Nas, Erykah Badu & Kanye West Are Involved In A Film About the Search for a Way Out (Video)

Erykah Badu, Kanye West, and Nas are all involved in an upcoming film, one for which a trailer has been released. The Land sports Esco as Executive Producer, Ms. Badu as star, and ‘Ye as a soundtrack contributor. West will be in good company, as the score will also feature contributions from Pusha T, Nosaj Thing, Jeremih, French Montana and several others. Directed by Steven Caple, Jr., the film takes place in his hometown of Cleveland, Ohio and tells the tale of four teenaged boys whose driving passion in life is skateboarding. While more details about the film’s plot are being kept under wraps, it has been announced the Nas-produced soundtrack will arrive July 29 via his Mass Appeal Records.

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Also starring Michael K. Williams and Machine Gun Kelly, the film’s lead roles will be played by Jorge Lendeborg, Jr.; Moises Arias; Rafi Gevron; and Ezri Walker. In the trailer, the four are seen struggling to keep up in school, getting caught up in the streets, and what happens when life’s pursuits get sidetracked by the fast pace of teenage abandon. The Land has not yet been assigned an official release date, but its timing is nonetheless telling. The film comes during a tumultuous time in Cleveland, where in 2014 12-year-old Tamir Rice was shot and killed by police. Following the lack of an indictment of the officers involved, the city – like Ferguson, Missouri and Baltimore, Maryland – became one of the many headquarters of the modern civil rights protest era. With that backdrop in mind, The Land‘s depiction of young boys of color doing all they can to escape their surroundings becomes particularly powerful. For these skateboarders, the streets serve as both their confines and their way out.