Something About Music in Hustle and Flow.

In the past week, I feel like I have seen music come to life for me in new ways. I love music... Actually I think I love the drums. I saw a sneak preview of the movie, "Hustle and Flow", about a redemptive tale of a pimp who finds himself searching for more meaning to life through music than just him normal pimping job. "Pimping" in other words, the security gate to the world of prostitution in this film depicted women who had more depth than what one would view prostitutes as. With help from his friends, this Memphis pimp in his mid-life crisis attempts to become a successful rapper.

The main character, starring Terance Howard, really showed the "life" of a pimp, thankfully not showing all the explicit physicalities that a pimp might go through. As the film develops, the lifestyle of the pimp is contrasted to the harshness of the lives of both the prostitutes and the pimp himself. But it is through music, the flow, the beats, the rhythm and endless space that it takes the world of rap, in its barest sense to a new level.

The film uses the word "crunk" often in the movie. In my most basic google search, it delves into freestyling, associated with dance or music in the most broadest sense. Throughout the film in DJay's point of view, we see how his character is shaped in sense by his need for survival, his hopes for more in life, and the ways in which he seeks meaning. In his lightbulb moment, having been touched by a gospel song belted out from the very soul of a woman at church, there is a change happening in which Djay sees glimpses of hope.

"DJay, the streetwise Memphis hustler seeks out to find his voice and realize his long-buried dreams finds that his gift of "flow" or words has long been misused; this philosopher-hustler lives a dead-end life at the fringes of society At times it might seem out of reach, but DJay wonders what happened to all the big dreams he had for his life. A rare encounter with an old friend, Key (Anthony Anderson), a sound guy who has always wanted to make it in the music business, spurs DJay: if he's ever going to make his mark, it has to happen now. He begins to write down his freestyle raps - his flow - and the two team up with Shelby (DJ Qualls), a church musician with a beat machine, to lay down bass-thumping crunk tracks. DJay's metamorphosis affects his entire house, as the women in his life - Shug (Taraji P. Henson) and Nola (Taryn Manning) - find ways to contribute to the creative process. With the impending visit to Memphis of hometown platinum-selling rapper Skinny Black (Ludacris), DJay has to make one last hustle if he's ever going to flow."

"Hustle and Flow", shows that in one man's dream and hopes for changes in his life, he is able to bring forth hope for the very women that he is pimping. He not only serves to be their backer financially, but is instrumental in using rap as a means to get himself to express his life story and in that story interweave the journey for his friends who can share in his common dream. This movie is rated R for its language.