''Love Beats Rhymes'' is an American musical drama film directed by RZA. The film stars

Azealia Banks Azealia Amanda Banks ( ; born May 31, 1991) is an American rapper, singer and songwriter. Raised in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City, she began releasing music through Myspace in 2008 before being signed to XL Recordings at age 18. In 2 ...

as a 25-year-old rapper from

Staten Island, New York Staten Island ( ) is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located in the city's southwest portion, the borough is separated from New Jersey b ...

who wants to pursue a music career. The film also stars

Lorraine Toussaint Lorraine Toussaint () is a Trinidadian-American actress. She is the recipient of various accolades, including a Black Reel Award, a Critics' Choice Television Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award. Toussaint began her career in theatre before ...

, Jill Scott,

Lucien Laviscount Lucien Leon Laviscount (; born 9 June 1992) is a British actor. He first came to prominence in 2007 after appearing in teen drama ''Grange Hill''. He later appeared in several television series, including ITV's ''Coronation Street'' (2009) and ...

MC Jin Jin Au-Yeung (; born June 4, 1982), known professionally as MC Jin, is an American rapper, songwriter, actor and comedian of Chinese descent. Jin is notable for being the first Asian American solo rapper to be signed to a major record label ...

Hana Mae Lee Hana Mae Lee (born September 28, 1988) is an American actress, model, comedian, and fashion designer. She is best known for playing the role of Lilly Onakuramara in the musical comedy ''Pitch Perfect'' film series (2012–2017) and the role of S ...

John David Washington John David Washington (born July 28, 1984) is an American actor and former professional football player. He played college football at Morehouse College and signed with the St. Louis Rams as an undrafted free agent in 2006. Professionally, Wash ...

and

Common Common may refer to: Places * Common, a townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland * Boston Common, a central public park in Boston, Massachusetts * Cambridge Common, common land area in Cambridge, Massachusetts * Clapham Common, originally com ...

. The film was released on December 1, 2017 by

CodeBlack Films Codeblack Films is an American entertainment company. Codeblack focuses on films targeting African-American audiences. History Codeblack Enterprises was founded by Jeff Clanagan in 2005, who became CEO of the company. Originally focused on dir ...

and

Lionsgate Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation, doing business as Lionsgate, is a Canadian-American entertainment company. It was formed by Frank Giustra on July 10, 1997, domiciled in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and is currently headquartered ...

Cast

as Coco Ford *

as Derek, Coco's love interest * Jill Scott as Professor Dixon *

as Nichelle, Coco's mother *

as Mahlik *

as Julie *

as Coltrane *

as Jin *

Jeremie Harris Jeremie Harris is an American actor. He is primarily known for his portrayal of Ptonomy Wallace in FX (TV channel), FX's ''Legion (TV series), Legion''. Biography Jeremie Harris grew up in New Rochelle where he had ambitions to become a basketbal ...

as Matt *

Esperanza Spalding Esperanza Emily Spalding (born October 18, 1984) is an American bassist, singer, songwriter, and composer. Her accolades include five Grammy Awards, a Boston Music Award, and a Soul Train Music Award. A native of Portland, Oregon, Spalding be ...

as Herself * Monna Sabouri as Girl * Mary Christina Brown as Sapphire * Caleb Eberhardt as Reasons

Production

On May 26, 2015, it was announced that Azealia Banks will be making her feature film debut in ''Coco'' directed by Rza and produced by

. Lorraine Toussaint,

, Jill Scott, Hana Mae Lee, and Lucien Laviscount were also cast. Filming began in New York City in late May 2015 in Wagner College, Staten Island and concluded in late June 2015. An initial March 11, 2016 release date was pushed back to a date still undetermined. When referring to the film in a June 2016 interview, RZA told ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'' that "Coco is done. It's in Lionsgate's hands now. Movie companies have to figure out the best time to put their movies out. So I don't know if it'll be this year or next year."

Release

On October 11, 2017, Lionsgate released a trailer for the film, now with the new title ''Love Beats Rhymes'' and a new December 1, 2017 release date in selected theaters and

video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of o ...

formats.

Reception

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 44% based on 9 reviews, with an average rating of 5.13/10.

Home media

The film was released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

on January 2, 2018.

References

External links

* * {{RZA 2017 films 2010s musical drama films American musical drama films Films shot in New York City Films set in New York City Films directed by RZA Films scored by Richard Gibbs 2010s hip hop films Lionsgate films African-American films 2017 drama films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films