DJay's hip-hop dreams hinge on the fate of a track that would have probably been given an inoffensive name in a more timid movie. Its protagonist is DJay (portrayed by Terrence Howard, who affects an odd hillbilly drawl), a pimp and very small-time drug dealer who is also, of course, an aspiring rapper. And instead of ducking hip-hop's most unsavory elements, the film puts them front and center. His film "Hustle & Flow," set in the world of Memphis hip-hop, opened on Friday and earned $8.1 million over the weekend, more than double its budget. So let's at least be glad that the writer and director Craig Brewer took pains not to ignore this conundrum. 50 Cent sells more records in America than anyone else, yet he's so closely identified with violence and sex that no mainstream politician would go near him. The biggest hip-hop hits are usually filled with rhymes that have to be heavily redacted before they hit the radio stations, and rappers themselves are finding that all this radio activity scarcely makes them any less radioactive.
Hip-hop has managed to pull off a neat trick that has eluded most musical genres: it has grown both more mainstream and less respectable. It sends a clear message, one of irony for those mature/savvy enough to get it, and a more obvious message that nowadays, "street cred" will lead to riches in the entertainment industry.
Empire whoop that trick movie#
This is what makes "Hustle and Flow" more than just a movie about a "pimp with a dream". Really, Craig Brewer could have just flipped through a few music magazines to get most of the ideas for the story. Many see the film's final scenes as a typical "Hollywood" ending, but it actually manages to mirror some of the current trends in music today.
A stereotypically one-dimensional pimp would make things much easier we wouldn't be tempted to ask so many questions of this film. This is one of the first times that we have been presented with a multi-dimensional pimp, and it is apparent that people just don't know what to make of it. "Hustle and Flow" seems to be causing a lot of angst-ridden dialogue and debate.
0 kommentar(er)
