By Quibian Salazar-Moreno

Anyone who watched the Oscars last month saw that hip-hop group, Three 6 Mafia won an Oscar for Best Original Song for “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp,” from the film Hustle & Flow. They also performed the song on the telecast making it the first time a hip-hop song was ever performed during the Oscars.

Did the group make history? Yes. Was everybody proud of them? No. But there were a lot of people rooting for them. They were the first hip-hop group to ever perform at the Oscars and they did it in a hip-hop fashion – big t-shirts, sweat suits and a whole lot of bling. Not one tuxedo. How can you not root for them?

But Three 6 Mafia is one of the hardest and crudest hip-hop groups of the South. They really represent everything that some people hate about hip-hop. Listening to their music outside of their Oscar-winning tune, you will hear descriptive diatribes on violence, sex, and drugs. You’ll hear stories about life on the streets in Memphis, Tenn. You’ll hear threats on what the group would do to you if you got between them and your money and what happens to haters in their circle. So it would make sense that some people, including those in the hip-hop community would see the group as an embarrassment to Black folks and hip-hop culture.

For the past few years, The Academy has been criticized for awarding African-Americans for playing less than desirable people like Denzel Washington in Training Day and Halle Berry in Monster’s Ball, and Three 6 Mafia winning an Oscar is seen as being no different – more negative Black stereotypes being awarded. Some folks even called it cooning.

But for the people who are proud of Three 6 Mafia and were rooting for them at the Oscars, they feel that the group is only responsible for representing themselves.

Back in the early to mid ‘90s, DJ’s Paul and Juicy J began producing beats and making mixtapes together. They grew to producing beats for local artists in the Memphis area and were able to create a tight collective of artists. They named it 666 Mafia. During this time in hip-hop, there was a movement called “horrorcore” where, for some reason, rappers were trying to see how dark and evil they could be.

Songs ranged from talk about demons to cannibalism. Yeah, the fad was pretty ridiculous, and the group fell into that. They later changed the name to Triple Six Mafia, and then, finally, to Three 6 Mafia, hopefully to gain a wider appeal. They did experience moderate success in 2000 with “Tear Da Club Up,” a simple club song that garnered them a nice following.

But regardless of their past, the Oscars nominated them for a decent song from a pretty good movie. As my colleague Bomani Jones said, they wrote a cool song and they should be appreciated for it – it’s as simple as that.

“I ain't embarrassed because people are so lazy to see everything as a representation of everyone,” Jones said, who covers music and sports through his Web site (www.bomanijones.com and ESPN.com). “At some point, we just have to get people to respect the diversity within the community instead of trying to hide the things we need to work on.”

Other folks felt as if the song was promoting pimping or pimps. As most of us know, real pimps, those who exploit women to make money using sex, are not cool. But keep in mind the song, which really doesn’t condone pimping at all, is from a movie where one of the characters is a pimp. And if any of you saw the movie, you would know that the story is about these people trying to get out of the situation, out of the lifestyle they are in. Here are some of the lyrics: “Done seen people killed, done seen people deal. Done seen people live in poverty with no meals. It's messed up where I live, but that's just how it is. It might be new to you, but it's been like this for years.”

When Three 6 Mafia heard their name called by Queen Latifah, they were ecstatic. That’s how real they are; they have no need to hide their excitement for winning an award they feel is valuable and rewarding. A couple of years ago, Eminem won best song for “Lose Yourself” from the film 8 Mile making it the first hip-hop song to ever win an Oscar, and he didn’t even show up.

When they received their award, Three 6 Mafia’s genuine excitement was a refreshing sight during a stale broadcast. They didn’t expect to win but when they did, they were happy and showed it. You can’t be mad about that, can you?