Peckham, South London, the present. Jamie (aka 'Rage'), Godwin ('G') and Thomas ('T') are a rap trio who need £4,000 to make a record. Rage is a shelf stacker from a poor estate; he buys groceries and weed for his mentor Marcus, an ageing Rastafarian who owes money to drug lord Pin. T is white and well off, but his money is in trust. G is a promising pianist of respectable black parents. Rage flirts with Lola, pulling a gun when her boyfriend protests - it later turns out to be a toy. Police stop the trio's car, and Rage is racially harassed.

At T's party, T, Lola and Rage argue about blackness. When Rage calls Marcus a "nigga" for spending his pension on weed, the older man throws him out. Rage plans to find the money to pay for his record by burgling T's parents' house; G hates the plan, but goes along. T's parents are home and the police catch Rage and G; Rage is beaten and possibly raped. T's parents drop the charges. Pin wants Rage to work for him. When G and Lola start dating, Rage is angry; G then leaves the group. Rage finds Marcus beaten up; he then attacks Pin, but is himself beaten. When Rage attacks a racist policeman, T leaves. Rage confronts his white mother about his dead black father. She tries to comfort him. Rage then goes to work for Pin, but holds back, weeping. Later Rage visits Marcus, resettled elsewhere. T then arrives with the record, cut at last.

Sight and Sound