Hip Hop Cinema Offerings

I recently had the opportunity to check out two hip hop/rise to the top themed movies. GET RICH OR DIE TRYIN': while the story is rather (um, incredibly) cliched, the music is pretty good, I absolutely love the title, and if you like 50 Cent it's probably worth checking out. On a five star scale, this one gets ***. HUSTLE & FLOW (****): excellent character development, bumpin' soundtrack and grittily realistic. The Oscar-winning song "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" will be in your head for days afterwards (resist the temptation to substitute your own profession in the chorus; "It's hard out here for a lawyer" just doesn't have the same ring to it).