subject: Two Notable Hiphop Films - Hustle And Flow And 8 Mile [print this page] Music and movies have always gone hand in hand. Let's take a glance at two recent cinematic works that rely heavily on music.
8 Mile - 2002
This is a movie about a white rapper, Rabbit, who grew up in the 8 mile district, also the name of a street, on the wrong side of Detroit. The area is home to mostly African Americans. "8 Mile could just possibly be the biography of white rap artist, Eminem, who also happens to be the lead. Eminem doesn't act the part of Rabbit, he IS Rabbit and very good indeed in the role.
Rabbit is an ashen-faced misfit totally lacking in good cheer. This joylessness may be due to his somber, unfortunate life. His girlfriend is pregnant, but rather than running away from the situation and from her, he performs the manly deed of sticking by her. She dumps him. His mother, a trollop, resides in a trailer with her current stud who can't abide Rabbit and misses no opportunity to let him know it. Rabbit hangs with his homies, dragging along his sparse belongings in a Hefty bag. He is a homeless street person.
He is a white man in a black world where most of his friends are black. This is in no way a movie about race or racism. It's a movie about rap music and Rabbit. In Rabbit's sad life where he is good at nothing and works in a lowly job in a machine shop, music is the only uplifting thing in his life. It is also the one thing he does very well.
The best scenes of "8 Mile" are the rap contests which take place in a dilapidated city building with several black artists and Rabbit taking part in the contests where the winner gets bragging rights and nothing else, but that's enough for these talented musical artists. The verbal exchanges that take place in the contests are as riveting as the rap artists and their music. Again, these are not racial barbs but talk taking place between highly competitive performers, all who want very much to win.
The soundtrack of 8 Mile alone is enough to make this a standout movie, but the plot that pits the usual black rappers against the lone white one is refreshing also. Amid some great rap exchanges, Rabbit finally comes out on top. You would think his face would light up in delight, but no. He went from being miserable in his life to being somewhat less miserable. And, given his life, you understand this. Rabbit is actually a likable character for all his dourness.
Hustle and Flow - 2005
This one takes place in Memphis and involves a rather aimless chap who makes his living as a pimp and a drug dealer, neither one of which he does well. He is surrounded by his prostitutes, one is pregnant. None of them are really into their work either.
Understandably, Djay, the not-so-hot pimp and drug dealer, is dissatisfied with his life as it is. He picks up a keyboard one day and his old love of music takes over. He gets together with some former musical buddies and the two main prostitutes in his life to make a demo tape of some rap music he has written for the occasion.
He works at getting an invitation to a party in which a record producer is an honored guest and tries his best to encourage him to review the demo tape and possibly pass it by radio stations for airing. The record producer does take the tape from Djay, but then destroys it in a besotted rant. This news gets to Djay who shoots him in the arm.
He is arrested for the shooting and goes to jail. In a wonderful twist of fate, some music minded prison guards beseech Djay to listen to their demo tape. He does so, accepts it to produce when his sentence is up and tells the eager musicians that you are nothing without a dream. Strange how life is, isn't it?
The soundtrack to "Hustle and Flow" is as good as its writing, direction and acting and includes the Grammy winner "It's Hard Out There for a Pimp" among other fine tunes.
