Hustle and Flow

My expectations regarding hip-hop/rap music are constantly confounded. I told myself a long time that I don't like it, and I'm still cool on it, but mostly because of the culture that ties into it. I'm resistant to the baggy-pantsed, sideway-cap wearing, grill-toothed youngsters that have gotten a grip on the mainstream. I don't own any rap or hip-hop albums, and I don't plan on buying any, because the music does not speak to me.

So I was pleasantly surprised to like Hustle and Flow a great deal. But I think this is in spite of the music. The story was old when Mickey Rooney was in short pants: a guy who has a dream to make it as an entertainer, to rise up from the squalor in which he lives. The only difference is that in this case, we have a 35-year-old pimp. Now, I have no idea what pimps are like, I have yet to meet one, but it would seem that Terrence Howard's DJay is an extraordinary one. He's a philosopher pimp, discoursing on the differences of the nature of man as an animal or as a spiritual being in an opening monologue. He's not the Huggy Bear kind of pimp, he barely makes ends meet, and has only one a handful of girls, one of whom is out of action due to pregnancy. And he wants to be a rap star, and when he by chance runs into a friend from high school who is now a recording engineer, his dream spreads. Also by chance, a local kid who has become a rap star will be visiting his old neighborhood on the Fourth of July, so DJay endeavors to make a demo that he can hand out.

What I liked most about this film was the performance by Howard, as written by Craig Brewer. He seems educated, though it would be hard to believe he is well read. But he is witty, and his words are well chosen. He is a hustler, after all, a kind of salesman.

As for the music, well, I'm not rushing out to buy any "crunk," which seems to be the term for the style of music that is made. But the Oscar-winning song, "It's Hard Out Here For a Pimp," is damn catchy.