Kardinal Offishall
An aspiring medical student whose drug-addicted sister has recently died and who may be forced to relocate from her posh private school to the crime-infested neighborhood in which she was raised enters a step-dancing competition in hope of securing the funds needed to continue her education. Unable to afford the tuition needed to fund her private-school education, ambitious teen Raya returns to her family home in the city and is reluctantly forced to reevaluate her future. Upon learning that the top prize for an upcoming step-dancing competition is 50,000 dollars, Raya uses her impressive moves to earn a coveted slot in her good friend Bishop's predominately male JSJ crew. Isolated from the local females due to jealousy and separated from her fellow dancers by gender, the ambitious dancer is subsequently kicked off the team for showing off during a preliminary competition. Now, if Raya has any hope of realizing her medical-school dreams, she will have to either earn back Bishop's trust or organize her own dance crew and start over from scratch. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rutina Wesley, Tracey 'Tre' Armstrong, (more)
- 2000
Produced for Canadian television by Alliance-Atlantis, the weekly half-hour series Drop the Beat (aka In That Mix) zeroed in on Canada's urban music industry, with special attention afforded the hip-hop school. Repeating their roles from the earlier series Straight Up, Merwin Mondesir and Mark Taylor starred as Dennis and Jeff, a pair of college students who ran their own program on a campus radio station. While the series was essentially a drama with comedic undertones, there was time aplenty to feature some of the top hip-hop acts of the era as guest stars. Drop the Beat made its first Canadian TV appearance on October 2, 2000. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
