Original subtitles

Previously on "Roc.."

I mean, a candidate you know who speaks our language

and understands our concerns.

I say we nominate Roc.

You think I'm gonna trust him to run my campaign?

Run your ca.. You-you want me to run your campaign?

No, I don't. That's pop's idea.

What's going on, this community is making me sick.

All I'm saying is, Roc, I want to run a winning campaign.

Alright, okay, you got the job.

You've been making a lot of noise with this campaign thing.

And it's bad for my business.

We want you and all your buddy drug dealers

to get out of this neighborhood.

As you can see, I'm not going anywhere.

♪ Baby ♪

♪ There's a man with no future ♪

♪ So it seems can't live out his dreams ♪

♪ Now he's trapped into thinking he won't succeed ♪

♪ And he can't believe ♪

♪ Live your life today ♪ Oh yeah ♪

♪ Not for tomorrow ♪ Not for tomorrow ♪

♪ Ha ♪ Oh oh oh oh ah ♪

♪ Live your life today ♪

That was Andre Thompson.

That was the drug dealer my father shot?

Yes, sweetie, that was him.

Everybody kept telling me my father had his reasons.

I guess now I understand what they were.

Roc, Andre sounded like he meant business.

What are you gonna do?

What am I going to do?

I'm gonna campaign harder than ever.

I'm not gonna let a lowlife drug dealer

drive me out of this election.

I'm in this race, and I'm running to win!

Alright, go on, Roc. Let's do this.

Come on, let's do this.

Uh, yes, I'm Mr. Emerson's press secretary.

Oh, that's right, he's a solid family man

with a brand-new baby boy.

No, he's never had an affair.

No, he's never inhaled.

And he's also never driven off a bridge

with a young woman in his car either.

- Bye. - Uh, Eleanor...

As campaign treasurer, let me ask you a question.

Why are we spending so much money printing up new posters?

Why don't we just take them down in neighborhoods

where they've already seen 'em, huh?

I mean, move them someplace else.

You know, when I hired you, I knew I wasn't really sure

if you knew anything about creative cost-cutting.

I should've hired crazy George.

Okay, Rob, how's this for creative cost-cutting?

Why don't you just run through every neighborhood

with the words "Vote for me" pasted on your forehead?

- Eleanor, there's a lot of pe-- - Or better yet...

We could just tie you to the side

of a crosstown bus.

Why don't we just tow you from the back of a airplane

so you can scream there about it "Vote for me?"

How's that for your creative cost-cutting, Roc?

Never mind. You're doing a great job, Eleanor.

'Thank you.'

Hillary never cracked under pressure like this.

Hey, Roc, look at this, this is a list of organizations

that endorse you. You should read it and find out what they--

This is good, Joey, this will be really useful.

- Oh, what is this? - Uh, that's a brochure.

On Fort Lauderdale. Remember...

You said, if I got you 40% of the vote

you'd get me a round-trip ticket to Florida

where I intend to lie on the beach

and drink out of a coconut.

Oh, that's good, because if you don't get 40%

you gonna be stuck in Baltimore lying on your couch

drinking out a jelly jar.

Now, you, n-n-now look at this.

This tenants association wants me to support

you know, I mean, tax breaks to build low-income housing.

Now, before I endorse something, I wanna study it.

But I don't have time to study it.

Well, then don't, Roc, just tell them that you're for it.

Joey, that's not the intelligent way to approach this.

Roc, you want to be intelligent or you wanna win?

Now, intelligence is what ruined Adlai Stevenson

Eugene McCarthy and Jesse Jackson. Come on, Roc.

Get this intelligence thing out of your head.

- Oh. Yeah, yeah. - Hey, Roc.

- What's going on, baby? Hey. - Hey, how you doing?

I like what you doing on the campaign. That's cool.

Anything a brother like me can do to help you out...

- Just let me know. - Just stay out of my way.

- Ronnie. - Hey, hey, hey, Ronnie.

- What's up? - I got an idea.

Why don't you pass out some flyers in your cab, right?

And if the people say they're not gonna vote for Roc

turn on the country music station

drive them all the way to Newark.

- Country music. - Mm-hmm.

- Uh, Dwight Yoakam? - Yeah.

Well, who's supposed to do the suffering? Them or me?

- That's a good point. - I'll get it.

Mrs. Emerson.

I'm William Long and this is my associate Leo Green.

- How you doing? - Yeah, I know who you are.

You the man that beat Joey up when he couldn't pay back

his gambling debt.

What do you want?

We wanna help out with the campaign.

You want to help?

