Open with a grandfather reading a book to his grandson on Christmas Eve:

It was Christmas Eve 1979,
when a boy named Al gave us a brand new rhyme.

Flashback to a downtrodden NYC neighborhood in 1979 when best friends Aloysius Noel aka “Al” (Tyler James Williams) and Sidney Chateau aka “Chattabox” aka “Chatta” (DeWayne Warren) are doing homework together at Aloysius’ family house. The assignment was to write a Christmas poem. Chatta struggles with the assignment but finds a notebook completely loaded with poetry of all kinds that Al has written. Al has been too shy to share it with anyone else. Chatta convinces Al they would be great, especially over the right beat. Known for his beat-boxing skills, Chatta drops a beat and Al recites some of his poetry over it and it really does sound good!

Al and Chatta showcase it in class the next day and their classmates love it! Given that it’s the holiday season and aware that the Noel family has recently fallen on tough times (father just died, 5 kids, low income), the teacher (Karyn Parsons), suggests Al enter the neighborhood freestyle contest where the winner gets $5,000.

The contest is Christmas Eve and after some back and forth with Chatta, Al reluctantly agrees to go. When he arrives, he immediately sees that the other battle rappers are fierce competitors and that nothing is off limits. He’s never done this before so he runs outside in a full panic. Then, a shadow appears through the manhole steam from the back alley. When the older man comes into view, it’s revealed that it is his deceased father (in ghost form) who exclaims the pride he has for his son, and suggests Al use his Christmas “raps” to beat the others. Al confidently marches back inside and beats three other rappers using three different Christmas-themed freestyles. The crowd goes wild and Al wins the $5,000! A major label representative was in attendance and signed Al on the spot.

Al goes on to release a new Hip-Hop Holiday album for the next nine years and with that, established joy, peace and love back in this once menacing hood. It is later revealed that he has writing credits on almost every Christmas rap song since 1979 including “Christmas Story” by Slick Rick, “Ain’t Nothing But A Christmas Party” by Tupac & Snoop Dogg, “Bark! My Dogs In Heaven Sing” by DMX and “VIXEN” by Nicki Manaj.

Return to present day grandpa (Tyler James Williams in old man makeup) and grandson reading the book. Grandpa says,

back to the hood he brought glee and laughter
and that’s the story of The Christmas Rapper.
THE END