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89th out of 173 books
—
115 voters
Pimp: The Story of My Life
by
Iceberg Slim
Robert (Iceberg Slim) Beck's first book is told without bitterness and with no pretense at moralizing. It is the smells, the sounds, the fears and the petty triumphs in the world of the street pimp.
Paperback, 311 pages
Published
June 1st 2002
by Payback Pr
(first published 1967)
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I bought this as an impulse purchase because it was displayed right next to the cash register at Shakespeare & Co. I'd seen it in the AK Press catalog before, and that is probably what made me pick it up. Pimp is entertaining in a kind of trashy way. It's a biography about a part of life that many middle class suburban folks like me don't know anything about. I have no idea how truthful the book is, or if it is sensationalism, or maybe even utter bullshit like those 'confessional' books writ...more
Jun 14, 2008
Chris
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
anyone properly preparing for a pimp-n-ho party
Recommended to Chris by:
my local pimp
“Pimp” is fantastic. For about a decade now this has been one of my favorite books, and I don’t see that changing any time soon. Granted, I should immediately admit that I probably like this book for all the wrong reasons; I’m sure that the ‘correct’ grounds for appreciating “Pimp” (if such standards have been established) are to ponder the struggles of the black man fighting to rise up in American society and to look at the infelicitous lot he’s been subjected to and to carefully inspect the in...more
6 likes · like · see review
What does it mean to be a hero in an antagonistic universe?
This book is a thoughtful and brutal examination of the choices one is forced to make in a world turned against the individual. In prose reminiscent of a street-wise Dostoyevsky, the author recounts the story of his life through various moralistic phases. These tend to impress upon the reader a recurring theme, not of the universe's intense silence to human cries, but of openly ambivalent laughter and playfulness that voices itself most...more
This book is a thoughtful and brutal examination of the choices one is forced to make in a world turned against the individual. In prose reminiscent of a street-wise Dostoyevsky, the author recounts the story of his life through various moralistic phases. These tend to impress upon the reader a recurring theme, not of the universe's intense silence to human cries, but of openly ambivalent laughter and playfulness that voices itself most...more
6 likes · like · see review
Entertaining to the core, but that doesn't mean Iceberg brushes over the nuance and complexity surrounding his situation. "The Skull Book on Pimping" concisely covers issues that sociologists have prattled about in dense and meaningless jargon for decades. Slim is among the few honest autobiographers in his embrace of his contradictions. The book is neither self-glorifying nor moralizing. Nor is it, and it does not pretend to be, simply the facts. Like the hip-hop music it would influence severa...more
Isn't it funny how pimps and pimping are totally mainstream pop culture terms and attitudes among young people these days? From multitudes of 18 year old white boy "pimps" on Myspace, to several HBO documentaries about pimps, to grown white men saying things like "keep your pimp hand strong" and dressing up as parody pimps trying to be funny (this has to be the most tired joke on the planet at this point) to Uncle Toms like Snoop Dogg and 50 Cent doing their modern day minstrel show on Mtv, to t...more
The semi-autobiographical tale of Iceberg Slim is framed as a redemption story with a schmaltzy ending, with the bulk of the tale focusing on how Slim learned, both from experience and from others to be very successful in the Hobbesian world he inhabited. Almost the entire story is one of intense competition, between pimps and pimps, pimps and whores, con men and marks, police and pimps/whores, inmates and inmates, screws and inmates, etc. with a few exceptions that Slim was able to learn from....more
It wasn't that this book wasn't good. It was quite good. Exquisitely written by someone who's clearly intelligent. Artful in its lingual acrobatics masquerading as naked storytelling (it's as if writing didn't come naturally to the author but his intelligence burns through the awkwardness and produces some good stuff ... kind of reminds me of my father's emails). Insightful on historical, sociological, and gender relations levels. But, Jesus Christ, man, this book is harrowing. I was near-physic...more
Introduction by Ice T.
