A welcome re-issue of Iceberg Slim‘s Pimp. Irvine Welsh pens an introduction:
Slim was, and has probably shaped, the archetype of every blaxploitation movie pimp and/or street hustler from the violent and edgy to the benign form of Antonio Fargas’s Huggy Bear in the original Starsky and Hutch, updated with added ‘ice’ by Snoop Dogg in the remake. He operated on Chicago’s unforgiving streets, and in conjunction with his activities, several periods of incarceration followed. He did a stretch in Leavenworth and then spent the best part of 1960 languishing in solitary confinement at Cook County House of Corrections. For such a naturally exuberant and garrulous man, this proved to be an onerous burden and it was this last stretch that finally motivated Slim to reject earning a living through crime and to attempt to write about his experiences. He moved to California in the 1960s to pursue a writer’s life, changing his name to Robert Beck, the adopted surname belonging to his mother’s then husband. It was a strange tribute, reflecting the ambivalence in what was probably the most significant of all his relationships.
Pimp: The Story of My Life, described as an ‘autobiographical novel’, was published in 1969 by Holloway House and marked his most significant transition: from pimp to artist. The New York Times decided the subject matter was too rich for their blood, and refused to print an advert for the book. Nonetheless, Iceberg Slim found Pimp being shelved next to work by other black authors of the turbulent ’60s, like Cleaver’s Soul On Ice, Bobby Seale’s Seize The Time and Malcolm X’s Autobiography. As the more militant black political movements in the 1970s began to gain ascendancy in African-American communities, Slim met Huey P Newton and other members of the Black Panther Party, whom he admired greatly and regarded as kindred spirits. He had initially, either through political naivety or perhaps hustler’s self-justification, considered his success as a pimp as striking a blow against white oppression. The Black Panthers, however, had little mutual regard for him, considering his former profession as little more than the exploitation of his own people for personal gain.
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For a man who made his money as a ruthless, brash smoothtalker, and despite his justified but often boastful regard for his own intellect, Iceberg Slim possessed a paradoxical honesty and a genuine humility as writer. He always saw himself as a work-in-progress, a man who was learning, hoping eventually to become a positive force in the black community, like the Panthers. It is regrettable that the warm approval he accorded them was seldom reciprocated, because Slim was worthy of respect, due mainly to the fact that he was more concerned with understanding his life rather than allowing himself to be pulled into the manipulation game of either self-flagellating or trying to exonerate himself from his past deeds.
