If you compare it to 8 Mile, I guess this movie would be head and shoulders above! Terence Dashon Howard is more convincing and dramatic as a ghetto dweller than Eminem.
The movie is about an ordinary, not gangster, as it is considered to be a Negro, but a pimp of a small scale, trying to survive, and at the same time to feed his pregnant girlfriend, as well as his two prostitutes. And when he gets a chance, he grabs it with both hands, and does not let it out until the end of the movie.
Let everything work out with the main character properly, but in the end it is clear that everything that is done - is done for the best. I recommend it, a well made movie! Certainly not a radically new word in movies, but it's been a long time since I've seen one like this.