The people that didn’t watch The Academy Awards may have
awaken to the news that Three 6 Mafia scored an award for their Hustle and Flow anthem, entitled, It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp.
As if the misogynist lyrics and the group’s ice-grills aren’t off-putting enough, Three 6 Mafia performed their song in full bling amidst a curiously hokey group of Mama Mia cast offs and Howard Hewitt look-a-likes. The strange performance seemed to foreshadow the awkward moment that followed when members of the group accepted their award with a tenor that could only be appreciated by front-row attendees of the Source Awards.
Ironically, no hip-hop aficionado would pay money for Three 6’s anthem, despite the group’s other highly regarded hits. Its Hard Out Here for a Pimp plays like a terrible joke offered as tallow to execs with too little appreciation of musical art to tell the difference between good and bad rap. Which is why we believe that somewhere in the faux-ghetto, Three 6 Mafia is laughing all the way to the bank, having realized that a song that likely took only 10 minutes to compose and another 30 minutes to cut garnered one of the most highly regarded awards in the industry.
The choice only makes sense when you consider how desperate The Academy has become to ensure that it maintains its high powered presence. If you’ve ever watched The Oscars you know that, despite the handful of awards given to people of color in the last 10 years, the show mostly plays out as an esoteric ode to bland white men- plurality hath no place. This ‘coincidence’ reflects The Academy’s continued inability to embrace the rich and textured stories and interests of American minorities. To address the ever-expanding gulf (and compete with MTV’s growing repertoire of awards shows), The Academy seems intent on offering only trickles of urban fanfare [see Crash, Chris Rock, and Jamie Foxx for more evidence] keeping the compatriot damn intact to ensure that a rush of MTV styled progressivism doesn’t flood the stage. As a result, awarding Three 6 Mafia for such an simplistic piece was the equivalent of seeing our friend’s 50-year-old father don a 'throwback'. Both are hilariously uncool and highly inappropriate, symbolizing an inability to engage and appreciate of the rhythm and mores of today’s young adults.
If The Academy wants to remain relevant, we suggest that their leadership invite established hip-hop artists to become voting members. Then Academy members can be sure that they’ll have someone ‘urban’ to confer with before deciding how they plan to disrespect connect with increasingly unmoved young adult and minority audiences before next years show. Otherwise, they’ll all soon be wearing 'throwbacks' to the MTV Movie Awards.
Read more about The Academy’s troubles in MSNBC’s Erik Lundegaard’s article here.
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