Street Poison: The Biography of Iceberg Slim
Written by Justin Gifford
Narrated by J. D. Jackson
4.5/5
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About this audiobook
For a career as a, yes, ruthless pimp in the '40s and '50s, Iceberg Slim refashioned himself as the first and still the greatest of "street lit" masters, whose vivid books have made him an icon to such rappers as Ice-T, Jay-Z, and Snoop Dogg and a presiding spirit of "blaxploitation" culture. You can't understand contemporary black (and even American) culture without reckoning with Iceberg Slim and his many acolytes and imitators.
Literature professor Justin Gifford has been researching the life work of Robert Beck for a decade, culminating in Street Poison, a colorful and compassionate biography of one of the most complicated figures in the twentieth-century literature. Drawing on a wealth of archival material-including FBI files, prison records, and interviews with Beck, his wife, and his daughters-Gifford explores the sexual trauma and racial violence Beck endured that led to his reinvention as Iceberg Slim, one of America's most infamous pimps of the 1940s and '50s. From pimping his profoundly influential confessional autobiography, Pimp, to his involvement in radical politics, Gifford's biography illuminates the life and works of one of American literature's most unique renegades.
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Reviews for Street Poison
26 ratings4 reviews
What our readers think
Readers find this title to be a special and thrilling read that takes them back to their younger years. It opens up a whole new world and inspires them to read voraciously on many subjects. The book is thoroughly researched and presents a lot of information about the man behind the alter ego Iceberg Slim. Overall, readers appreciate the story and the truth shared by the author and others.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great book! Learned alot of the man Mr. Beck, not the alter ego Iceberg Slim.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book took me back many years to when I was a young impressionable teenager. From the time I first picked up Pimp and read the foreword I knew this would be something special to me...and it was through Roberts book I got to live vicariously seeing the world through his eyes. To this day I can still feel the thrill and excitement I felt with the turning of every page.
For a lonely introverted child everyday after school gave me the chance to forget my mundane existence And live a life I knew I would never see. From that one book and others like trick baby (my two favorites) he opened up a whole new world whereby I began to read voraciously on many subjects. But it all started with that one book. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I enjoyed this book. I haven't read Iceberg in decades. It was nice to read the story of Robert Beck that he wanted to share with the world and some of the truth shared by others around him and through government records.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Long Live ICE Berg Slim! Thoroughly researched and presented