Kaydee "Caine" Lawson and his best friend Kevin "O-Dog" Anderson enter a
liquor store to buy some
malt liquor, but a
Korean cashier and his wife pressure them to quickly purchase their drinks. As they depart, the cashier deliberately insults O-Dog by remarking, "I feel sorry for your mother." Enraged, O-Dog murders him and his wife. He subsequently purloins the surveillance tape, loots both the cashier's wallet and the cash register, and escapes with Caine. In a flashback, Caine recalls that when he was 10, he lost his parents Tat and Karen to an unsuccessful
drug deal and a
heroin overdose, respectively. James "Pernell" Richards, Tat's business partner and Caine's "uncle", is jailed and serving life in prison. This led to Caine's paternal grandparents raising him in the crime-ridden
Jordan Downs housing projects, where he met O-Dog and the two eventually joined a street gang. Years later, Caine graduates from high school. To celebrate, he and his cousin Harold attend a party, where O-Dog flaunts the surveillance tape to a group of their closest friends, greatly upsetting Caine. Later, while the duo are departing from the party,
carjackers ambush them, killing Harold and wounding Caine. After learning the carjackers' whereabouts, Caine, O-Dog and their friend A-Wax ambush and gun them down, avenging Harold. Sometime later, Caine visits Ronnie, Pernell's younger girlfriend, and bonds with her young son Anthony. One night, Chauncey (a friend of Caine and O-Dog), orders them to
steal an expensive car from a parking garage, but they are caught and arrested. O-Dog is released, but Caine is detained as his fingerprints match those on a dropped beer bottle during the liquor store murders. During an interrogation, a detective attempts to disorient Caine by repeatedly changing the questions, but Caine is eventually released. Caine's other friends, Stacy and Sharif, invite him to accompany them to
Kansas, but he declines, fearing that he will never survive outside of his familiar criminal life. His religious grandfather and Mr. Butler (Sharif's father and a schoolteacher) both advise him to change his ways, lest he be jailed or killed. Caine begins purchasing and cooking large amounts of
crack cocaine, quickly becoming a dealer and hardened member of the gang. He romances a local girl named Ilena and has sex with her. One night, cops stop and assault him and Sharif before deliberately dumping them in a
Hispanic neighborhood, expecting them to be further assaulted by Hispanic gang members. Surprisingly, the gang members sympathetically take them to a
hospital instead. During his hospitalization, Ronnie invites Caine to accompany her to her new secretarial job in
Atlanta. Initially hesitant, he ultimately agrees. At a party, Caine witnesses an inebriated Chauncey making sexual advances towards Ronnie. Angered, Caine
pistol whips Chauncey, but is soon restrained by Stacy and Sharif. Chauncey retaliatorily sends his copy of the surveillance tape to the police. Ilena calls Caine about her pregnancy, but he denies paternity and rejects her. Ronnie and Caine visit the imprisoned Pernell, who encourages an emotional Caine to be a more positive role model for Anthony and relocate to Atlanta. Afterwards, Caine returns home, but Ilena's criminal cousin approaches him outside his house. An argument about Ilena and her pregnancy ensues, causing Caine to brutally stomp on Ilena's cousin in front of his onlooking neighbors. Caine's grandfather promptly comes outside, stops Caine and brings him inside. Finally having had enough of Caine's violent, trouble-prone ways, Caine's grandparents eject him from their house, despite his pleas to stay until he leaves for Atlanta. Learning from their friend Doc of Chauncey's betrayal, a now-wanted Caine and O-Dog seek refuge at Ronnie's and other friends' houses. O-Dog vows revenge on Chauncey while Ilena's cousin gathers his friends to seek revenge on Caine. As Caine and Ronnie prepare to depart for Atlanta, Ilena's cousin and his friends approach Ronnie's house and engage in a
drive-by shootout, instantly killing Sharif and fatally wounding Caine as he shields Anthony. Afterwards, Stacy and Ronnie emerge from the house, respectively tending to Caine and Anthony. As Caine's life flashes before him, he recalls his grandfather asking him if he cares whether he lives or dies, and he realizes in his dying moment that he does. ==Cast==