When a convicted child murderer (David Groh) is struck and left for dead by a motorist just weeks after his prison release, Detectives Fontana and Green are not enthused about finding out who ran him over. When the murderer dies, they look inside the prison where he served his sentence, and they find evidence that leads EADA Jack McCoy to make a startling discovery.

Detectives Fontana and Green move to the beat of hip-hop when a legendary rapper is shot to death and evidence points to the victim's young protege (as Shawn,Sean Nelson) who was known to be cutting his own music on bootlegged street CD's, and more clues can be found in one song's lyrics that describe a similar killing. As police tie in another previous murder, DA's McCoy and Southerlyn seek the e-mail addresses from a thuggish record label's web site that could unlock the case, even as the two prosecutors clash over admissible facts, as the investigation unfolds, Southerlyn's opinions put her sharply at odds with both McCoy and Branch, the latter of whom begins to feel that Southerlyn is not cut out to work in the DA's office.