Product Description Though DJay a streetwise Memphis pimp has always had a way with words that gift has long been misused; this philosopher-hustler lives a dead-end life at the ...fringes of society. Still DJay wonders what happened to all the big dreams he had for his life. A chance encounter with an old friend Key a sound engineer 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 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 and Nola - find ways to contribute to the creative process. With the impending visit to Memphis of hometown platinum-selling rapper Skinny Black DJay has to make one last hustle if he's ever going to flow.Run Time: 115 minsFormat: DVD HD Genre: DRAMA UPC: 097361246840 Manufacturer No: 124684

Amazon.com The idea of a soulful pimp as the hero of a movie will strike some viewers as objectionable and perhaps even repellent, but Terrence Dashon Howard's complex and fierce performance will challenge such easy moral decisions. DJay (Howard, Crash, The Best Man) hustles a small stable of whores, including corn-rowed Nola (Taryn Manning, A Lot Like Love). When he learns that former local rapper turned superstar named Skinny Black (real life rapper Ludacris) is coming back to town for the 4th of July, DJay teams up with a frustrated sound engineer (Anthony Anderson, Kangaroo Jack) and a geeky musician (DJ Qualls, Road Trip) to put together a demo tape that he hopes will be his ticket to fame and fortune. What's most impressive about Hustle & Flow is that it doesn't oversell its hero. DJay's aspirations are more economic than poetic--he's not out to create art, he just wants a better life. This lack of pretension allows the movie to capture a genuine sense of how creativity can improve people's lives, which surprises DJay as much as anyone. The movie's other strength is a keen eye for social behavior, in particular the ways in which DJay manipulates everyone around him. Howard, who's almost always stood out in every movie he's made, plays these scenes with what can only be called smooth desperation. The entire cast gives substantial performances, but it's Howard who drives the movie irresistibly forward. --Bret Fetzer