Who would have thunk it…..the stuffy Oscars would not only nominate a dirty south/crunk song for Original Song of the Year, but the song would win.
At the 78th Academy Awards in 2006, Three 6 Mafia would perform their nominated song featuring Taraji P. Henson, It’s Hard Out Here For A Pimp. It was the second hip-hop song (and the first crunk/Dirty South song) to win an Oscar, after Eminem‘s “Lose Yourself” in 2002 from his film 8 Mile, and only one other hip-hop song since then has won an Oscar – Common and John Legend‘s “Glory” (from Selma) in 2015.
Right before presenter Queen Latifah announced that they had won, she chuckled and sang the refrain from the song. The energy from Houston, Carlton, Coleman, and Beauregard’s presence and acceptance speech was infectious, causing that year’s Oscar host Jon Stewart to quip “How come they’re the most excited people here tonight? Why is that? They’re thrilled! They’re thrilled!…. That’s how you accept an Oscar!”
The song was written by Three 6 Mafia and Cedric Coleman, for the film Hustle & Flow. The song was performed in Hustle & Flow by Terrence Howard and Taraji P. Henson as their respective characters DJay and Shug. It was ranked #80 on VH1’s “100 Greatest Songs of Hip Hop”.
Hustle and Flow
Academy Awards performance
And the Winner is!