Iceberg Slim

Iceberg Slim, whose legal name was Robert Beck, was born in Chicago in 1918 and was initiated into the life of the pimp at 18. He briefly attended the Tuskegee Institute but dropped out to return to the streets of Chicago’s South Side, where he remained, pimping, until age 42. After several stints in jail, he decided to give up the life and turned to writing. In 1967, he burst on to the scene with the publication of his memoir Pimp: The Story of My Life, followed immediately by the novel Trick Baby, which was adapted for the screen by Universal Pictures. Catapulted into the public eye, Slim became a new American hero, known for speaking the truth whether that truth was ugly, sexy, rude, or blunt, and by 1971 was reportedly one of the bestselling black authors in the country, even though his royalty income was minimal due to poorly negotiated publishing contracts. Before his death in 1992, one day before the Los Angeles Riots, after writing a total of eight novels, Beck had become an inspiration and éminence grise for gangsta rap. Shetani’s Sister has been optioned by actor John Leguizamo and director-producer Bradley Kaplan to be developed into a feature film.