The Mack may very well be the most sampled film for audio bytes in hip-hop, especially in the 90's and after watching it, you find out why. Although the story has a good moral message, if delivered ham-fisted, it does have its moments. The most appealing aspect of the film though is the peek at street life from the pimp perspective, something that was completely non-existent back then. Well, on film anyways. Iceberg Slim's Pimp , an autobiographical account of a pimp's life on the streets of Chicago, opened the floodgates for what would be deemed as "street fiction" or "urban fiction" and many popular predominantly black writers found their niche writing paperback novels in the 60s. Of course, as anything that has a smidgen of success in the literary field, it is quickly exploited by Hollywood. The Mack was not based on a street fiction novel but the influence is quite clear throughout the film. What is so disappointing about The Mack is the story does have good bones, it just was fleshed out rather sloppily and the cinematography is as bland as it can get. I think back then, writers were afraid to humanize a pimp too much and although there was some decent character development with Goldie, the sloppy plot pretty much ruined the rest of the film. The villains were too cardboard and the ending of the film seems hastily put together.

Anyways, its worth a peek especially if you are a fan of 90's hip hop and it is probably one of the best blaxploitation films out there, which is not saying much. If ever a film was in dire need of a re-make, its this one. They love to remake films that do not need it but films like this that could actually be good with someone who knows what they are doing get left on the shelf.

The Mack (1973) - 6 outta 10 stars