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Three 6 Mafia’s Big Win

Rap group Three 6 Mafia brought the most excitement to the 78th annual Academy Awards last night in Hollywood, Calif. while accepting their award for “Best Original Song” for “Hard Out Here for a Pimp” from the movie “Hustle and Flow.”

“I think they should’ve of won because the song fit the genre of film extremely well,” said Theodore Hollingsworth a freshman majoring in film at Howard University. “The fact that they won shifted the paradigm of what the academy considers acceptable”

After the group’s acceptance, first time host and comedian Jon Stewart decided to clarify something to the audience. He said “that for those of you keeping count, director Martin Scorsese still has zero Oscars but Three 6 Mafia has one.”

Hollingsworth, however, did not enjoy Three six Mafia’s performance during the event. “It was wack, they made a rap song into an instrumental and then Taraji Henson’s part at the end was too melodramatic.”

After the Oscars Ludacris who was still excited for Three 6 Mafia told Entertainment Television, “you are gonna feel the presence [of hip hop] in the years to come, it might not be hard for a pimp after tonight.”

Terrance Howard-the only other African-American that was nominated-did not receive an award for Best Actor for “Hustle and Flow.” Despite that lost, “Crash” another movies which Howard appeared in received the award for Best Film. Rapper Ludacris, Larenz Tate, Thandie Newton and Loretta Divine also starred in this movie.

Brandon Franklin, a student majoring in Audio Production at Howard University, did not think Terrence Howard would win for Best Actor. “Although ‘Hustle and Flow’ was a good movie, he has been in other films that portray his versatility better,” he said.

“Terrence Howard does a fine job in portraying DJay, a Memphis pimp with a mid-life crisis. However, against this tough field Howard doesn’t have much of a chance to win this award,” was an expert opinion from Yahoo.com.

Another highlight of the evening came when George Clooney defended the Academy against recent criticism that they are not liberal enough while accepting his Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for “Syriana,” a movie that he also directed.

“This group of people gave Hattie McDaniel an Oscar [for Best Supporting Actress] in 1939 when blacks were still sitting in the back of theaters,” he said. McDaniel of the movie “Gone with the Wind” was the first black performer to receive an Oscar.

Other big winners of the evening included Reese Witherspoon for Best Actress in “Walk the Line,” Rachel Weisz for Best Supporting Actress in “The Constant Gardener” and Ang Lee for Achievement in Directing in “Brokeback Mountain.” This movie also won Best Original Score and Best Adapted Screenplay. “Crash,” “Memoirs of a Geisha” and “King Kong” took home three awards each.