Title Pimp: The Story of my Life
Author Robert Beck AKA Iceberg Slim
Year Published 1967
Kind of Book Memoir
How strongly I recommend it 9/10
My Impressions Dave Chappell told me to read this book...Glad I did. Brilliant poetic writing, great descriptions of Chicago in the early 20th century, and a raw look at the life of a Pimp. This book is not for the faint of heart. This is also a great cautionary tale. Beck concludes by saying, '"I stupidly tried to get something for nothing and anytime you try to get something for nothing you’re gonna suffer. One way or another.”
Date Read November 2018
Practical Takeaways
Don't try to get somethin' for nothin'
Big Ideas
Beck became a pimp because of his unconscious hatred for his mother
Beck would have a reoccurring dream where he was whipping his mother with a bull whip
The way a Pimp sets the tone with his whores is how they will always see him
If a Pimp starts his relationship with his whore treating her kind and sweet she will always see him as a sucker and he will never be able to get respect from her
The Pimp game is not suitable for Nice/Kind/Smiling guys
The Pimps would often try to get deep into their whore's head (ie. Understand her psychology/personal history/trauma history)
Because
Understanding a whore's psychology/personal history/trauma was the best way for a Pimp to
A) know how long to expect her to whore for him
And
Know how to control her and manipulate her to do what he wanted her to do
Therefore
Pimps would try to find out who their whore's life story (ie. Where she grew up, what makes her tick, who she lost her virginity to etc.)
Whether you're a sucker or a hustler in life, you'll have a edge over other people if you can learn to iron clad your feelings
When Blacks were first freed and moved to cities, black women were often having sex with white men for free
The first black pimps hipped the black women that they could make money by charging white men to have sex with them
Black women believed that white men slept with them because white women didn't please them sexually
But
White men didn't sleep with Black women because White women didn't please them sexually
White men hated black women and believed they were filthy animals
When a white man would sneak around and go to a black prostitute (or have sex with one of his slaves) he believed he had done something dirty to himself and punished himself
White men enjoyed punishing themselves and felt like they needed to punish himself
A good pimp doesn't allow to new whores to get too close to each other or spend too much time together
Because
SP: If two whores are spending a lot of time together they may conspire against the Pimp and have power in numbers
When a prostitute starts to get older she starts to become a liability to a Pimp
Because
When a prostitute starts to get older she is less desirable to men, so she is making less money than the younger prostitutes, so she often tries to drives the younger prostitutes away
Also
When a prostitute starts to get older she starts to get tired and jaded and crazy
After a prostitute has sex with 10 thousand Johns she usually starts going a little crazy
Therefore
Older prostitutes are more likely to try to kill their Pimp or turn him into the authorities
Pimps would keep their whores from leaving and stay loyal to them by making sure that their whores always owed them money (or at least by convincing them that they owed them money)
There are Two types of Evil
First Type of Evil = Evil that is done out of resentment/Revenge and hate towards a person
Second type of Evil = Evil that is done out of utter indifference towards a person
Many people who read Beck's autobiography miss the message of the book and actually BECOME Pimps
Beck concludes that nothing good came of being a Pimp
Being a pimp cause him to go to jail and to develop a heroine habit and waste his life
Pimping is trying to get something (money) by doing nothing (taking money from whores)
Anytime you try to get something for nothing you’re gonna suffer. One way or another.
