Several members of Jay-Z's Roc-A-Fella Records camp, including the rapper

himself, will be showing up in the new film "State Property," due in theaters January 18.

Set in Philadelphia — though shot mostly in New Jersey over a span of 18 days — "State Property" stars Beanie Sigel as Beans, a hustler who decides that the best way to grasp the "American Dream" is to take it.

"[The film is] a spin on the old rise to riches, fast-money game of drug dealing," director Abdul Malik Abbott said. "It focuses on the mentality of the gangsters, what they are like at home and what they are like on the streets."

Abbott said the film follows Beans and his gangster crew, known as ABM,

throughout their criminal exploits. "They take over the city, creating mayhem

as their empire builds," he explained. "It all comes to a head when Beans

cannot surpass the city's most notorious crew, run by [characters portrayed

by] Jay-Z and Damon Dash."

Sigel, who said his character is a reflection of himself, described Beans as

"a young n---a  in the streets, tired of hustlin', tired of slingin' and

wants the world ... He's like a ghetto Scarface."

The rapper said he likes the fact that his character is multidimensional. "It

wasn't a shoot-'em-up-bang-bang movie all the way through and I like the

fact that the character showed a sensitive side of a guy in the streets," he said. "It

shows him with his family and his daughter."

Dash, CEO of Roc-A-Fella Records and head of Roc-A-Fella Films, said

filmmaking allows Roc-A-Fella to attach visuals to many of the stories

depicted in its music. "A lot of times we like to bring a lot of the rhymes that

we say to life," he said, "because you might say it a little too quick and

people will miss it. We try to bring the visual to it."

He said "State Property" marks the second release by Roc-A-Fella Films (the

first was the documentary "Backstage," released by Dimension Films). Other

flicks slated for release later this year are "Paper Soldiers" and "Paid in

Full" (see [article id="1451645"]"Streets Is Watching Cam'ron's 'Paid In Full' — On Bootleg"[/article]).

Dash, who plays Dame, Beans' nemesis in the film, said "State Property" is a

modern-day "blaxploitation flick" and represents merely one of the genres

that Roc-A-Fella plans to explore in its effort to reach a broad audience.

"We usually do things based on things that we've seen individually or that

friends of ours have experienced — comedies, dramas, everything in life in

general," he said. "We have a pretty good sense of the urban demographic, so the setting

or the backdrop might be urban, but the films themselves will be colorless ...We

want to reach everybody. We want to put people in the theaters in Europe and

Japan."

"State Property" features music by Jay-Z, Beanie Sigel, Memphis Bleek, the

Young Guns and State Property, a new group formulated by Sigel. The

soundtrack is slated for a January 29 release.