

A record deal. Duh.

Look, you guys have great potential.

But I need more than potential to sell records.

I need songs with structure, hook, verse.

I'm definitely not bringing a bunch of battle rappers in to my boss.

Yo, you don't know shit about music.

Hangin' around in clubs trying to scoop up groupies.

Throwin' around the a&r card.

Yo, man, a&r to this guy stands for ass and romance, man.

I'm done with this conversation. You guys enjoy your winnings.

Hey, Naveen.

You guys aren't done talking shit tonight?

All I've ever wanted was to be a rapper.

Rappers delight, California love, mind's playing tricks on me.

Those are the songs people remember.

I get it. That's what you want from us.

We can do that.

Yeah? Well, I haven't heard it.

You're in a&r. You're supposed to see greatness

before anyone else does.

Anyone could walk in here today and discover Jay Z.

But it took someone special to see greatness in Shawn Carter.

Let me think about it.

Give me your info.

Where's Malik? Hey...

I dunno. Yo! See Malik?

Nah, man.

Why not?

I think Malik left.

You good?

Yeah. I ain't trippin' over Malik.

Mmm-hmm.

Really. I just left my hard drive in his crib.

Come on. Don't start.

Malik doesn't owe me anything.

And more importantly, I don't owe him anything either.

You guys wear me out.

Yo! Uber's here. Who's coming?

You coming? I'm coming.

Coco?

You coming?

I think I'ma hang around a little bit longer.

Okay.

Bye. Bye.

I can't stand you.

You ready to go?

Get away from me. Are you ready to go?

Coco!

We killed it last night.

You had the audience eatin' out ya hand.

Yo, yo, it's too hot for that, co. Come on now.

You out?

I gotta work the breakfast shift.

Get me a number 6 for lunch.

You wanna grub for free, get up off your ass and come get it, lazy.

Yo, put some cheese on that shit!

You're late.

Good morning, ma.

I didn't hear you come in last night.

How you ever gonna find someone to love

if you keep being Malik's Booty call?

Ma!

Well?

Who says I'm looking for love?

We all lookin' for love, baby.

Malik's always had my back.

You remember how good he was when dad died.

What we have, we don't need labels.

Yeah? Well where I come from, it's got a label.

It's called "ho."

I call it like I see it.

What you lookin' at, huh? This ain't no reality show. Get back to work.

These goddamn...

Ooh... oh, my god.

What happened? You look like you just won the lottery.

It's Naveen from rough street records.

"Good morning. I thought about what you said

"and I showed your stuff to Richard last night.

"He liked what he saw. But he agrees with me

"so here's the deal. You have three months.

"We have our labor day weekend showcase for new talent.

"You send me three songs. Richard and I like one, you play it live."

That is the ticket. We're in.

It sounds like a whole lot of maybes to me.

Well, you know these music industry guys.

They're just always trying to play it cool.

No, I don't know these record label guys.

All I know is that he did not just offer you a contract.

And you know what? Time's up, baby. You gotta get back to school.

Ma, can we just not talk about school for, like, five minutes?

Coco, we had a deal.

I need to focus on this demo right now.

I'll go back to school in the fall, I promise.

You were supposed to be out one semester.

Baby, it's been almost a year.

Baby, your father and I, we have made ridiculous sacrifices

to make sure that you got to college.

Well, I'll pay you back as soon as I get a record deal.

You wanna pay me back? Graduate!

Just get it over with, huh? You're almost done.

Summer session starts soon, right?

Just do it. It'll be over before you know it.

I can't be 30, trying to start my rap career, ma.

Your not goin' back to school is not an option with me.

It is not gonna happen. Not on my watch.

You wanna rap? Fine. But ya gonna have to do it between classes.

Yo, what the fuck? What took so long?

I was... I dunno.

Are you gonna let me in?

What's up, y'all?

Coco, what's good, mama?

You smell like fuckin' balls and underarms.

You want somethin' to eat?

As if I would eat something over here.

Where's Malik?

How we supposed to know where Malik at? Matt, you seen Malik?

Nigga, do I look like his fuckin' parole officer?

Let me go upstairs and get my bag.

Uh... What?

You can't just be goin' in Malik's room when he not here.

You can't do that.

Since when?

Go grab her!

Coco!

Yeah?

Yo. What up, what up, what up?

Reasons and Matt said you weren't here. What are you doing here?

Nah, I'm chillin', I don't know why they said that, I'm just...

Guess what. What?

Richard Reid is gonna give us another chance.

For real? Yes!

That's what I'm talkin' about.

Hey all right. That's what I'm sayin', so let's put some shit down.

Let's do our thing, right?

Right, what?

I was... I was write... I was writin'.

I was workin' on, you know, I'm workin' on the lyrics.

I got these... I got this shit in my head.

It's crazy, I just had like this epiphany and shit.

And I was collabin' on some... Actually, she got a new...

I got... we got verses. We got hook... co!

Co!

Coco! Hey!

Coco!

Shit.

What the fuck is wrong with y'all niggas?

You know I got... You know I got shorty upstairs.

What's wrong with y'all? Why didn't y'all say somethin'?

You know how the fuck she is, man. The fuck is wrong with...

She just stormed in here.

Twiddle Dee, twiddle dum over here. What the fuck, man.

The time is up, coco.

You have got to get back to school.

Do you know how many sacrifices your father and I made

so that you could go to college?

You wanna rap? That's fine with me.

But from now on you gonna have to do it between classes.

Hey, coco. Coco!

What?