Beats (2019) review

High school student August (Khalil Everage) witnesses his older sister get murdered and he withdraws from society, locking himself in his room making music, but when former manager turned high school security guard Romelo (Anthony Anderson) hears him composing some nice beats, he tries luring him out of his home to become the next J. Dilla.  The premise is nothing new - using art as a creative outlet from rough living conditions - and it doesn't help that Everage's character is trapped inside himself, leaving Anderson to do all the talking.  It does feel lived in and raw, but it's too focused on corruption in the music business instead of the real 'elephant in the room': what in the hell is going on in our fine city of Chicago?  Everyone's armed and not afraid to pull the trigger and no one's talking about it, like it will just go away on its own.