Now listen, I'm not in the same business

as Andre Thompson of the neighborhood.

I don't sell drugs, and I have no use for anyone that does.

Now, your husband, he's, uh, taking these people on.

I respect that. And I wanna get involved.

William, we'd be honored to have you support our campaign.

Good.

Maybe we start with some flyers.

Yeah, we can get them out to the people we work with.

Yeah, that's a, that's a good idea.

- Here you go. - Good.

You tell your brother I'm behind him, and then give them hell.

- I'll do that. - Okay.

Joey, you want that man involved in our campaign?

The last time you saw him

he beat the living daylights out of you.

Yes, he did, and that's why I wanna keep his hands busy

passing that them damn flyer.

Joey, Joey, Joey, look, come on, we still haven't decided

what I'm gonna do about this tenants association thing.

Oh, I got a couple of ideas here.

Here, here, Roc, I can get you an endorsement

from the teachers union, but if you want it

you're going to have to come out strongly against school vouch--

No, no. Roc. You've to come out in favor of school vouchers.

My nephew goes to private school

and my sister can barely afford it.

Ah, but if the public schools were in better shape

he would not have to go to a private school.

- Right, Roc? - Yeah, I agree with that, yeah.

No, where the city's money ought to be going

is toward the homeless shelters. Right, Roc?

Yeah, yeah, I agree with that, yeah.

No, the city got all the money that

they got, they need to spend more of

their money on drug rehab, right, Roc?

- Yeah, I agree with that, yeah. - Roc.

You can't agree with everything.

Yeah, I agree with that, yeah.

Oh. Excuse me, Roc. I gotta go change the baby.

No, no, Eleanor, uh, l-let me, let me do it, let me do it.

No, no, no, I-I've gotta go change the baby.

You know, I certainly can agree on that.

There will be no wet babies in my district.

No, sir.

Man, I tell you, with all the campaigning I've been doing

and all the tough questions people have been throwing at me

you know, it's nice to take a day off just to relax.

Here you go, Roc.

Oh, I, I didn't order this.

He did.

Drinks on me, trash can.

You know, I'd like to take that--

Come on, let it go, pop. Let it go.

Oh. Hello. How are you? Good seeing you again.

Hello. My name is Ray Boyd. Vote for me.

Ray Boyd? What the hell is he doing here?

He's not supposed to be coming over here.

Oh, and, look, Boyd is standing upright.

Somebody must have lent him a spine.

And so I say, a community that cannot serve itself

is bound to lose control of itself.

We have to give this community back to itself.

What the hell is that supposed to mean?

I think he's trying to give you back to yourself.

- Hm. - Where have I been?

Well, I don't know, ask him.

Mr. Emerson, I have asked the press to be here today

because I'm challenging you to a debate

radio station WZKW, next Saturday.

- How about it? - Oh...

- Well, um, I guess-- - Uh, uh...

Excuse me. Uh, could you excuse us please?

- Come, come on, Roc. - Yeah.

Right, look, Roc, this is a great opportunity here

so long as you take the offensive, alright?

You should enthusiastically agree to debate with Ray Boyd

and you can blast him for doing nothing about crime

and nothing about drugs.

You should say that drug dealers like Andre Thompson

want you out of the race 'cause they know

they won't have any problems with that Ray Boyd.

- Oh.. Okay. - Alright, great.

So are you, uh, going to debate me or not?

Yeah, yeah, okay. I'll-I'll debate you, yeah.

Good! I'm looking forward to it.

Roc, what's the matter with you?

You could have nailed him to the wall. Why didn't...

Why are you pulling your punches?

Well, look, Joey, right now I don't

feel like nailing anybody, okay?

- Alright. - What's...

Roc, honey, what is going on with you?

Eleanor

when Andre Thompson walked into the house with Sheila yesterday

I just, um, realized how vulnerable she is

and how vulnerable our baby is.

In the past, when I went up against Andre

our situation was different.

But we have a baby and Sheila to think of now.

Eleanor, I got into this race, you know, to try to make

this neighborhood a decent place to raise our kids.

You know, but now I'm wondering whether

this campaign is just putting them in danger.

Look, baby, I'm worried, too

but I don't think we have much of a choice.

If we don't try and do something now

we're always gonna be in danger.

That's why everybody's behind you.

That's just the other thing. That's what I'm talking about.

Everybody's counting on me to do something.

But even if I get elected, how can I solve everybody's problem?

Huh, I mean, every day in this campaign, people are coming

at me with serious problems that I don't have the answers to.

I just never imagined it would be this hard.

Uh, hey, Roc, uh, there's somebody here

who has a question for you about removing graffiti.

