I need the right sports analogy but am too athletically challenged to have it. Mary Decker tripping near the finish line? Harvey Haddix losing his perfect game in the 11th? Too tragic. But it's the phenomenon of going along marvelously almost all the way, only to blow it in the end.

		"Hustle & Flow" Rating: R for sex and drug content, language and violence Starring: Terrence Howard, Anthony Anderson, Taryn Manning, Taraji Henson Director: Craig Brewer

"Hustle & Flow," a fresh film from freshman director Craig Brewer, inhales the sweet-and-sour smell of success in the hip-hop biz. It does so in an appealing style with an intriguing character-driven story -- up to its resolution. But the final stumble doesn't obscure the good race it runs.

On the Memphis fringe, DJay (Terrence Howard) is a wordsmith-hustler -- well, let's face it, the guy's a pimp. He is not above peddling his girlfriend to a pawnbroker in exchange for a piece of recording equipment. But that's because he's desperate to express himself and revive his dormant musical dreams -- which are of the freestyle-rap and "crunk" kind.

Crunk? Glad you asked. Such is my diligence that I did extensive research (in the studio press kit) and can report that crunk is a regional subcategory of Southern hip-hop, its etymology deriving from "funk" and "crank."

DJay's old sound-engineer pal Key (Anthony Anderson) is having a similar mid-life crisis, which they discuss over dinner after "the girls" -- Key's spiffy-looking wife and DJay's slutty-looking honey Nola -- adjourn to talk (hilariously) amongst themselves. The boys' decision, in good old Mickey-Judy fashion: "Let's make a hip-hop hit!" But first, let's set up a makeshift recording studio at DJay's place.

Sexy little Nola (Taryn Manning) turns out not to be slutty, just bored. "I wish there was something I could do," she says with real longing. When she sneaks into the recording sessions, DJay kicks her out. But she persists, determined to find her niche in this sexist African-American work environment.

Among the other problematic females who share his home if not hearth is gentle, pregnant Shug (Taraji Henson), as sweet as her nickname, with huge sad eyes full of love and fear. She seems to have nothing but pathos going for her, but she has a musical apotheosis coming up in a few reels.

DJay's is coming up first. "I got this flow I need to spill," he pleads -- meaning the words of his breakthrough-song-to-be, "Whoop That Trick," if he and Key can just work it out with the right percussive, bass-thumpin' rhythm -- aided by white-boy Shelby (wonderfully played by DJ Qualls) with his beat machine and his recurring suggestion, "Let's go smoke that joint."

Director Brewer, inspired by the nearby Ghost of Graceland, and producer John Singleton, inspired by his own legendary "Boyz N the Hood" success, have visions of another box-office plum dancing in their heads.

Their time-tested theme ("Everybody's got to have a dream") is functional enough for 90 percent of the way, until the climactic bar sequence in which DJay fawns over star-rapster "Skinny" (played by Ludacris), trying to get the veteran's endorsement. All of a sudden, "Hustle & Flow" takes a mindlessly violent turn and a fast downward spiral to an objectionable ending.

"I didn't want to glorify DJay's lifestyle," Brewer has said -- disingenuously. Crime pays big-time dividends here. DJay, it seems, will live happily ever after, even if it's in solitary confinement.