| Marcus is a quiet young man who adores his loving mother (Serena Reeder), and the two live a relatively comfortable life as his mother is a local drug dealer. She often has to leave him with his grandparents to be looked after while she takes care of her business. But after she is brutally murdered in an apparent drug deal gone wrong, Marcus heads down the wrong road himself. Forced to live with his grandparents full-time, they themselves having many children too, he finds his life less appealing as his grandfather works long hours to support the large family. As he grows older, he enters the drug game himself, buying new clothing and even a gun. Eventually he abandons high school to sell drugs for local kingpin Levar (Bill Duke) and his underling, Majestic, (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) full time. Majestic, however, has plans of his own to become a major drug lord himself. Years later, after he reunites with his childhood sweetheart (Joy Bryant), he is thrown in jail. During his time in prison, he befriends a fellow inmate named Bama (Terrence Howard). Marcus decides to leave the drug trade behind in order to pursue and eventually fulfill his lifelong dream of becoming a rap-star and entertainer, calling himself Young Caesar, after the Roman conqueror himself, with Bama as his manager and producer. Unfortunately, he and his drug crew end up robbing a local shop, and Majestic doesn't want to let him go, resulting in a tragedy that might have destroyed his life forever ... |
