>>1) T. Howard's accent was very Southern
>
>A lot of my cousins sound like Howard did in the movie.

No, it was *white* southern. listen to enough 3-6 or 8ball and you can tell the difference.

> Class also
>is a factor as far as speech. I noticed that both Terrence
>and Paula Jai Parker are from Cleveland. Elise Neal and DJ
>Qualls are from Memphis or near Memphis.

But we're talking about actors playing a role. The role includes the accent. Terrence Howard does not sound like that in real life. So when he decided to do the accent, he picked the wrong one.

It's kinda like how Don Cheadle sounded South Afrikan instead of sounding Rwandan.

There's a tension with regard to realism in every film. It has to be real enough for the critics/for the audience, but it's still fiction. This is an example of where realism has to suffer in order for the film to get made.

>>So throughout the flick, the diff mechanics in the Memphis
>>steez sound extra awkward coming out of Terrence's mouth.
>
>Perhaps but I would have to hear more examples of Memphis rap
>music to compare/contrast with the movie music.

Well, the entire reply depends on knowing something about the music in the film, hence the hip hop perspective in the title.

I.E, the film is fine if you don't know anything about hip hop.

My reply is for folks who do know something about hip hop, in particular dirty south hip hop.

>>Good songs don't use the Spike Lee approach when it comes to
>>messages.
>
>Yeah but it's a movie soundtrack. It's not just playing to
>the lowest denominator. You have to make it clear/plain for
>some (read white, middle or upper class) audiences.

In this film, white.middle.upper class audiences are the lowest common denominator. Black, lower class audiences, especially southern, will identify with the flick, but they'll see the problems in the portrayal that the LCD sundance and NY times reviewers miss.

I.E, it's supposed to be a for us by us, but it's actually for them, maybe by them, with us kinda in the middle of it.

>I don't think so. I think folks who see this film believe
>that the characters in that environment sympathize with the
>music. To justify it would seem fake.

Maybe in the film, but that's the weird thing about the convention of film.

In real life, somebody becoming a rapper has to justify what they say in their own communities, because the question comes up. I know this, because I've seen it time and time again.

"Why you she gotta be a ho" - and that's not some college educated ivory tower comment, it's the type of thing that you hear regular average everyday black folks discuss when they outside of the club environment.

For instance, A.Anderson attempts to interject when they start talking about "beat that bitch" not being able to get on the radio. They almost touch on it, but they don't really.

>>6. a) - Dj Qualls aka Shelby. - His connecting the blues
>with
>>Southern hip hop....umm no.
>
>Why not?

Because it's part of that great white fantasy supported by black folks that will paint every black artistic endeavor with a broad brush.

In this case, 1973-74 hip hop was not blues men material.
Indeed it's not just the topics that make something bluesy, but it's how those topics are talked about. When Luke was doing his thing back in the day, he wasn't thinking about the great bluesmen of the south, and it's arguable that he was even listening to that when he came up with "Face down, ass up, that's the way.." The only connection he has, is that black men have liked big black female asses and sex for thousands of years. That doesn't mean there's an artistic connection.

It's the same mistake that LaChappelle does in Rize, in trying to connect 2003-04 krumping with 1975 Afrikan dance footage.

It totally denies Djay's agency when Shelby attributes his life as pimp turned into lyrics, with what Robert Johnson n'nem was doing.

You live your life as a pimp using verbal and physical way of controlling women. That's entirely different than a guy on the chitlin circuit singing about sex using metaphors. It's only on the most basic level of abstraction can you make the connection. Black people talk about sex with music. Once you leave nursery school and start to think about a real connection, that's when it fails.

>>In this flick, you get the idea that one day Djay gets fed
>up
>>with his life, inspired by the operatic gospel, gets a casio
>>and decides to become an mc after seemingly neglecting it
>for
>>what would prolly be a decade. You don't see him rolling
>his
>>Box Chevy with 12"s in the back bumping some old school
>>Project Pat. The radio isn't stuck on the black radio
>>station.
>
>Recently, I went to Cleveland and was hanging out. I noticed
>that some of the Black folks were listening mostly to country
>music, not r&b or rap.

Which is neither here nor there.

Slim Thug's mama says she doesn't listen to rap, only country, but she's not the one rapping, Slim is.

>>In essence when he decides to drop ho's and pick up flows,
>it
>>really is his hustle.
>>
>>Ice T said it best in Pimps Up, Ho's Down "I really can't
>>act. Hell I really can't rap....This is my hustle".
>
>True.
>
>>But coming at it from the view point where I know hella cats
>>been scratching and scraping for years, putting out tapes,
>>doing demos and talent shows, busting freestyles in ciphers,
>>entering flow contests held @ the beginning of many a
>concert
>>- this film does not even try to touch on that reality.
>>
>>Well, they try to, and they explain the indy route via
>Skinny
>>Black selling out his trunk...But that's kinda the extent of
>>it.
>
>But that's how it is in Memphis or Cleveland or anyplace where
>there's concentrated poverty/segregation. It's about the
>hustle more than the music.

Lol. I'm not in Brooklyn, i'm in the Dirty South, and have been here for the past 24 years. I know a DJay and I know Shelby. I used to play their demos on my radio show. Damn near everyone I know is somehow in the music game. I'm not just talking as a consumer of rap, but as a person who's involved on the production side and see all sorts of how the music business works @ the street and artistic level.

Hustling or not, the cats who want to be rappers, like rap music. The real life Djay likes Rap, and if you were to follow him around, you'd see that he liked rap. He may not be 4 elements and breakdancing and all that other historical stuff, but he's banging screw and busting flows while passing that killa. (weed)

But again, this is from the hip hop perspective.

I'm not trying to step outside of that, cause more than enough people can give their uninformed about hip hop but allegedly informed about black people "minps" angle on it.