Walter Velasquez and Lorenzo Lewis are young men living in the South Bronx who have formed the rap group POS-NEG and are about to cut their first album. Walter attends a local college and coaches children in sports in Manhattan while Lorenzo hangs out with local thugs and doesn’t work. Walter confronts Lorenzo and demands to know how he supports himself, but Lorenzo dodges his questions, leading Walter to believe he is selling drugs. All along Walter has been seeing Lorenzo’s sister Narine, so he is in increasing contact with Lorenzo’s family and has an emotional stake in Lorenzo’s moral judgements. Lorenzo is caught selling drugs and is sent to jail.

Walter’s girlfriend (Lorenzo’s sister) Narine discovers that she is pregnant with Walter’s child. Despite the anxiety-fueled tirades of Narine’s mother warning that Walter is worthless and that they can’t raise a child, Walter and Narine decide to move in together and have the baby. Narine puts pressure on him to stop spending so much time in the recording studio.

In contrast to all of his friends, Walter believes that real friends stick by each other and refuses to abandon Lorenzo. Walter’s friends and neighbors urge him to distance himself from Lorenzo, but Walter loves Lorenzo and realizes that he is one of Lorenzo’s only supporters. When Lorenzo gets out of jail, Walter puts unprecedented pressure on him to abandon his old ways, and Lorenzo begins to give in. They work together in the studio and perform live, and Lorenzo even starts to build a bond with community leader and mentor Anthony Young who tries to impress upon both of them that self-discipline is the only path to success. But the struggle isn’t over.

"Off the Hook" is not about racism, drugs, violence, or even hip hop. It’s the true story of two friends who live in the inner city trying to handle the conflicting demands of friendship, responsibility and ambition.