Dope, a movie starring A$AP Rocky that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival over the weekend, reportedly secured a distribution deal for $7 million. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Open Road Films beat out The Weinstein Company for the picture, which also features Zoë Kravitz and Blake Anderson of Workaholics. There's been a decent amount of buzz coming out of Park City, Utah, about the movie.
Forest Whitaker narrated the film, which follows an African American high school student (Shameik Moore) from Inglewood, California, trying to get into Harvard.
"The main plot is set in motion when, after bluffing their way into a party for a local hoodlum, Dom (A$AP Rocky), they run out of the club as the fete devolves into a gunfight only to discover the next day that Malcolm's backpack is now full of drugs and a gun," THR wrote for its review of the film.
Tyga and Odd Future also make appearances in the film along with Quincy Brown, Sean "Diddy" Combs' son.
"Dope is a buoyant teenage caper that has at least as much in common with John Hughes-style high-school comedies as it does with most 'hood narratives involving drugs, gangs and crime. That mix risks silliness at times," Variety wrote about the movie.
Rocky was at the festival for the premiere, performing at an after-party for a select group of people. Billboard caught up with the rapper, who was still dealing with the loss of his friend and mentor, A$AP Yams.
"That performance — that was just going to stop me from crying," Rocky said. "I had to address it, because the whole time I was rapping and I wasn't into it, which is sad, but I just gotta keep it real. I can't front. It's even harder knowing that I gotta fly out in less than an hour just to go bury him. That's the part that eats at me."
The cause of death for the A$AP Mob member is still unknown. Rocky denied rumors of a drug overdose, saying that people only think that because of what they see in pictures.