After growing up in a world where the 60s and 70s were idealized by the artists in our parents generation, nothing in "Pimp: The Story of My Life" is particularly shocking. What is shocking is when you put it into perspective; Slim was doing all these things in the 30s and 40s. He had turned more whores then I am old by the time my father was born. He's talking about his allies, his good friends being strung out on herion far before the free love era of American history, be...more
After growing up in a world where the 60s and 70s were idealized by the artists in our parents generation, nothing in "Pimp: The Story of My Life" is particularly shocking. What is shocking is when you put it into perspective; Slim was doing all these things in the 30s and 40s. He had turned more whores then I am old by the time my father was born. He's talking about his allies, his good friends being strung out on herion far before the free love era of American history, be...more
Mar 17, 2011
Jerky Leboeuf
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Fans of jazz, autobiographies, crime fiction and good writing in general.
Equal parts autobiography, confessional, manifesto and training manual, PIMP provides the reader with a 3D, Technicolor expose of a much-maligned profession to which many have aspired, but few have had the brains and ruthless chill to pull off. PIMP is one of the most gripping, entertaining and - yes - important narratives of the Black Experience in 20th Century America.
Let me be clear about this - PIMP is one hell of a book. I recommend it to any and all admirers of good writing. Iceberg's pros...more
Let me be clear about this - PIMP is one hell of a book. I recommend it to any and all admirers of good writing. Iceberg's pros...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
You can try to sanitize this book, as Ervine Welsh has done in the introduction, and treat it as report on the social conditions of the racist America of the 1940’s and 50’s and one Black man’s attempt to break out of the cycle through the only way he found possible, blah blah blah. I couldn’t be bothered with any of this. I picked up this book to read some cool pimp talk. Pimp daddies and their bitches going about their binniz. Mindless degenerate entertainment. Like watching rap videos of the...more
where to start with this book? some of the most gruesome scenes i've ever read, but i couldn't resist it. about three pages in, i had to put it down and take a deep breath.
anyway - gut-wrenching account of life as a pimp before it became gangster rap fodder. i know there's a big debate - at least at the academic level - about whether slim wrote this book or it was ghostwritten. i'm not sure that matters to me - the story still needs to be told.
it's interesting that despite the fact that slim e...more
anyway - gut-wrenching account of life as a pimp before it became gangster rap fodder. i know there's a big debate - at least at the academic level - about whether slim wrote this book or it was ghostwritten. i'm not sure that matters to me - the story still needs to be told.
it's interesting that despite the fact that slim e...more
Pimp by Iceberg Slim is a savagely honest autobiographical story by a man who was fully immersed in the cut-throat world of pimping. Iceberg lays bare the disgusting world of prostitution in all its ugliness and allure in his own words. He begins the story of his life in the 1920’s when America was radically different from now. It was a time when the race divisions cut deep into the social flesh of this country. Iceberg grows up fast to the realities of racism, destitution, drug abuse, and crime...more
This book tells the autobiographical story of Iceberg Slim, a street pimp. It pulls no punches, and goes into explicit detail of lots of abuses -- mental, physical, sexual -- delivered to, and originating from, the author. It's not a pretty story. The language is rough as well: not just in what it contains and the way it's told. Yet, the language matches the book perfectly: finely polished or self-censored storytelling would be clearly insincere.
Most of the details in this story take place in th...more
Most of the details in this story take place in th...more
E-library download to my Sansa Clip. First of all.... I will say I liked this as a man's life story. And I very much enjoyed the narrative version read by Cary Hite! His tone and inflection are perfect!
