Initially, I, too, felt antipathy for DeJay, a Memphis pimp, who uses "mind games" and the threat of violence to keep his ladies in-line and on the track. However, over the course of the film, we identify with the DeJay and his prostitutes. They have been thrown into a set of circumstances, over which they have little control, and make a go of it the best they can.
What's more Dejay has a dream of becoming a rap artist. He pursues this drawing on the talents of an old high school friend, Key, and an aquaintance of this latter, Shelby- the lone white guy of the trio. Key, by day, does recording. He records town hall meetings, amateur gospel recitals, anything. He has managed, along with his shop clerk wife, to carve out a modest, lower middle-class lifestyle. Shelby plays the keyboard and is a creative mixer who stocks vending machines as a job. All three men, as well as the prostitutes, share an ennui for their lives and meaningless work and hope of escaping their drudgery.
When a famous hip-hop star, "Skinny Black", returns to his old neighborhood to celebrate the 4th of July, DeJay tries to turn the rapper onto the group's sound, aiming to get exposure and, who knows, a ticket out of hell. I wont reveal what happens next so as not to "give away" the film....
The acting in this movie was superb as is the music. If "American Beauty" was the portrait of middle-class disenchantment with the American dream, then "Hustle and Flow" is the analog for the urban underclass. Whereas the former movie ends cynically, this movie ends in hope.
-Thomas
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