Pimp: The Story of My Life

Pimp: The Story of My Life is an autobiography written by Iceberg Slim (Robert Beck) and originally published in 1969. Taking place in the 1920s through the 1950s, the book illustrates Slim’s experiences of Systemic Racism in the 20th Century. Slim’s autobiography details his experiences growing up in the Midwest in the 1930s through the 1950s and relates his life’s gradual decline into crime and “pimp” work, exploring The Cycle of Sexual Violence and Exploitation. Slim wrote his autobiography in the years after he left that lifestyle behind, and his writing reflects his desire to be honest about the abuses that he perpetrated in his past. The goal of the book is to bring awareness to The Relationship Between Crime and Trauma and The Capacity for Good and Evil, in the hopes of preventing others from following the same path.

This guide refers to the 2011 Cash Money Content edition of the autobiography.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of racism, sexual violence, child abuse, child sexual abuse, death by suicide, substance use, addiction, graphic violence, cursing, addiction, anti-transgender discrimination, physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual content, and death.

Language Note: In the process of creating realistic depictions of his life history, the author employs frequent cursing and vulgarities, as well as occasional use of the n-word. The guide reproduces such language only in direct quotations.

Summary

Iceberg Slim’s autobiography takes place between the 1920s and 1950s in the midwestern United States. Born in Chicago in 1918, Slim had the given name of Robert Beck. His biological father was abusive and attempted to kill the infant Robert. Later, Slim’s mother met Henry, a man who bought her a beauty parlor and took care of her and her child. However, Slim’s mother left Henry for an abusive man who often threatened to kill Slim, at which point Slim’s trust in his mother dissipated. At age 14, Slim began to turn to gambling and the street life.

In Milwaukee, Slim met Party Time, who introduced Slim to sex work and hustling. Slim graduated high school and was admitted to college, but he was expelled for selling moonshine. He then fully immersed himself in the street life. The first time Slim tried to employ a sex worker, he was caught and sent to prison. There, his friend Oscar was brutally tortured and became a shell of his former self. Slim later met Pepper, a sex worker who used him and who taught him about the pimp’s connection between sex and money.

After his release from prison, Slim started to have nightmares about hurting his mother and various sex workers. He met Phyllis, who became his first official sex worker and stayed with Slim for years. Slim took Phyllis’s car and would frequently beat her to keep her in a submissive state. They moved to Chicago and rented a hotel room. 

The first time that Slim saw Sweet Jones, the city’s top pimp, the well-dressed man was in a Duesenberg and was holding his pet ocelot. Slim knew that he wanted to achieve that extravagant lifestyle, which was incredibly rare for Black men in the early 20th century. Slim met Sweet in a bar and initially gave him the wrong impression, but after meeting Sweet’s friend Glass Top, Slim found his entrance to the underground world. Glass Top introduced Slim to cocaine and helped him to connect with Sweet. Sweet’s penthouse was filled with women, and Slim took Sweet’s advice about hiding his emotions and keeping women under his control through violence and coercion.

Slim knew that he needed more than one woman working for him to become successful, and a woman across the hall named Chris seemed like a good choice. Chris’s husband was extremely jealous and violent, and when Slim intuited that Chris was seeing another man, he took Chris with him and moved away. When Phyllis started to become exhausted, Slim took Sweet’s advice and whipped her with a coat hanger, then gave her pills to keep her awake. 

Slim found a second sex worker, Ophelia, and gained the money to move into an apartment. He found Chris again when her husband was seen violently beating a man who kissed her cheek. Slim used this opportunity to entice Chris to join his lifestyle. One day, Slim was at a bar with Glass Top when a fight broke out. Slim’s hat was shot off, but he didn’t even flinch; this moment earned him the moniker of “Iceberg Slim.”

During the 1940s, Slim had six women working for him and had been through 60 others. Phyllis finally reached the end of her patience and left Slim along with Ophelia, and Slim started to suspect that Sweet wasn’t really trying to help him. The FBI began searching for Slim, so he constantly stayed on the move. He was arrested and went to prison again, where he was nearly killed. 

Upon his release, he went back to pimping and rebuilding his empire. Slim teamed up with a hustler named Bet who helped him to rob various drug dealers. When they were caught, Slim went back to prison. However, he managed to make an illegal escape during the night by putting a dummy in his bed, hiding in a shed, and then scaling the roof. In the period following his escape, Slim employed a sex worker named Serena who tried to kill him with an ice pick. Slim shot her, and although she survived, she fled and was never seen again.

Soon afterward, Slim ran into Phyllis and attempted to murder her, but his attempt was interrupted. Although he remained free for a while, Slim was arrested again in 1958, this time for having escaped jail. While imprisoned, Slim’s health deteriorated, and he nearly died. When he finally finished his time in prison, he hoped never to return. Now getting older, Slim began reflecting on his life. He felt guilt and regret for having wasted so much time, and he made moves to change his life. Slim spent the last six months of his mother’s life by her side and promised to marry and have a family. He went on to marry, and at the time of writing, he and his wife had two young children together. He came to feel that his heart had warmed after decades of being kept frozen.