Kidsday review and interview:'Let It Shine'

Recently, we went to the ABC Studios in Manhattan to see a screening of the movie "Let It Shine," starring Tyler James Williams as Cyrus. The movie is about a young man who wants to become a rapper. However, his father is a preacher, and he thinks rap music is the "devil's music." Cyrus has to convince his dad it really isn't.

The movie was interesting, entertaining and kept us guessing. Cyrus' rapper name is Truth, and he enters two rap contests run by Roxie, a famous singer (Coco Jones). It was fun to try to predict who the winner of each competition was going to be. There were mistaken identities, surprise endings and lots of rap music. You'll have to see the movie to find out who the winners of the rap contests are and whether Cyrus' dad changes his mind about rap. We rate it: 4 out of 5

We also interviewed Tyler James Williams and Coco Jones when they were in Manhattan a few weeks ago. We asked Tyler, who starred as Chris in the TV show "Everybody Hates Chris," to describe the movie. He said, "It's about my character, Cyrus, kind of going through life and he's a musician. He's a writer, and he writes for his dad's church. He plays all these instruments. He also falls in love with his kindergarten crush." He comes to find out that a friend has a crush on the same girl, "so he starts helping his friend out. He writes music for his friend to kind of impress [the girl], but at the end of the day, he has to come out and say it was him and really express his feelings."

We asked him what he likes to do when he is not acting. Tyler said, "Playing instruments. I'm a drummer, a guitarist. Just trying to get better at that, always."

We also loved meeting Coco. She told us she has been a singer ever since she was able to talk and knew for sure this was something she wanted to do since she saw "Hannah Montana."

We asked her who her musical inspiration was. Coco said, "I would have to say my mom always told me if I could sing really hard songs, then I could sing anything. So, some of my inspiration is Jennifer Hudson, Christina Aguilera, Celine Dion. But I also like Selena Gomez, Justin Bieber, Mindless Behavior."

Finally, we asked Coco if she really enjoyed singing around other people, or is she likes to sing by herself? She said, "I love singing around people. My favorite part of performing is when the crowd starts singing the music, too. Like one of the covers that I do is 'Who Says,' and when everyone starts to sing it with me, that's when I really have fun . . . when they're having as much fun as me."