The movie Hustle and Flow can teach someone how to produce a song from scratch. The main character DJay who is played by Terrence Howard starts with nothing but some lyrics he thought of off the top of his head and ends up with a master piece. He works quite hard but his relentless desire for success is what put him over the top. At first I was a skeptical of how this movie would turn out but after watching it I knew it deserved all of the credentials it received.

A few years ago I stumbled on a movie trailer which was advertising the movie and my first reaction was that I would never watch this movie. It seemed like another low budget "ghetto" movie. When the song "It's hard out here for a pimp" won an Oscar for the best song in a film, I was disappointed. I thought Oscars should only be given to master pieces. Even though this intrigued me I still had no desire to watch the movie.

When one of my friends, Valery, told me she bought the movie and that it was one of her favorites, I almost lost respect for her. Valery insisted it was a good movie and she wanted me to watch it with her. In efforts to spend quality time with Valery I went to her house the watched the movie with her.

The movie at first seemed dull but then it gained my interest. One of the characters, DJ Quals, recites to DJay that he knew that rap influenced by southern culture would eventually become main stream and this was before the time it actually was (the early 1990's.) This intrigued me because at that time my favorite rap was influenced by southern artists when nobody else seemed to give southern rap any respect. At the time rap was predominantly influenced by cities like New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Songs produced and performed by artists from poor rural southern cities were only listened to on underground low budget mix tapes. DJ Qualls then added that southern rock at first was not taken seriously and today it is very main stream. He pointed out Leanord Skynard and "Black Betty Bam La Bam," and this had me excited for I noticed my favorite rock music is influenced by the south.

The movie then shows how DJay (who at the time was a poor pimp) made it in the music industry. He got the only person he knew could make a beat and that person was(Anthony Anderson) the man who conducted the local church choir and he brings DJ Quals who had the technological aspects that make music covered. The movie shows the two break down every element in making a song. They start by insulating DJay's bedroom and applying stapled egg cartons to the walls to stop noise from getting in and out. They implement every sound, beat, and lyric to perfection. They practiced every note and beat over and over again until they got it write. They searched through beats DJ Quals was making until it sounded good. You can here the song over and over again and ca see how the small changes they keep adding improve the song. The chorus, which is my favorite part of the song, is song by a pregnant women who had worked as one of Terrence's prostitutes. Her voice is amazing. You get a certain empathy for her for she does everything she can to help DJay succeed in his music. The chorus is recited: "you know its hard out here for a pimp, when your trying to get that money for the rent, for the Cadillac and gas money spent, because a whole bunch of bitches jumping ship." The verse sounds funny but to here how the woman sang it with all of her passion you see that it is truly a master piece.

The song that is made during the movie won the movie an Oscar for the 2006 Best Song In A Film award. The movie itself was the Sundance winner. Here is a link for the movie's website. You can get a better visual and here the many awesome songs that are played during the movie." I truly turned to love this movie.