Spike Lee says A$AP Rocky and Denzel Washington ‘go toe to toe’ on ‘Highest 2 Lowest’

Spike Lee directed the upcoming film Highest 2 Lowest and says A$AP Rocky did not come to play. He sang the rapper’s praises on Thursday during his appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

“Yeah, don’t sleep on ASAP,” Lee said of the rapper’s acting performance in the movie. “In this film, Denzel [Washington] and ASAP go toe to toe.”

“What’s interesting is, even before I got involved with this film, I always thought that ASAP looked like he could be Denzel’s son. There’s a big resemblance,” he continued. “So when you see it on the screen, it adds an element of father and son. Don’t sleep on ASAP.”

Despite working with a legendary, award-winning actor like Denzel, Spike says Rocky wasn’t at all fazed.

“I’ve done five films with Denzel and a lot of times when he’s in a scene with somebody, they just get overwhelmed because he’s one of the world’s greatest living actors today,” he said. “But ASAP wasn’t having that. Toe to toe. I mean, they were going at it.”

Rocky plays Yung Felon in Highest 2 Lowest, Spike’s remake of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 Japanese film High and Low, according to Variety. He’s an aspiring rapper trying to get noticed by Washington’s character, who Deadline describes as “a titan music mogul, widely known as having the ‘best ears in the business.’” 

The film arrives in theaters Aug. 15 and on Apple TV+ on Sept. 5.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.