Dope

I just read that money

as we know it is dead.

Soon the world is only gonna buy

and sell products using Bitcoins.

It's like

a complicated math equation.

So, one day we're gonna buy things

with numbers from a math equation?

Dope, right?

Malcolm Adekanbi is a geek.

Malcolm lives with his single mother

and has only one memory of his father.

Malcolm lives

in Inglewood, California,

in the Darby-Dixon neighborhood

referred to as The Bottoms.

Give me your bike,

nigga!

Malcolm's friends,

Jib and Diggy, are also geeks.

Yo.

Sh*t.

All I want to do is a zoom,

zoom, zoom and the boom, boom.

Word.

Malcolm, Jib and Diggy...

are all deeply obsessed

with '90s hip-hop culture,

submerging themselves

in the music,

watching old Yo! MTV Raps

episodes for fashion tips...

and using the slang.

Huh? Bro, that sh*t was whack.

- What?

- They were biting Brand Nubian.

That's not even possible.

Jackpot, niggas.

Gushy, gushy.

Mmm!

Oh, did I mention

that Diggy was a lesbian?

Although from the way she dresses, you

might not have noticed she's a girl.

Save her, Lord! Yo, hallelujah! Hallelujah!

Every Sunday, her grandmother asks

the church to lay their hands on her...

in order to

pray away the gay.

Praise the Lord!

- So, did it work?

- You know.

I was watching Justin Bieber the

other night and I got a little moist.

Yeah?

So maybe.

- That's just because he's a little ho.

- That's true.

He's a very pretty nigga.

Yes, he is.

What's up, boss?

For most geeks, a bad day might be

being the butt of jokes in class,

the occasional food prank and the worst

- being beat up by a jock.

But when you live

in The Bottoms,

a bad day might be

accidentally getting killed.

Like Wytony Johnson, who got shot

buying a pastrami cheeseburger...

from Jimmy's Burger

on Centinela.

Hey! It's the Rollin' 60s,

dumb-ass niggas!

The real tragedy is...

that he was seconds away

from defeating Ganon.

He had a hell

of a comic book collection.

Jib has been trying to talk Wytony's

mom into giving them to him...

for the past two weeks.

Malcolm, Jib and Diggy don't play

sports and they aren't in a gang.

They're always getting ridiculed by their

peers because they're into white sh*t...

like skateboards, manga comics,

Donald Glover...

and for listening to white sh*t

like Trash Talk, TV on the Radio...

and for doing white sh*t like getting

good grades and applying to college.

Malcolm, Jib and Diggy used to

be in the school marching band,

but quit in protest after

refusing to play the Harlem Shake.

They arranged to use

the music room during lunch...

for their recently formed

punk band, Awreeoh.

One, two.

One, two, three, four!

Hey-hey!

You know the program, niggas.

Shoe program.

Turn around.

Let me see what the f***

you working with.

Oh, sh*t, man. All these motherfuckers

got small feet around this b*tch.

Goddamn. Nigga, I don't know

why you was looking.

Hey-hey!

My nigga, my G.

Oh, man. Where the f*** you goin', man?

Goddamn.

What's up with you?

Hey, them last shoes you gave

me, man, I was feeling them.

Classics. The Force 2s?

Yeah, I was liking those.

What's these you got on?

Bro, these are straight

from the flea market.

Shut the f*** up, nigga. These

the J-3s with the red mark on 'em.

Oh, yes.

Come up out those right now.

Right now, nigga!

You speak English?

Do I gotta beat the sh*t out

of you again and take them?

Damn.

This nigga's speaking African or some

sh*t, like he don't speak what we speak.

This nigga always-

Hey!

Go, Dig! Come on!

Dig! Go!

Come on, Dig!

Oh, sh*t!

Hey, hey. Hold up, hold up. Get

your f***in' hands off me, man!

Don't think I won't

beat your ass, Marquis!

I came up with your daddy.

You better ask him about Stacey.

And see what's what

around this motherf***er!

Let's go, man.

I'm gon' get the other one,

you little, b*tch-ass nigga.

Go, man.

Malcolm, when I see stuff

like this personal essay,

I think you're not taking

the process seriously.

I'm

- I'm taking it seriously, Mr. Bailey. I promise.

I'm talking about

something that I love.

I mean, it's well-reasoned,

supported with historical data,

it shows creativity,

critical thinking.

If Neil deGrasse Tyson was writing about

Ice Cube, this is what it would look like.

I suggest you go

in a different direction.

Write something personal

about you.

Your family, your life.

I mean, I- I could write

about the typical...

"I'm from a poor,

crime-filled neighborhood,

raised by a single mother,

don't know my dad" blah-blah.

It's clich.

This here, this-

this is-

This is creative. This

shows that I'm different.

This is the kind of essay that

Harvard wants from their students.

Malcolm, I'm gonna be

honest with you.

You're pretty damn arrogant. You

think you're gonna get into Harvard?

Who do you think

you are? Hmm?

You go to high school

in Inglewood.

To the admissions committee, your

straight A's, they don't mean sh*t.

If you're really serious about this

exercise and you're not just wasting my time,

or yours,

then it's gonna be about

your personal statement,

your SAT scores,

your recommendations...

and most importantly

your alumni interview tomorrow.

- Are you ready?

- I'm ready.

You'd better be.

I just found out you're

interviewing with Austin Jacoby.

He's from Inglewood too, so he'll be

able to relate to your circumstances.

Jacoby Check Cashing?

Harvard? Really?

I'm sorry. They don't all

go on to be president.

On this day,

their usual route home

is blocked by a Blood gathering.

They were shooting a video

for their YouTube channel.

Well, where do you want to go?

Some nigga really needs to invent an app

like Waze to avoid all these hood traps.

The only way to get home

is down 104th Street.

But that's where

the dope dealers are...

who, for sport, routinely

try to steal their bikes.

- Go!

- Hey, little nigga.

- Such is the life of a geek in The Bottoms.

- Come here.

A daily navigation between

bad and worse choices.

Come here, little nigga.

Yo, man.

I be seein' you and your little friends

with y'all flattops and MC Hammer pants,

riding around in this sh*t, looking like

y'all came out of a DeLorean or some sh*t.

You know, the '90s was like

the golden age of hip-hop.

Everything from

It Takes a Nation of Millions...

to The Blueprint

was killing it.

I guess me and my friends

just wish we grew up back then.

It Takes a Nation

came out in '88.

Blueprint came out 2001.

What the f*** are you

talkin' 'bout right now?

Technically, um-

But, you know, the spirit of the

music was definitely still '90s.

I mean, It Takes a Nation,

Straight Outta Compton...

Paid in Full

was ahead of their time.

And then you got

Snoop, Biggie, Wu-Tang.

They took the game

to the next level.

Blueprint was kind of like

the punctuation mark.

Let's not forget,

the '90s also gave us...

Vanilla Ice, MC Hammer...

and we can't forget

about the Fresh Prince.

Everything in the '90s wasn't great, but

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