Pimp movie

Rating: 9/10 (6 February 2006)

Hustle and Flow is the movie that Master P and all other gangster rappers turned movie moguls wish they could make. The movie tells the story of a pimp named DJay (Terence Howard) who begins to question the meaning of his life and turns to music to express the emotions he's kept bottled up his whole life (you know, that old story). A chance encounter with Key (Anthony Anderson) begins his journey into the rap game. Don't expect Anderson to be the comic relief of the movie as he puts in a brilliant performance as DJay's producer. DJ Qualls adds not only some comic relief, but does an excellent job portraying the keyboardist of the group, Shelby. Taryn Manning gives a memorable performance as the dim-witted southern girl, Nola, who is DJay's main source of income. Showing the human side of the pimp game, the movie involves real emotions in an occupation that has been, sadly, glamorized in countless rap songs. This movie is a far cry from the blaxploitation movie of the seventies as DJay is not portrayed as some one dimensional pimp and/or badass, but a man who struggles emotionally to understand his own life. Terence Howard gives an amazing, memorable performance in this role.
Watching DJay, Key, and Shelby create their first rap song is an excellent scene that reminds one of the studio sessions in the movie Ray (a must-see). On the surface gangster rap and jazz seem like two completely different genres of music, but (as expounded by Shelby in the movie) the two genres actually include many of the same musical elements. Much of today's gangster rap has devolved into commercial, cliché garbage. The movie gives a sense of origin to gangster rap, and in doing so adds legitimacy to the genre that's never been seen before. Ludicrous's casting as the generic, commercial gangster rapper, Skinny Black, is brilliant, because that is exactly what Ludicrous is. Craig Brewer (the director) has not created another 8 Mile, but something better that revitalizes southern gangster rap and shows the real life side to being a pimp. Now, if pimping and gangster rap sound unappealing, definitely go see this movie as it depicts those two things with such humanity that previous stereotypes will slowly dissolve as the movie progresses. Fans of gangster rap will definitely enjoy the soundtrack, while those "hataz" of the genre will appreciate the music in the context of the movie.