Our first glimpse is from 1921 when Bobby Beck was just 3 years old. We hear how he changed from young Bobby to Iceberg Slim. A brutal and crude pimp. A prison shrink told Ice how his hatred of his mother is what caused him to turn into a pimp. She made a choice that changed their lives forever an...more
Our first glimpse is from 1921 when Bobby Beck was just 3 years old. We hear how he changed from young Bobby to Iceberg Slim. A brutal and crude pimp. A prison shrink told Ice how his hatred of his mother is what caused him to turn into a pimp. She made a choice that changed their lives forever an...more
He's got this brilliant staccato rhythm to the prose that makes practically every sentence a gem, albeit with the occasional awkward ostentatious touch of the autodidact. That's what the book is really about, this bravura discourse. It's the ultimate pimp rundown, in the parlance of the book. Which really saves it, because the life of a pimp is such great ugliness, little more than abuse and exploitation, and the weak and insincere disclaimer that it's a cautionary tale doesn't make glamorizing...more
I don't know what she heard about me / But a bitch can't get a dollar out of me / No Cadillac, no perms, you can't see / That I'm a motherfucking P.I.M.P... (50 Cent)
Robert Beckin eli paremmin Iceberg Slimin nimellä tunnetun parittajan muistelmateos "Parittaja" (Sammakko, 2011) on kaiketi eräänlainen afroamerikkalaisen katukirjallisuuden klassikko, josta ovat inspiroituneet ainakin Snoop Doggin ja Ice-T:n kaltaiset sanataiteilijat. Jälkimmäinen on kirjoittanut kirjaan myös esipuheen.
Iceberg Slim...more
Robert Beckin eli paremmin Iceberg Slimin nimellä tunnetun parittajan muistelmateos "Parittaja" (Sammakko, 2011) on kaiketi eräänlainen afroamerikkalaisen katukirjallisuuden klassikko, josta ovat inspiroituneet ainakin Snoop Doggin ja Ice-T:n kaltaiset sanataiteilijat. Jälkimmäinen on kirjoittanut kirjaan myös esipuheen.
Iceberg Slim...more
When I first bought this book I just assumed that it took place in the '60s and '70s but it actually takes place in the '20s,'30s, and 40's and yeah, it's amazing. Told in a very straight forward matter of fact style, cold and hard and filled with old school street slang. Just like you'd expect from a guy named Iceberg Slim.
2 likes · like · see review
Robert Beck fearlessly lays his life out for judgment. He doesn't make excuses, though he comes to show enough capacity for self-reflection that the root of his violence and hate, particularly his misogyny, is quickly identified. Beck's terrible adventure is fuelled by childhood hurts. This makes his story much more relatable than it would otherwise be. He makes heavy use of slang, but includes a glossary in the back. I found the glossary incomplete, so I eventually gave up and relied on context...more
Why did it take me so long to find this book? Great read. It's amazing how much hip-hop culture was born from its pages, but even if you are not into hip-hop, this book is a valuable history lesson that goes way beyond wanna-be pimp rappers.
I learned everything i know from this book. I was practically raised by it, as well as sports highlights commentary reels. I currently am a pastor at the Skokie Baptist revival church in Skokieville, NY, and I make all my flock read this book. I've actually taped the pages into my bible (after Deuteronomy), so I can quote easily from it. Sure, some of the older members don't like the dirty language and risque situations (the scene where all the ho's air their battered pussies out of the side of...more
I read this book as a personal recommendation from Dave Chappelle. Personal meaning that I went to his show after his return from the motherland and he discusses how this book changed some of his perceptions on his fame and fans and I was in the audience so it was directed at me (and everyone else there). "Don't ever leave me."
It's memorable starting from the first page of describing how he was "Georgia'd" by his babysitter at the young age of 3. Slim describes the grind and grime of the neon-li...more
It's memorable starting from the first page of describing how he was "Georgia'd" by his babysitter at the young age of 3. Slim describes the grind and grime of the neon-li...more
I wrote an essay on Iceberg Slim that was published in a porn (!) magazine some years ago:
But you can read it here on my blog:
http://tamtambooks-tosh.blogspot.com/...
But you can read it here on my blog:
http://tamtambooks-tosh.blogspot.com/...
