The Hustle

I was street performing on Michigan Avenue one day, working a particular spot early on in the spring, when a panhandler approached me after several shows with what I think was a congratulatory "That was some good hustlin'! That was some good hustlin'!"

I remember not understanding what he was saying.

I had just finished a show, and my ears were pumping - all this was just a regular part of the post-performance high that comes with busking and its accompanying surge of adrenaline. Fortunately, a classmate and friend had come downtown to watch my show. While my observation abilities had been limited by the role I was taking as a busker, hers were on. And her comment ("That was really interesting!") made me think back to what the man had said:

"That was some good hustlin'!"
Hustling.
Is street performance hustling?
And if that's the case, is it good or bad?

This is me. Hustling. (I'm the one on the left, by the way).

Hustling definitely carries with it some negative connotations in the wider community.

When I connect the two terms, "busking" with "hustling," the following questions are instinctive - a reaction almost to the negative tone that sometimes comes with the word:

Is street performing a scam? Is it a way of cheating people out of their money?

At least, that seems to be the reaction I sometimes get... when a pedestrian or two walks by before I start performing and wonder out loud whether I'm there to cheat people (with a shell game).

When I asked one street performer, the Chicago 10 Man (a living statue covered in silver), he attempted to explain to me what "hustle" means for him:

"Well, maybe some people have a different interpretation of it."

He went on to say:

"In the black community, when we talk about hustling, or a lot of them, when they talk about hustling, a lot of them talk about doing their own job, maybe selling drugs. That’s why they call it hustling. They be like, naw, naw. I get off at the gig at like 8:30 and then I’mma start hustling. Ya know, a hustle is something that you do on your own. It’s not like a job. It’s your hustle. Something you do on your own. Completely independent on anybody else. And it brings you profit.”

So, basically...

"Hustling" has bad connotations because of its association with "selling drugs."

BUT for the 10 Man, "hustling" is good because it's both profitable and independent work. The 10 Man went on to stress the hustle as one's own work:

"When you’re working a job, you’re working somebody else’s hustle. You know what I’m saying? Making the money is the hustle. But is it your hustle or somebody else’s hustle? It’s like all right."

"They [someone with a conventional job] might get $9 or $10 an hour but after insurance and Uncle Sam and everybody, they’re getting hustled, ya know? It’s Sam Walton’s hustle, not their hustle. If I wake up in the morning and it costs $10 to get to work, as far as gas, and I might pay another $15 for parking. And I pay another $5 for food. That’s $30 bucks I paid to get to work. But if I come home with a few hundred dollars, that’s my hustle. You know what I’m saying? I just hustled. It didn’t cost me nothing to make this money. That’s what a hustle is."

The Chicago 10 Man, hard at work. And yes. There is snow.

So, however it is that you might define "hustle," the 10 Man's use of the word to define street performing is his way of highlighting what he values in the work of busking:

Street performing is one's own work. Whether you fail miserably or succeed.. er.. successfully, it's all on you. Whatever you make is the direct product of your work.

For buskers, the ability to labor, identify that labor as clearly one's own, and thereby "profit" from that labor is, at its heart, what street performing is all about.