"An exceptionally precocious bow for writer-director Brandon Sonnier --- who's still just a junior at USC --- 'hood drama "The Beat" sports exhilarating rap segments that make it seem even more a rap musical than "8 Mile." Story organization is problematic, however, and pic is not quite arty or splashy enough to fit current theatrical niches. But it'll make an attractive ancillary item while opening industry doors for the helmer. Philip aka Flip (Rahman Jamaal) is one-half of an aspiring rap tag team until his brother dies in a violent mugging. Too devastated to go solo, fleeing a now-bleak parental home, he takes to living on the streets. Older mentor Tony (Keith Ewell) gets him to pick up the mic again; success might arrive after all. Yet at the same time, intercut sequences see Flip as a humorless rookie cop determined to bury his past. Ending reveals an "Incident at Owl Creek"-type path-not-taken gimmick, but script's contrasting parallel-realities come off more haphazard than ingenious. Nonetheless, offbeat subsidiary characters, good perfs, and terrific, non-MTV-ish rap segments make "Beat" refreshing. Tech values are well above micro-budget average."
-Dennis Harvey, Variety

"Of all the films I've seen thus far, The Beat caught me off guard the most. The story of a rising artist is in itself nothing new, so I expected the tale of Flip (a superb performance by Rahman Jamaal) chasing his aspirations to make it big as a rapper to be nothing more than a fresh rendition, at best.

Wrong again. The Beat is anything but conventional, and its absorbing tempo has a touch of virtuosity that is normally reserved for the likes of Oliver Stone, Paul Thomas Anderson, and Terry Gilliam. The freaky thing about this is that Sonnier is but a Junior at USC, and therefore I can only imagine the brilliance that will come from him next. In The Beat, Flip quickly reaches an intersection on the road of Life, but where most films would have him choose one turn or the other to follow, this movie takes both routes. At one point he's on one path, then suddenly he's on the other, each transition being executed so flawlessly it's difficult to predict the outcome. You want it to go the way of the Dream, but the complacent avenue is just as convincing.

Flip is backed up by a sensational cluster of actors, from the always sexy Jazsmin Lewis as Tawanna, to Jermaine Williams as Byron, to Keith Ewell as Tony. Also in the mix is Steve Connell, who as Artis plays an energetic antagonist of sorts, occasionally unleashing his expertise in spoken word poetry. This could very well be where the genius behind The Beat lies- it's a production that epitomizes Grass Roots. Practically everyone involved is playing themselves to an extent, as opposed to portraying characters foreign to their personal experiences. Jamaal is an aspiring musician, and it was hearing him rap that drew Sonnier's attention. Furthermore, Connell thrives in the Underground Poetry scene, so much that he helped establish the Underground Poets Railroad.

Yeah, I really liked The Beat."
-Jake McGee

"Brandon Sonnier makes a terrific debut as a filmmaker to watch in his hip-hop odyssey The Beat, a movie aimed squarely for the hip-hop heads that is just as vibrant and lyrical as the music from which it draws inspiration. It's one of the more clever independent films covering the genre, starting right off with the different nuances to the phrase "The Beat", representing the rhythm of music alternately with the slang phrase for working, especially as it applies to police officers. Unlike many other films that cast rappers in prominent roles, even ones squarely about the world of hip-hop itself, The Beat showcases the clever lyrics that are part and parcel of the underground Hip Hop movement, emphasizing word play and a fine-tuned finesse of delivery more commonly known as "having skills". Sonnier may not get on the mic, but when it comes to making films, he definitely shows he has skills right out the box."
-Vince Leo, Quipsters