DMX is dead. We learn this at the beginning of the movie, and then spend the rest of the time learning how he got that way. The trouble is, I didn't really care.
His character of "King" David is one of the most despicable in film history. He's an egocentric drug dealer, a swindling back-stabber, and is insufferably misogynistic. If you cross him, chances are he'll do something not very nice; like replace your regular drug stash with crystals from a car battery.
The filmmakers obviously intended Never Die Alone to be the new Scarface, chronicling the rise and fall of an ambitious outlaw. But the erstwhile rapper lacks Al Pacino's intensity, and director Ernest Dickerson, for all his grainy exposures and cockeyed camera angles, lacks Brian De Palma's style. Many directors make the mistake of thinking that drug dealers are inherently interesting people because of their lifestyle, then neglect to develop their characters in any meaningful way. So we're forced to spend most of the film's 90 minutes with a truly reprehensible person.
Fortunately, more interesting things go on peripherally, like Paul (David Arquette), a writer who is apparently slumming to gain material for a new story. He enters David's life at the end of it, finding him laying on the sidewalk with several stab wounds. He rushes David to the hospital, but it's too late to save his life. However, there is enough time for David to bequeath Paul his pimped-out ride, drug money, and several autobiographical cassette tapes.
The story is told from David's point of view, partially through the tapes and through one of those from-beyond-the-grave voice-overs only possible in the movies. The movie unfolds like a mystery, with Paul listening to the tapes, trying to piece together the circumstances that led to this stranger's death. At the same time, he must outrun several thugs who don't want any witnesses.
Another interesting character is played by Michael Ealy (Barbershop movies). He hovers around the edges of the film, with a quiet vengeance.
One thing Never Die Alone has going for it is a sense of urgency. It's propelled, even through flashbacks, with such expediency that we can't help but follow the next step. I just wish that next step were with a less repulsive protagonist