Rating: 
Summary: Don't be fools, brothers...
Review: I think this Iceberg Slim's writing debut alongside with his "Naked Soul of Iceberg Slim" are monument classics to the extreme. Iceberg Slim, all BS aside tells the bitter truth about the pimp life during the 40's and 50's in the Black concrete reservation called Harlem. It shows the candid realities of the ghetto life and about the struggles of a man, frustrated with the setbacks and oppressions of a prodominately white society and despairingly turns to pimping and drug pushing as a way out. Now, I must further comment to some of the youngbloods out there that read Iceberg is dead in his grave, but if he were alive today, and read some of the entries here, he would not be flattered but pissed, to put it bluntly. When 'Berg meant for people (particularly young African-American males to read "Pimp", he intended to give you insight on the pimp game in order for you to see just what a hellish life he really lead as a pimp. It was not meant as a rule book, but a discouragement from the game.Oh, sure, there was the easy money, the power over women, and the false sense of respect as you ride down the street in that Cadillac. But what about the other dangers, like having to look over your shoulders for the police, f--king up your mind with that powder (although today we have crack, even worse). And the women, when they get older and more resentful, they'll cross you and set you up one day, so you have to constantly make sure that they stay mostly ignorant of your weaknesses as not just a player, but a man. If Ice were alive, he would tell you that the pimp life ain't so f--king glamourous, but it's hell, that's why he later settled down with his wife and kid and turned straight. So, brothers, as a former player myself, I'm telling you, don't diss your sisters, talking about pimping, because it's not a beautiful lifestyle. You want money, you want girls to dig you? Get an education, Get a f--king job, save some money and get some f--cking business. Because I tell you bro's you might say it's the "White Man's Fault" we're in the shape were in, but in truth, we've got nobody to blame but our own nappy head selves. Yeah, we were bad, cool, and slick back then, but in reality, we were stupid as hell. We were only to steps from the County Jail and that's where you'll end up if you don't check your mind. Stay your a--es in school, and keep your f--king a--es out of jail. Or else, just be another profit to the man. That's what I have to say and I know Ice would agree. Peace! END
Rating:
Summary: Iceberg - a diamond in the rough..
Review: Slim's books could not have been written by anyone else. the genius of them derives from two things, slim's own lengthy and painfull experiance of the ills and games of the ghetto in his era and the poetry and downtrodden virtue of his sole. this is the story of his life and its a story worth telling, many have lived longer and not gone through half as much, the story weaves from an abuzed childhood through life as mean young adolescant and into his early days as an ambitious young pimp keen to hit the "fast track" in Chicago. from here on in it's a tale of abuse, drugs, degradation and manipulation as well as in it's own strange way love. However the story is only half the book and it's through the poetic telling of that story that we really get to meet the engrossing character,enigma and genius of iceberg slim. Slim remoulds street slang and lingo into a rich and textured prose which stands comparison with the very greatest writers, it's a pleasure to read (if a little hard to understand at first), it's also very cool and any young man who reads this book will find slim's slang slipping into his speech in no time. This story is engrossing from start to finish, Slim makes it out of the game in the end and became a writer - be thankfull.
Rating:
Summary: Listen...read...remember...Slim is the truth!!
