Don't cry for his soul because he's Black. Though Black is pain. Black is death. Black is despair. Black is the ghetto where he was born. And lived. As a pimp, dope addict, brutalizer of women - and other Blcks. But he cured himself of the ghetto rot. To write - as no other man ever has - about his … [Read more...]
MAMA BLACK WIDOW by Iceberg Slim
Mama Black Widow tells the story of Otis Tilson, a comely and tragic homosexual queen adrift with his brothers and sisters in the drk, labyrinthine world of pimping, tricking, violence, and petty crime. Written in the jagged, vivid, and always authentic language of the homeosexual underground and … [Read more...]
TRICK BABY by Iceberg Slim
Author Robert Beck, better known by his ghetto pseudonym. "Iceberg Slim," tells the story of a blue-eyed, light-haired, white-skinned Negro called "White Folks," the most incredible con man the ghetto ever spawned! Beck knew him well, knew where he was coming from. Folks was tormented by the hateful … [Read more...]
More on Iceberg Slim
Iceberg Slim (August 4, 1918 – April 28, 1992), also known as Robert Beck and born as Robert Lee Maupin, was an African American writer who started out as a pimp and whose writings were particularly successful among black audiences; his descriptions of the pimp lifestyle had considerable influence … [Read more...]
PIMP by Iceberg Slim
Iceberg Slim is the name he used in the black ghetto. His real name is Robert Beck and he was a pimp. This is his story, told without bitterness and with no real pretense at moralizing - the smells, the sounds, the fears, the petty triumphs in the world of the pimp. No other book comes anywhere near … [Read more...]
“Old School” October: The Pioneers of Urban Fiction and Street Lit
A few weeks ago, I decided I was going to devote all of October to reading the Godfathers (or Grandfathers) of Street Fiction. Authors like Donald Goines, Iceberg Slim, and Chester Himes. Street fiction might not exist if these three authors, and a few others, hadn't paved the way for the street lit … [Read more...]
Cora Daniels’ Thoughts on Street Fiction
Over the weekend, I read Cora Daniels' Ghettonation. In her incredible book, Ms. Daniels critiques how the United States has embraced a ghetto culture that "demeans women, devalues education, celebrates the worst African American stereotypes, and contribute to the destruction of civil peace." Ms. … [Read more...]
