Iceberg Slim: Portrait of a Pimp Page #3

his true colors

And he starts

kicking her ass.

And this steve is, like,

One of the cruelest

motherfuckers

I've ever seen in a book.

Like, he murders

this kitten,

Like, right in front of 'em.

Like, who does that?

- Steve had stomped on three

and a half years of our lives.

I would soon be 14.

On August 4th, my birthday,

Mama came home

from the hospital

With her broken jaw wired

And her body

covered with bruises.

Steve attacked her

with his fists and feet

And then escaped

through the grimy catacombs

Of the ghetto.

- She was alone

in the streets,

Trying to find work.

We're talking about

during the depression

When people-

not only black people-

People were suffering.

She left iceberg

by himself a lot,

Isolated in this

little place that they had.

He discovered the streets.

The slide was greased.

I was starting

my long plunge

To the very bottom

of the grim pit.

My trip downward

really was cinched

When I met a petty hustler

who was very likeable,

And we became pals.

My hustler pal

was called party time.

He had a head

full of wild risky hustles

He wanted to try.

He needed a partner.

- Party time, he was this

real knowledgeable brother,

So he was able to give ice

the rundown.

He was able to break it down

into the simplest terms,

Like, you know, and not

become cross with him

If he didn't

catch on right away.

- Even though

I had started to rot inside

From the street poisoning,

Amazingly, at 15,

I graduated from high school

With a 98.4 average.

- I got a scholarship

to go to college,

And I got it by daydreaming,

But I was able to retain

enough of the information

So that

the black tuskegee club

Sent me to tuskegee

during the depression.

- This is the home

of booker t. Washington,

One of the most powerful

black leaders ever.

- Immediately, because I was

already street poisoned,

I started bootlegging

on campus.

In alabama, okay?

So I got expelled.

I was sent home.

So my mother sat down,

And her words of wisdom,

come back to me now.

She says, bobby,

apparently,

You like to run

and associate with bad people,

With street people.

She says you can become

a criminal lawyer,

She says,

and make 'em pay you.

She said, bobby,

get your education.

Become a criminal lawyer

and get a license

To associate with the people

That you admire

and like so much.

Have you ever heard anything

more wise than that?

He's out of tuskegee.

He's in milwaukee.

He comes across a woman

named pepper ibbetts.

Bobby beck thought he was

the slickest guy on earth,

But as slick

as he thought he was,

Pepper ibbetts

was even slicker.

As fast

as he thought he was,

She was 10 times faster.

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