IT CAME FROM THE SOUTH

摘要

The lyrics—"You know it's hard out here for a pimp/ When he's gotta get the money for the rent"—don't quite have the lilt of "Some day my prince will come." And the rapper who composed that verse is no Snow White. DJay is a black man, a Memphis, Tenn., dope dealer and peddler of prostitutes' flesh. But his yearning has the same intensity as any Disney heroine's. For DJay has a mission: he wants to make a hit record. He dares to dream the pimpossible dream. DJay (Terrence Howard) is the sort-of hero of Hustle & Flow, a hip-hop Star Is Born, a rappin' Rocky—and, in its own right, a parable of belief against all odds. At this year's Sundance festival, the movie, made for $3.5 million, copped critics' raves, the Audience Award and, from Paramount Classics/MTV Films, an astounding purchase price of $16 million, which included a $7 million deal for other films with coproducer John Singleton.