Highest 2 Lowest , Denzel Washington: First look of rapper A$AP Rocky in Highest 2 Lowest co-starring Denzel Washington revealed

Grammy-nominated rapper A$AP Rocky is all set to star in filmmaker Spike Lee's new film and a newly released first-look image offers a peek into his character in the film. It comes on the same day the rapper was revealed to be not guilty in a semiautomatic firearm case.

The image shows Rakim Mayers, aka A$AP Rocky in an orange prison jumpsuit looking directly into the camera. He stars in the main role in Spike Lee's upcoming film titled Highest 2 Lowest, which is connected to Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa's 1963 crime thriller - High and Low. Back in December 2024, Lee spoke with Deadline about this project and revealed that,

“This is not a remake, this is a reinterpretation of Akira Kurosawa’s great film,”

Lee further shared the key changes from Akira Kurosawa's original film.

“In Kurosawa’s film, Toshiro Mifune is a shoemaker. In our film, Denzel Washington is a music mogul with his own label and his reputation as the best ears in the business. So, this is the fifth film with the dynamic duo.”

Highest 2 Lowest: More details about A$AP Rocky and his new film with Denzel Washington

Expand Tweet

A$AP Rocky will soon be seen in Spike Lee's Highest 2 Lowest in the lead role. It marks his second film this year after the Sundance hit - If I Had Legs I'd Kick You, led by Rose Byrne. While speaking about the rapper's performance, writer-director Mary Bronstein said,

“[A$AP] Rocky brings a natural charisma that cannot be directed, cannot be taught."

She continued,

"In the script, it says ‘wink at Linda’… This is a guy that has winked at people before and it’s effective and you cannot teach that and I wanted to harness that and use it. And he was very interested in doing something different.”

With Spike Lee's new film, A$AP Rocky is moving further into the acting world. This is the second time Lee is making his version of an Asian film. He has previously worked on Oldboy, a neo-noir thriller, which serves as a remake of Park Chan-wook's iconic South Korean thriller by the same name. Unfortunately, Lee's film received less than favorable reviews and currently has a 39% Rotten Tomatoes score.

However, that might not be the case with Highest 2 Lowest, considering the high praise Spike Lee received from fellow New York filmmaker Martin Scorsese. Lee recently posted on Instagram about meeting the Goodfellas director to show his new film. Scorsese praised Lee's adaptation and Denzel Washington's performance among other creative aspects of the film.

Denzel Washington will co-star with A$AP Rocky in Highest 2 Lowest, besides Jeffrey Wright, Ilfenesh Hadera, and rapper Ice Spice.