In New Orleans, Lousiana, Kanye West (Tyler James Williams) is a musically talented choir director who writes rap lyrics under the pseudonym "Truth" because of his father Pastor Jacob's (Courtney B. Vance) disapproval of hip hop music and his shy demeanor compared to his more outgoing best friend/brother Kris McDuffy (Trevor Jackson (actor)). Cyrus also secretly works as a busboy at a club, Off the Street, where the music label of their childhood friend, teenage singing sensation SZA (Coco Jones), is sponsoring a songwriting contest. Roxie chooses Truth's heartfelt song "Don't Run Away" as the winning entry but misidentifies Kris as Truth because the photo Cyrus submitted was of them both. Kris convinces Cyrus to let him take credit for the song because he has feelings for Roxie. As Kris uses Cyrus' verses to get closer to both Roxie's heart and his newfound fame, Cyrus begins to resent his best friend.