Okay, yes, here's another problem

I don't have an answer to, you know?

So I'm just gonna stand there

and nod my head and say, "Yeah

"I agree with that. I agree with that.

Mm. I agree with that. Yeah."

Oh, Joey, Roc is in a bad way.

He's worried about that darn Andre

and he's afraid he's not gonna be able to handle this job.

Oh, man, it's no good. L...

Alright, we gotta do something about this.

I'm telling you, they gotta, they gotta...

What's this all about, Joey?

Andre, we'd like to have a word with you.

I, uh, think you know everybody here.

I know your boys are not here selling girl scout cookies.

Andre, you really shouldn't be trying to tell jokes

because you ain't no funny man.

William Long. I ain't got no beef with you, man.

So why don't you stay out of this?

No, no, no...

You sell drugs to babies, and I don't like that.

Now I'm down with the Emerson campaign.

You mess with Roc, you mess with me

and all my people.

You also messing with me.

You know you don't want no parts of that.

Let me tell you something right now, Andre

something to change in this community right now

whether you like it or not, you understand?

Don't ever step to me like that, Ronnie.

Hold on, hold on.

Let's not get violent amongst ourselves.

Um, brother...

...you need to understand that the Nation of Islam

completely supports Brother Emerson's campaign.

And we are as determined as Brother Paxton and Brother Long.

And with the help of Allah, we will get the drugs

out of this neighborhood.

Beginning to get the point, Andre?

Now get this straight, Andre.

People here represent every segment of the community.

We want you to stop making threats against Roc's campaign.

Just back off.

Let me explain something to you, Joey.

I'm a businessman, you understand?

And I don't like when people cut into my business.

Well, maybe it's about time for you

to find yourself a new business.

Straight like that.

- Yeah, I hear y'all. - Mm-hmm.

End of discussion.

Alright, alright, alright.

Ronnie, alright, alright.

He, he heard us. He heard you.

Thanks, brother.

Alright, look. Roc can't know that we did this, alright?

If he finds out we came down here and talked to him

he wouldn't be happy about it. So nobody can tell him.

Why not? The only person he'd be mad at is you.

And none of us want that. Do we?

Right?

Ah, come on, come. Hey. Hey, come on, y'all.

Don't-don't do this to me now.

Hey, how about your lunch? Come on.

Six rib and two fish dinners, y'all, come on.

Let me ask you two a question.

Roc Emerson is a garbage man. He has no political experience.

Now, even if he is elected

do you think that he'd be able to handle the job?

Well, let me remind you of a little American history.

Jimmy Carter was a peanut farmer.

Adam Clayton Powell was a preacher.

- Harry Truman was-- - Excuse me.

Daddy, I wanna say something here.

Now, this city is in bad shape

because of all the politicians with experience.

Yes, it's true, my husband has no experience with corruption.

He has no experience mismanaging a budget.

And he has no experience owing people favors.

So I guess he'll just walk in with no experience

and do a great job serving the people of this city!

Uh, Harry Truman was a haberdasher.

- Tom Bradley was a cop. - Thank you.

Well, I guess that told her.

Don't start nothing. There won't be nothing.

Alright.

Let's get ready...

Hey, hey, hey. Alright, we ready for round one?

- Okay. - Things are looking good, too.

We just gained another five points in the poles.

- Oh, wonderful! - That's fine.

And the best part is

Andre Thompson isn't

coming around anymore.

- Oh, really? - Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I told Joey to ask around.

Tell 'em what you found out about Andre.

Uh, the word on the street is that, uh

Andre found out how-how strong the campaign was

and-and he, hey, wouldn't fight it.

You hear that?

- Mm. - That's wonderful, baby.

Excuse me. Let me go coach my candidate.

Hey, Joey, look, look, I'm hip to all the issues now, right?

I've studied everything.

Zoning laws, animal shelter, street lights.

But I just know I'm gonna get a question

on one of the things I didn't study.

- What do I do then? - That's very simple, Roc.

You say, "I'm very glad you asked that question.

"I have appointed a special blue-ribbon commission

"to investigate and blow the lid off of this.

"Unfortunately, we can't give you

"the answers of our findings yet

"because there are some sacred cows involved

"and special interest will scream bloody murder.

But when the time comes, you watch out."

Joey

where do you get this incredible talent for bold

well, making things up?

I don't know. It just kind of comes naturally.

You know, sometimes I sit at home, I just make up

phony answers to questions nobody's even asked.

Hello, everybody. I'm sorry I'm late.

It's okay, Mr. Boyd. You're just in time, sir.

