Chicago native Terrence Howard, nominated for his lead performance as DJay, a Memphis pimp pursuing his hip-hop dreams in Craig Brewer's Hustle & Flow, will not be singing the Oscar-nominated "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" at the 78th Academy Awards.
Speaking to reporters at the annual Oscar nominees luncheon in Beverly Hills Howard said, "We don't have time in the schedule to work all that stuff out, it took me seven months to find DJay and find that voice. I don't think I could give it the full service that I gave it in the film."
Instead, Howard believes the writers of the ditty – Three 6 Mafia’s Jordan "Juicy J" Houston, Cedric "Crunchy Black" Coleman and Paul "DJ Paul" Beauregard – will perform the song at the March 5th event.
"They're the ones that wrote it and they're the ones that are nominated for that song," says Howard. "It would be different if it were just plain old me."
Howard, 36, says he’s looking forward to seeing how the expletive-filled song is received in LA’s Kodak Theater.
"I'm ready to see the entire roomful of people in there singing 'It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp,'" Howard says, adding, "If they know the words, then we really got a problem."
Speaking to reporters at the annual Oscar nominees luncheon in Beverly Hills Howard said, "We don't have time in the schedule to work all that stuff out, it took me seven months to find DJay and find that voice. I don't think I could give it the full service that I gave it in the film."
Instead, Howard believes the writers of the ditty – Three 6 Mafia’s Jordan "Juicy J" Houston, Cedric "Crunchy Black" Coleman and Paul "DJ Paul" Beauregard – will perform the song at the March 5th event.
"They're the ones that wrote it and they're the ones that are nominated for that song," says Howard. "It would be different if it were just plain old me."
Howard, 36, says he’s looking forward to seeing how the expletive-filled song is received in LA’s Kodak Theater.
"I'm ready to see the entire roomful of people in there singing 'It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp,'" Howard says, adding, "If they know the words, then we really got a problem."