I listened to this as an audiobook, and that might have contributed to how much I enjoyed it. The reader certainly had fun with it. Iceberg Slim tells the story of his rise, fall, second rise and second fall as one of the nation's top pimps with the same sort of clever language and tongue-in-cheek bravado as 90s gangsta rap. Or I should say 90s gangsta rap is just like Iceberg Slim, because none of it would exist without him. Half the fun of this book is hearing all the slang. His story spans fr...more
This was a decent autobiography of the pimp, Iceberg Slim. He was a cruel guy and did horrible things to various women who he took as whores and other people involved in the under world of prostitution and drugs during the 40s. Some of the descriptions are really brutal--whipping women with clothes hangers and such--but it seemed to be honest and as a pimp and drug addict, Iceberg was fairly introspective. If you want to be a pimp, this would be a good place to start. I don't think I want to be...more
I listened to this book during a project at work and let me tell you, several times through out I found myself going back to re-listen to a section or my mouth would fall open from surprise. If you have never heard slang from this time period, that might be the only hangup that you come across. After a while, you can tell what he is talking about based upon how the word is used.
I am amazed how a woman can give her life over completely to another person and do whatever he tells her and then give...more
I am amazed how a woman can give her life over completely to another person and do whatever he tells her and then give...more
This is not a book you can "like." It is a repulsive book you can learn something from and hope desperately that conditions have changed since its publication. You'll find cultural commentary and insights into the psyche, but you'll also find vile, unimaginable misogyny and disregard for humanity in general. I suppose I learned something, but the urge to vomit accompanied that awful education. Why the four stars, you say? Old Iceberg Slim's tale, in the most (for lack of any other way to say it)...more
40 years ago I worked for welfare on West Madison Street. There was a black bookstore there where i came across Pimp. It is the most heartrending book I ever read (well almost). That first part about his mama in the rain is great. I love that writer, now long dead. I'm glad he came to L.A. like I did. Chicago is too bleak to spend a lifetime there. But it really is sick, of course. It appeals to young men who can't fulfill there sexual urges. That is a terrible thing. Why is everything so hard....more
Oct 27, 2012
Kimberly Hicks
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Mature Readers
Recommended to Kimberly by:
Goodreads
Shelves:
african-american-read,
read-on-kindle
This was a very intriguing book indeed. I think the publisher made one mistake by putting the glossary at the end of the book, wherein it should have been at the very beginning. It wasn't until I got into the flow of the story did I truly understand the meaning to the lingo inside the pages.
Iceberg was born during the roaring 20s--a time when speakeasies were all the rave. I loved the dialogue of this era in the African-American communities. Actually, now that I think about it, maybe it was a go...more
Iceberg was born during the roaring 20s--a time when speakeasies were all the rave. I loved the dialogue of this era in the African-American communities. Actually, now that I think about it, maybe it was a go...more
This is some book. It was published in 1969 but it reads like it was written last year. I find it a little disheartening and unsettling how relevant and influential Pimp is to this day. Judging from this book, the game hasn't changed much in the last 80 or so years.
Iceberg Slim was one of the most famous pimps around in the 30s and 40s. He started from a conning thief and worked his way into becoming a pimp. After taking advice from a couple of established pimps, including the infamous 'Sweet' J...more
Iceberg Slim was one of the most famous pimps around in the 30s and 40s. He started from a conning thief and worked his way into becoming a pimp. After taking advice from a couple of established pimps, including the infamous 'Sweet' J...more
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Iceberg Slim, also known as Robert Beck, was born as Robert Lee Maupin. Novelist and poet whose most famous novel, Pimp, is semi-autobiographical.
More about Iceberg Slim...
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“Before I'd touch a square bitch's slit,
I'd suck a thousand clappy pricks and swim through liquid shit,
They got green puke between their rotten toes,
And snot runs from their funky nose,
I hope square bitches become syphilitic wrecks,
I hope they fall through their own assholes and break their motherfucking necks.”
—
30 people liked it
More quotes…
I'd suck a thousand clappy pricks and swim through liquid shit,
They got green puke between their rotten toes,
And snot runs from their funky nose,
I hope square bitches become syphilitic wrecks,
I hope they fall through their own assholes and break their motherfucking necks.”
Aug 26, 2012 02:39pm
Sep 07, 2012 11:31am