- You're just in time. - Alright.

- Here you are. - Alright.

Just about to go on the air. Please, sir.

Have a seat there, Mr. Emerson.

- Yeah. - Good.

Good evening, WZKW presents an informal debate between

City Council candidates Ray Boyd and Roc Emerson.

The format for tonight's debate is

the candidates will question each other.

Mr. Boyd, sir, you have got the mic.

Ah, Mr. Emerson, as I understand

you have used your position

as garbage man to completely furnish your home

with items you have pilfered from the trash

of the fine citizens of Baltimore City.

This is in direct violation of the Baltimore Civic Code.

Explain that, Mr. Emerson.

- Joey. Go warm up the car. - Yeah?

Well, hm, I, uh...

Well, you know, what-what-what do you call

um, uh, taking it from the trash?

I call, um... Well, I call recycling.

As a garbage man, you know, I know

that our landfills are filling up

and, uh, we have to do something about this garbage crisis.

So, you know, if I have to sacrifice my standard of living

to save our planet, then I say, bring on the garbage!

Hot coffee coming through. Hot coffee coming through.

Hey, sis, where you want me to put this shrimp?

Shrimp? Are you out of your mind? Those are too expensive.

Put 'em back in the shell and take 'em back to the store.

Good news, I was just talking to a reporter

and he said that some of Roc's supporters have formed

a block watching committee and they just forced

the crack dealers out of Easterwood Park.

Hey, pop, that's great!

Hey, this campaign is really starting to make things happen.

Hey, hey, hey, the first returns are coming in.

- 'Oh, oh.' - Sit down.

'The early returns from the 11th County District race are in'

'with 1% reporting Boyd leads with 62%.'

'Challenger Roc Emerson has 35%.'

Hey, hey, hey, alright, alright, it's still early, y'all.

- We gonna win this. Right? - It's too early.

Still early.

'And with 50% of the precincts reporting'

'we can now project the winner in the 11th Council District.'

'It's Raymond Boyd with 58% of the votes'

'to Roc Emerson's 39.5% of the vote.'

- Damn! - Oh, Roc, I'm sorry, baby.

How in the world they gonna let a man like that get elected?

Hm, I'll tell you how, 'cause he spent ten times

the money we did on TV ads.

Roc, you know, with that bum in office

nothing's going to change. This stinks.

It's going to be the same old messy world.

Hey, hey, hey, wait a minute, wait a minute.

Wait a minute, you've taken this all wrong.

We didn't lose this campaign, we won!

I mean, it's a victory that Easterwood Park

is safe for the kids again.

Look, look, look, look, we've built an organization

that can turn this neighborhood around. And it doesn't end here.

I mean, I don't have to be a councilman, right?

For us to demand safer neighborhoods

better schools and parks where our children can play.

This is our government!

We should stay in their faces

until they listen!

- Yeah, alright. - Yeah, boy! Yeah, boy!

Yeah, just like we got up in Andre's face

when we went over there last week.

Hey, I'm gonna get me some shrimp.

What is he talking about?

Who got in Andre's face?

Roc, I didn't wanna tell you this, but, uh

I saw the way this Andre thing was eating at you, man.

So I-I had to do something about it

so I got William Long, I got Ronnie Paxton

Brother Malik, Carlos and some of the other brothers together

and, uh, we went down and paid Andre a little visit

and basically told him to lay off your campaign.

- So you did that? - Look, before you get...

All-all mad and start going off here

l-l-let me point this out.

Sly drove the van.

Joey...

...I've only got one thing to say to you.

Thanks. Hm.

- Thanks? - Yeah.

I always was talking about how you weren't

taking this campaign seriously enough.

But I guess you were.

And you came through for me when I needed it most.

- And you know what? - Hm?

I owe you.

- Hey. - Right.

- Alright? Yeah, well, uh... - Yeah.

Roc, Roc, listen, don't-don't, don't worry about it, alright?

Uh, 'cause that-that trip to Spain

that'll be payment enough.

No, it was Florida.

Oh, yeah, okay, Florida.

But, you know, you only go if you got me

40% of the vote, which you didn't.

But I got you 39.5% of the vote, which is the same thing.

No, it's not, 39.5% of the vote isn't 40.

Hey, hey, everybody knows, Roc.

When it's point five or higher, you always round up.

Not always. Take this time for instance.

'You know, Joey, this is beautiful..'

I'm glad we decided to do this together.

Roc, everybody knows you round 39.5 to 40%.

Hey, where should we go next, Joey? Hm?

You wanna go to Spain again?

How about Madagascar?