And the winner is... "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp!" The Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences would like to inform the world that this is the best movie song of the year, and you best believe it.
Taking its place beside other best movie songs like "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head," "Moon River," "A Whole New World," and "Fame," the pimp song, performed in the film "Hustle and Flow," is now enshrined forever in movie history.
You ain't knowin'?
Actually, that's the refrain from the song chanted about seven thousand times within the body (no pun intended) of the work.
The basic theme of "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" seems to be that selling women for sex is a competitive industry with no health benefits or paid vacation. That is hard, indeed. Pimping isn't all it's cracked (no pun intended) up to be. The long hours and demanding clientele do take a toll.
As the show business community looked up to the Oscar stage last Sunday, they could not help but be impressed with the lyrics of the best song selection:
Wait I got a snow bunny, and a black girl too
You pay the right price and they'll both do you,
That's the way the game goes, gotta keep it strictly
pimpin - gotta have my hustle tight
Makin' change off these women,
Yeah!
Where have you gone, Henry Mancini?
Now, what are we unenlightened, non-showbiz people to think about the best movie song of the year? If you saw the rap group "Three 6 Mafia" perform their classic, you can decide for yourself. But, no question, the Academy voters were sticking it "to the man."
And who's the man? That's us, folks. The people who pay to watch movies. They are sticking it to us.
But why? All we do is enable many foolish people to become wealthy and famous. We buy magazines to read about them, we watch TV programs that kiss their posteriors, and some of us pay ten bucks to see their movies, which are often incomprehensible.
No serious person could think that awarding a song that describes the "pimp life" would play well in Tulsa. So whas up with that, as they say in the hood?
The pinhead apologists for a decaying music industry will trot out the same canard: The pimp song simply reflects street life as it exists today. Okay, fine. If you find that reflection worthwhile, well, that's why you live in America.
In Al Qaeda dominated Northern Pakistan, "Three 6 Mafia" would find themselves beheaded. By the way, it's not easy being a terrorist, either.
The truth is that Hollywood doesn't really like the folks very much. They see us as marginal intellects who couldn't possibly understand the art on display in the pimp song. So they voted for an effort they knew would displease many Americans. This is called "arrogance."
It is hard to believe that any sane person could think "It's Hard Out Here For A Pimp" is worthy of an artistic award. I know I "ain't knowin'," but I'll submit this thing was written in five minutes on a bar napkin someplace.
However, I will concede that being a pimp is probably more difficult than it appears. But it isn't nearly as difficult as sitting through that best movie song of the year.
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