David King is a
New York City music mogul, considered to have the "best ears in the business", and the founder of Stackin' Hits Records. Having once sold his majority interest in the company, he intends to buy back majority ownership to avert a buyout by a rival label. To regain majority ownership, King offers to buy out one of his two partners’ shares. To raise the cash for the deal, he puts up most of his personal assets, including his
Dumbo penthouse home and collection of art by contemporary Black artists, as collateral. The day the deal is to go through, King receives an anonymous call from a kidnapper demanding $17.5million in
Swiss 1,000-franc notes for the safe return of his son, Trey. King immediately calls the police and agrees with his wife, Pam, to pay the ransom, even though it risks the cash he needs for his business deal. But Trey is soon found safe, as the kidnapper has mistakenly taken Kyle, Trey's best friend and the son of King's driver and confidant, Paul Christopher. The kidnapper still demands the money in exchange for Kyle's life. Despite King's willingness to ransom his own son, he is reluctant to do the same for Kyle. Paul and Trey both plead with King to save Kyle. King's business partner warns him that failing to do so will hurt the company's image. After a long night of soul-searching, King agrees to pay the ransom. Following the kidnapper's instructions, King packs the money in an
Air Jordan backpack, which the police mark with a
GPS tracker, goes to Brooklyn's
Borough Hall subway stop, and gets on
a train to
Yankee Stadium. Near the stadium, the kidnapper calls King and orders him to go between the train cars. Then an accomplice triggers the
emergency brake, the train jerks to a halt, and the bag falls between the cars and through the ironwork of the elevated line to the street. Another accomplice, riding a moped, catches it, and the bag is subsequently handed off between additional accomplices on mopeds several times as they escape through the
Puerto Rican Day Parade. When the police manage to catch the bagman, the money has already been removed. Kyle is released in a nearby park. King's actions have made him a hero to the public, and several Stackin' Hits songs are climbing the charts. But King's lenders of the $17.5 million say he must repay them in two weeks or they will begin seizing the collateral he used to secure the loan, as it was agreed that the money was to be used only for the buyout. King broke the contract by using the money to pay Kyle's ransom rather than to buy shares of Stackin' Hits. Kyle cannot identify his kidnapper, but recalls hearing a distinctive
hip-hop track while he was captive. King, listening to a playlist of
demo tracks that Trey has put together for him to listen to, recognizes the voice of a rapper, Yung Felon, as the caller's. The police do not consider this decisive, so King and Paul, both armed, track down Yung Felon's address themselves. There, King meets his wife, Rosa, and infant son, David. Rosa tells him that "Archie" (Yung Felon's real name) is an ex-convict and aspiring rapper who idolizes King. Believing he wants to sign Archie to his label, Rosa directs King to his
recording studio, where he confronts Archie. In an impromptu
rap battle, Archie says he saw King as a
father figure and resorted to the kidnapping after being ignored by him for years. A gunfight breaks out and Archie flees to a
nearby elevated subway train station. King chases him to the platform and onto the train, finally catching him between cars and knocking him unconscious. Meanwhile, the detectives find the ransom money at Archie's apartment. King offers Paul a chance to be part of the new label. Paul, whose left eye was shot out in the gunfight with Archie, "respectfully" declines. Archie takes a plea deal, accepting a 25-year prison sentence in return for another face-to-face meeting with King. When they meet, Archie tries to convince King to sign him. He has become the world's most-streamed musical artist since the kidnapping and says he has already turned down many lucrative offers. King says he has left Stackin' Hits Records to create a new, smaller label, and rejects Archie, who explodes in anger and disappointment. At their penthouse, King, Pam, and Trey audition Sula, a singer-songwriter Trey discovered. Her performance of her song "Highest 2 Lowest" wows the Kings, who offer to sign her to their new label. ==Cast==