If nothing else, the ghetto entrepreneurs behind Big Ballers Films deserve credit for their chutzpah. In an act of nerve that would impress Malcolm McLaren, Big Ballers put out Big Ballers: The Movie and Big Ballers: The Soundtrack before Big Ballers the label had put out a single album. The label's murky, incomprehensible debut film was a huge underground hit, allowing its mini-moguls to put out The Industry, a direct-to-video hip-hop music-world chronicle that is so stubbornly amateurish, it's difficult at times to tell whether it's supposed to be a documentary, a home movie, or an extremely long infomercial. The Industry opens with an introduction from Big Ballers CEO Cash, an uncharismatic Southerner who also directed and executive-produced the film. For the benefit of the unenlightened, Cash explains to the viewer what a documentary is, thanks customers for buying The Industry, and encourages people to purchase the many fine Big Ballers products currently available for consumption. The film's M.O. is simple: Cash and his cameraman point a video camera in the direction of a significant Southern rap artist—the most prominent being Jermaine Dupri, Luke, and one of the 69 Boyz—and basically film everything he says, regardless of how rambling, incoherent, or boring it might be. At the end of the film, Cash re-appears on camera and explains, a la The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle, how he became a rap mogul by packaging all his products with shiny, eye-catching covers that belie the zero-budget nature of everything Big Ballers has produced. As might be assumed, The Industry is clunky and poorly made, but it contains a number of perversely fascinating moments, chief among them Dupri's unconvincing speech on how big-budget music videos benefit not only black artists, but blacks as a people. It would be tempting to write off Cash and Big Ballers as a sort of post-modern joke, but if the success of their previous film is any indication, there appears to be a huge market for Big Ballers products. Or maybe there's just a huge market for consumer items with shiny packaging.