At the age of 18, Iceberg Slim was initiated into "the life". Predominately in Chicago, he was incarcerated several times for pimping, along with several other crimes. During his last stretch in prison he wrote "Pimp" which sold over 6 million copies. In 1976 Slim made this recording, "Reflections", the poignant and memorable recounting of many of his true life experiences. The stories told are not easily forgotten and leave their indelible mark on the listener.
Very difficult to rate. You can argue it is “gritty” or soaked in misogyny and, in the second chapter, homophobia. Unpicking whether there is any truth behind these stories seems next to impossible too. So how about the storytelling? Well it uses a very rigid rhyme structure reflecting music trends of the era which ultimately feels rather stale by the time you make it to the end of the book. Would I revisit this? Not in a hurry no - the first couple of stories felt overwhelmingly grim in content and delivery. Nevertheless, an interesting cultural artifact from the pimp era.