Review: Too often these days we hear all these people goin around callin themselves pimps, and hoes and say they pimpin it!! How would I ever know that real pimpin took place almost 50 yrs ago. Iceberg Slim delivered his most heartfelt novel. Even more Heartfelt than his "Naked Soul" because these are real experiences, real people, and real pimping. It starts off with him as a child and his loving mother. His father treated him like crap, so they left, him and his mother met a man that would soon become Iceberg's role-model, Henry. But later his mother tricked Henry and she and Iceberg meet his dead beat dad Steve in Minneapolis. From there Robert (Iceberg) gets in a lot of trouble. His first taste of the street. Throughout the book Rob is in contact with characters that sometimes overshadow him. His mother, father Steve, stepfather Henry, 1st botton-whore Phyllis (the runt), Sweet-Top, Party-Time, Flat-Top, Chris, Rachel, and Leroy. The book shows his rise from a pimp dream to a pimp fantasy to a pimp hell! One of the hardest parts for me in the book was understanding the slang, this is slang used during the 1930's 40's and 50's! I found myself flipping back and forth between the glossary. Phyllis was his first cop and probably the most explored character in the book besides Iceberg himself. Even though she later bailed on him she was his first true ride or die chick. Chris (whom he had stolen from a crazed-Leroy who he later met in jail at the end of the book) was the only one to stand by his side when his stable was falling apart while he was in jail. Rachel was also the only one on his side while he was in jail his final time for breaking out of jail. Flat Top and Party Time introduced him to the Chicago pimping game. Although they later on destroyed their lives through pimping they opened the door for Iceberg. Sweet probably the most powerful character in the book was just so powerful and strong that I could just envision his live pad and his lavish dwellings. But as always the stress of the street was just too much and he ended up shooting himself in the head. Only for short periods of time was Iceberg on top of his game, he was trading his old hog for a new hog every year and was pickin up the scratch night after night from his stable (see that pimp vocab is with me now.) and for a short time after he broke out of jail he was the pimp's pimp! But besides that he was pullin somebody's mind or travelin from city to city to get some yellow or H (u gotta read this book to kno what I am talkin about :)) It's just a shame that he had to visit jail multiple times, pimp, beat, and brutalize many woman, and see his mother pass away before he could realize the wrongdoings of his life over the past 20 yrs. I think him sitting in the confined cell over those past 10 mos were a real wake up signal to him, Iceberg Slim. I did not read this book to become a pimp by any means. I read this book because Robert Beck is a celebrated black author of classic ghetto stories not to entertain but to intimidate. Robert Beck knows the pimp game, he knows what its all about, but he also knows the stress, the pain, the heartache, and the paranoia that comes along with it. And he knows that he never wants to see any brother or sister have to go thru it. So while his stories may be heart-wrenching, captivating, and entertaining remember that his stories are warnings and testaments of a life that is cold and always leads to a life full of drugs, sex, death, and sadness. Robert Beck is a ghetto lyrical genius that reminds US that our lives don't have to end or begin like this, get your education and have respect for yourself. No amount of money is worth the hell he put himself through. Listen....read......remember....Robert "Iceberg Slim" Beck is the real truth!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Disgusting, scary, but such an interesting voice.
Review: I've got two completely different opinions about _Pimp_ and Robert Beck himself. One is glowing, the other terrible. Maybe that's what makes Beck and his books so interesting. First, the glowing opinion. Beck's style is like nothing I've ever read before. He claims to have a 175 I.Q. I don't doubt it. No one less brilliant could conjure up the metaphors and images he casually slings as if they were off the top of his head. The book is written in a loose, story-telling style, as if it was never revised, typos and all. Beck makes you feel as if you were standing on a street corner listening to a "fast track pimp" weave his life's yarn. Many times, I would read a sentence several times simply to admire the unique vision Beck gave to an action as simple as getting in or out of a car (a "hog") or thinking about his mother. The terminology is another, brilliantly colorful language (complete with glossary in the back!).Although the story dotes on his early years and then cruises through a couple of decades in a matter of pages, Beck's tale was never slow or anything less than gleaming. That is the glowing opinion. Now the terrible one. I'll try not to seem sanctimonious. To me, Robert Beck is (was) an alarmingly vicious hypocrite and psychopathic criminal. The book begins and ends with his tepid claims that he has seen the error of his ways and regrets his former life. These meager claims are ridiculous when you read the pride, nostalgia, and admiration with which Beck recounts his former life. In one passage in particular, his role model and mentor teaches him an unbelievable method to keep his whores in line. Whip them bloody with a wire coathanger. Beck eagerly tests the method. You can sense the satisfaction with which he regards the successful results. Beck tells us about breaking women's jaws and pummelling them senseless in the same manner he might use to recount old football victories. This is not a repentant ex-pimp. This is a retired pimp who is smart enough to realize that if he pays lipservice to reform and enlightenment, he will sell his books to a much larger audience. He certainly did make a nice pile of "scratch" off the stories he wrote glorifying his former lifestyle ("Long White Con" is the other Beck book I've read-- much more mediocre in style and plot). In the end, I recommend _Pimp_ as a refreshingly unique voice in modern literature. I certainly don't admire Beck's life, nor endorse the lifestyle (as so many other reviewers alarmingly seem to!).
Rating:
Summary: MAKE A MOVIE OUT OF THIS BOOK!!!