Unknown Terms
Apple: New York City
Bang: injection of narcotics
Beef: criminal complaint
Bell: notoriety connected to one’s name
Bill: $100
Bit: prison term
Bite: Price
Black Gunion: Powerful think dar Marijuana
Buccos: plenty
Booster: shop-lifter
Boot: negro
Boss: very good, excellent
Bottom woman (bitch): pimp’s main woman. His foundation
Boy: Heroine
Breaking Luck: a whore’s first trick of working day
Bright: morning
Bull scare: Blustering bluff
Busted: arrested and/or convicted
C: cocaine
Cannon: pick-pocket
Can: derriere
Cap: a small glistening container for drugs
Cat: female sexual organ
Chilly Pimp: small time 1 whore pimp
Chipied: light periodic use of drugs
Chump Change: just enough money for basic needs
Circus Love: to run the gamut of the sexual perversions
Cost: nodding state of heroine addict
Cocktailed: to put a Marijuana butt into a conventional cigarette for smoking
Come down: return to normal state after drug use
Cop and blow: pimp theory: to get as many whores as leave him
Copped: get or capture
Crackwise: usually applied to an underground neophyte who spouts his hip terminology to gain status
Croak: kill
crumb crusher: kid
Crosses: To trick/trap
Cut loose: to refuse to help. to distain
damper: to place savings. A band, safe deposit box etc. to stop or quell
derby: head. refers to oral copulation
dirty: in possession of incrimination evidence
dog: old hardened whore or young sexual libertine
dosing: sleeping
down: a pimp’s pressure on a whore or his adherence to the rule’s of the pimp game when a whore starts to work
Entasis: 1. in architecture, entasis is the application of a convex curve to a surface for aesthetic purposes. Its best-known use is in certain orders of Classical columns that curve slightly as their diameter is decreased from the bottom upward. It also may serve an engineering function regarding strength. 2. The euphemism Melody [the transvestite in Iceberg Slim’s Autobiograpy “Pimp”] uses for his penis. Slim uses this euphemism later for other hidden, mysterious things he is not confident about.
fix: to bride so an illegal operation can go with impunity also an injection of narcotics
flat backer: a whore who gets paid for straight sexual intercourse
freak: sexual libertine
french: oral copulation
G: $1000 short for a “grand"
Gangster: marijuana
Geogia’ed: to be taken advantage of sexually without receiving money
Girl: cocaine
Gorilla: to use physical force
Gorilla Pimp: no brains all muscle
Grand: $1000
H: Heroine
Hard leg: an older street hardened used up whore
heat: police or adverse conditions for hustles
hyde: wallet
Hog: Cadillac
Hooks: hands
Horns: ears
Hype: addict
Jasper: lesbian
Jeffing: low level con
Jib: mouth
Kiester: derriere
Kite: note
Kitty: Cadillac
Larceny: to turn against by vocal condemnation
Lines: money
Lip: lawyer
Macking: pimping
Mark: victim/sucker
Mitt Man: a hustler who uses religion and prophecy to con his victims (usually the victims are women)
Mop: hair
mud kicker: prostitute
Muckedy Mucks: a tempestuous term applied to the rich and privileged by the poor and underprivileged
Murphy: con game played on suckers looking for whores
Nut roll: a pretense at stupidity or unawareness
Okie doke: a con game
Oil: payoff money to the police
Outfit: hypodermic kit used by addicts
pacifier bulb: the rubber top of a babies pacifier used by addicts to draw up drugs through the eye dropped
piece: measurement of narcotics. Usually an ounce
piece of stuff: one once of narcotics
penning: looking
poke: wallet or bankroll
refer: marijuana
roller: police man (usually plain clothes)
roust: stopped harassed by police
shake: extort
sheet: police record
shield: badge
shiv: knife. usually made by convicts from various objects
short: car
sizzle: narcotics carved on a person
slat: one usually refers to money or length of prison term
slum hustler: phony jewelry slasesperson
smack: heroine
snatch: female sexual organ
snort: sniff or inhale
spade: negro
speedball: a combination of cocaine and heroine injected
spick: Mexican
spieling: talking. a term used by older hustlers and pimps
square up: get out of the life
stable: a group of whores belonging to one pimp
stall: an accomplice of a cannon
stand up: to endure or survive
stash: hiding place
sting: rob
strides: trousers
stuff on: to play on or con
Scratch: money
Square: normal person not in the pimp life or fast lane
threads: clothes
three way: orally, rectorally , vaginally
to pull coat:to inform and teach
turned out: introduced to the fast life or drugs
uptight: in trouble. financial or otherwise
vic: mark. victim
vine: suit
whale: throw. usually applied to throwing dice
wire: information, message etc
yeasting: to build up or exaggerate
yellow: a barbiturate capsule containing yellow powder
prat: to pretend rejection to increase desire
peel off: removal of only a portion of money from a wallet or roll