Whoop That Pimp

A.O. Scott of the New York Times calls the character of DJay incoherent in a review of the movie Hustle & Flow. The character may be complex, but not incoherent. DJay is a backstreet pimp with dreams, feelings, love, and every other emotion that comes with being a human. All because he is making his money the easy way doesn’t make him un-human or subhuman. Instead of working hard, he is trying to make it rich quick by pimping hookers and rapping music.

DJay tries to act tough, but he is really a soft hearted pimp. Pimps are not easy on women. It is a life of “make it or break it” for a hooker. If Lexus (the stripper with the loud mouth and attitude) would have talked to another pimp the way she talked to DJay, she would not have been leaving the house on her two feet but on a stretcher or in a body-bag. Perhaps DJay’s character is too gentle or perhaps not. This may be why he wants out of the game. Many rap artists use the line, “Pimpin’ ain’t easy, but it sure is fun;” maybe DJay isn’t having fun with pimping. Maybe he is tired of it. Or maybe he never liked doing it in the first place. DJay, like everyone else in the world, is just trying to get by.

Though DJay is a rude, egocentric pimp, he does seem a little out of place for being from a rough part of town. He is too polite for a ghetto pimp from the outskirts of Memphis. He never slaps his hoes, or talks down to them. Actually, after watching the film one can tell that he cared about his women. Even when he puts Lexus out on the street, he hesitates and thought about it before doing so. He was gentle and fatherly to her son and even tried to reason with her when she took him away from DJay and the keyboard.

DJay is caught in a place that he wants to get out of. At the end of the film DJay and Key, DJay’s old buddy and partner in the rap business, talk in the prison visiting center about the 11 months that DJay has left to serve and how he is all over the radio thanks to Nola, the skinny white hooker and now DJay’s agent. If the movie would have ended with DJay leaving prison and moving to California, it seems that he would have taken all of his women along with him, excluding Lexus. He may have gone back for her son though.