Review: ATTENTION: Editors, Directors movie makers, get to work on this book as a film. It's your duty to put this book on the silver screen, and if you do it, do it right. Don't leave out anything. This is real-life Pimpin' at it's greatest. No one man has been through as much as Iceberg Slim in the Pimp Game. In, 2006 would be the best time to have it out. But, mark my words this will make people open thier eyes to how trife life can be. THIS WILL BE THE BEST PIMP MOVIE EVER MADE.
Rating:
Summary: The real Slim Shady
Review: This is the 'realest' book you will ever read. Of course its attitude toward women is ridiculous, of course its attitude that the only way African Americans could get power in the fifties/sixties (to pimp) strikes us as anachronistic. That aside, you just about feel you are PIMP as you hustle the streets, take care of your stable, delude yourself that you're living the dream life. The writing style is original, compelling, so involving you can smell the sweat, you are there in the dingy rooms, watching the transactions, you are voyeur, you are involved in the sex stuff, all the time you can't tear your eyes away from the horror and beauty of Pimp's life.
Rating:
Summary: a little much for the typical reader
Review: Having grown up in the Chicago suburbs and been in high school during the gangster-rap glory years, I was only exposed to the fantasy-end of pimp culture in music videos, etc. Iceberg Slim is not the pimp of the type shown on MTV - this story is full of desperation and regret. There is a real pathological hatred of women that plays out in Slim's foul treatment of his prostitutes. Homo-eroticism abounds in Slim's relationships with other, especially more senior pimps. Slim rots in confinement for some time, and guess what, he doesn't enjoy it. This story is good antidote to the pervasive and unambiguous sexuality that gets portrayed on the rap videos (at least, it was when I last watched one in the mid 90's), which ignore the truly aberrent aspects to the lifestyle that gets shamelessly glorified.
Rating:
Summary: A LOTTA GAME IN THIS BOOK....
Review: I read this once for a book club but I had to go back and revisit. The language is very engaging. the words and slang used during the time period are interesting enough, but to think of this whole book written from a street perspective, one of the pimp, a story very seldom told outside of blaxploitation flixs of the 60s and 70s. Iceberg's story is very important, i consider it to be as much a part of black culture as any of our other struggles. whats draws me to this is that I know it is real. i know that it has happened, the psychology behind what makes women turn to this lifestyle is what attracts me, especially when you compare that to our modern day gold diggers- you may not seem so eager to cast stones at these outcasts described by 'Berg. As i said before, there is alot of game in this book, quotables such as 'pimp em for long scratch quick' and 'cop and blow is that name of the game' it may seem cool to pimp but once you finish the book you realize that it really is tragic. please read!!!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Urban litrature: That deserves notice.
Review: Instead of going into a long critique of the book. I have only few words to describe this piece of work: A Stunning tour de force of literature, that should be required reading at the college and university level. An excellent look at man's struggle between good and evil.
Rating: 
Summary: Pimping the Reader
Review: Pimp: The Story of My Life is Iceberg Slim's autobiographical account of living the life of an African-American thief, womanizer, street-hustler, drug addict, and--yes--pimp during the 1930's.Although enormously entertaining for the first fifty pages, Pimp begins to drag due to its endless repetitions and lazy character development. In short, there's only so many scenes of beating up women, incarceration, beating up women, incarceration, and beating up women that a reader can endure before being thoroughly bored--a tough thing to do considering the book's inherent shock value. Yet because the characters are so similar and stereotypical, nothing differentiates the identical actions that occur in each scene. Also, what adds to the sense of a dull read is that nothing pulls the story forward. There is no central conflict or obstacle that unifies the scenes of debauchery. Generally, in autobiographies or memoirs there's a thread that ties the scenes of the author's life together. For instance, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklikn uses the notion of discipline and self-restraint to unify his scenes (an appropriate example, considering Pimp's subject matter...); Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential unifies the scenes from his life with personal and professional development. Sure, Slim mentions at the beginning of his book that he wrote about his life to show others how not to live; however, its hard to believe such a prologue because he writes like he enjoyed reliving his so called horrors. Plus, he admits to choosing his lifestyle for its sheer excitement. The one engrossing and brilliant aspect about Pimp: The Story of My Life is its language. Man, Iceberg slim can trick a sentence. His ear for street slang is musical, his choice of words skillful. Readers may want to purchase this book just for its crude and cunning dialog. Plus, the book contains a glossary so that interested parties can easily increase their vocabulary to that of a Depression era hustler.
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