Baltimore has long been mythologised onscreen through stories of crime, corruption and fractured communities. From documentaries like Sonja Sohn’s The Slow Hustle (2021) to films such as Charm City Kings (Ángel Manuel Soto, 2020) and, most famously, HBO’s The Wire, by David Simon (2002-08), the city is often portrayed through the lens of violence, addiction, and survival. Baltimore rapper Tashera Savage, whose artist name is T Savage, aims to deviate from the mythology of the streets in Thru the Eyes of the Hustler’s Daughter, which documents her life and past struggles. The film focuses on the triumph achieved through the trauma of those who grew up in tough situations.
Thru the Eyes of the Hustler’s Daughter, directed by Andrena Hall in her feature debut, traces Savage’s life from childhood through adolescence, growing up surrounded by drug addiction and street violence. Savage’s mother, Shontel Greene, was a former queenpin in Baltimore’s drug trade. Tragedy strikes as her father is murdered while she is still young, and the trauma that follows her into her teenage years culminates in depression that leads to psychiatric treatment.
“All of it’s a true story,” Savage tells me. “Losing my dad, especially the way that I lost my dad, was one of the most painful things I ever went through in my life.” (She witnessed her father’s murder when she was 16.)
Savage serves as an executive producer. Speaking with her, it quickly becomes clear that the film exists not as catharsis alone, but as an attempt to reshape how stories like hers are usually framed. “People will automatically think this is a hood movie, but it’s not,” she says. “They’ll certainly see aspects of that shine through, and I can’t deny those things happened, but that’s not the point of the story.”
“I want people to see the triumph in my story,” Savage adds. “When I see stuff about where I’m from, they always talk about how bad it was. You don’t hear anything like, ‘I went through all this, but still ended up being a great mother and was able to live out my dream in music.’ It’s always drug addiction and street violence. I’m not going to lie and say it wasn’t a part of my life, but that’s not all there is. I wanted to show there is growth from that, and that’s not the end of the story.”
Tashera Savage has established herself as a respected voice within Baltimore’s rap scene. Her work, available across platforms including Spotify, blends sharp lyricism with an introspective honesty shaped by lived experience. Drawing inspiration from artists such as The Notorious B.I.G., Jay-Z, AZ, The Hot Boys, Lil’ Kim, and Eve, Savage’s style balances the grit and storytelling traditions of East Coast hip-hop.
Much like the artists she grew up listening to, her music is rooted in survival and self-definition, a trait that her upcoming film will undeniably replicate. “This is the bigger picture. It’s not just all violence, all killing,” Savage declares.
Filming for the project wrapped in Baltimore in April 2026, using locations deeply connected to Savage’s real life, including her childhood neighbourhood and the Brockbridge Correctional Facility, where her father spent 15 years incarcerated. Courtney Adele and Varonica Mitchell portray Tashera Savage at different stages of her life, and according to Savage, the actors consistently pushed to understand the emotional specifics behind each scene rather than merely recreating events.
“Working with them [Adele and Mitchell] was pretty cool,” she says. “Especially when you’re on set; they’d stop in the middle of recording to ask you, ‘How do you feel in this moment?’ because they legit wanted to capture those exact emotions and feelings.”
Hassan “Iniko” Johnson, best known for playing Roland “Wee-Bey” Brice in The Wire, plays Savage’s father, which, recreating those memories, proved emotionally difficult for Savage herself. “Even being on set was pretty hard,” she reveals. “…especially with him [Johnson], because my dad and I were really close. Talking to him about certain ways my dad used to act or speak was a little hard to get through. That’s because I wanted this movie to be as close to what it actually was, especially the relationship with my parents.”
The origins of Thru the Eyes of the Hustler’s Daughter were traced back to the BET docuseries American Gangster: Trap Queens, where Savage’s mother first shared parts of her story publicly. “When doing the TV show, my mom felt like she was in a realm of telling her own story and wanted my perspective on it,” Savage explains.
Shontel Greene joined us for the conversation and explained how she pushed for her daughter to adapt her side of events following the docuseries. “I’m a movie fanatic,” Greene states, “And I realised they talk a lot about the parents, the mom, the dad; they never talk about how it affects the children, or they only take it to a certain extent.” Greene largely helped finance the film and acquire Andrena Hall, who worked on Trap Queens with Greene.
Echoing her daughter’s sentiment throughout our conversation, Greene frames the film less as a portrait of crime than an examination of what comes after the violence. “The purpose of this film,” she continues, “is to inspire and empower others to make a way out of no way. I am living proof of this, as a doctor and thriving business owner, that a different, more meaningful and productive life is possible.”
Greene says she was pushed into drug life at just 14 years old, following her parents’ heroin addictions. “I thought there was no other way out! I had no one; my mom died of AIDS, and my dad was never around. I wanted people to go, ‘I can see why she [Savage] went through that.’ This is a life that should not be glamorised,” she emphasises.
Greene doesn’t hold back on describing her relationship with Savage. “There were a lot of times where I wasn’t there for her,” Greene admits. “I was missing, and that gave her depression, and it’s because of me and my shortcomings.”
She adds that the authenticity behind the events was as important to her as it was to Savage: “I want parents to see this,” she says. “It’s so important what we do in life and how it affects our children. I made this movie so I can teach parents that it isn’t the child; sometimes it’s us. They learn where they live. Sometimes we have to stop blaming others and look deep inside ourselves as parents.”
Savage adds that working on the film made her realise her parents, who were teenagers when they started selling drugs, weren’t able to learn how to be parents. In an April 2026 interview with Baltimore City, she added that, upon losing her father, her relationship with her mom grew stronger, making her understand the importance of being present in her own daughter’s life.
Fundamentally, that is what Thru the Eyes of the Hustler’s Daughter seems most interested in. Rather than solely focusing on trauma itself, the film is concerned with what comes after the trauma: surviving one’s past, confronting inherited pain, and refusing to let it define the rest of one’s life.
As Savage puts it: “You can make it through anything. Don’t let these situations or where you’re from defeat you.”
Thru the Eyes of the Hustler’s Daughter will be released in Fall 2026.