The film includes a loose plot centered on the ensemble cast of characters in which Foxx mentors "Baby D" (Calloway), "Player" (Carter), and "Tiny" (Harper) in the ways of small-time hustling.

Using facilities that are not adequately described in the film, Foxx and local numbers man "Glitterin' Goldie" (Moore) use potentially corrupt connections within the city government to prevent the construction.

Roger Ebert, writing in the Chicago Sun-Times, gave the film one-and-half stars (out of four), calling it a "good-hearted muddle" but opining that "they must have left half the script back in Hollywood."

[3] Edward Blank in the Pittsburgh Press viewed the film more harshly, saying it should have been rated "R" (instead of PG) for its "low moral tone" and that it was "disconcerting" to see Yaphet Kotto and Rosalind Cash "slumming.

"[4] In 2009, Black Dynamite star and co-writer Michael Jai White cited The Monkey Hu$tle as a major influence, telling the Los Angeles Times, "It was just brash, unlike anything I'd ever seen...