Dave Chappell:
I’ll tell you what happened, but I can’t say it directly… the book is called Pimp. It’s written by a guy named Iceberg Slim…
This book is so heavy in the front and has a glossary of pimp terms, because the ideas are so foreign to the American ears. For instance, do you know what the phrase “mileage on a ho” means? Of course you don’t. Mileage on a ho is a very wild concept. It means that pimps understand there’s a finite amount of bad shit a person can do before they lose their fucking mind. And a good pimp can look at a woman that he’s never seen before and call it. She’s good for 500 fucks. That’s her mileage. Anything over that, that bitch is gonna spill. They do it to you. Why the fuck you think most of us work from nine to five? ‘Cause nine to six might kill a bitch.
Iceberg Slim was the one that broke down what a bottom bitch was. Does anyone know what a bottom bitch is? Anyone? What’s a bottom bitch, sir? It’s your, uh– it’s your prostitute that’s the best out of all of ’em, that bring in the most money. That’s right. That’s exactly right. Are you black? That’s right. A bottom bitch is a pimp’s number one ho. She’s even a bitch that helps him keep the other bitches in line. I will repeat. She’s even the bitch that helps him keep the other bitches in line. If the pimp was McDonald’s, then the bottom bitch is his French fries. The rest of them bitches like fish sandwiches and cherry pies and shit like that.
Iceberg Slim breaks down some of the coldest capitalist concepts I’ve ever heard in my life. He describes in detail how these men break women so that they will give them the money that they make with their own bodies. There’s a story in here so cold, it makes me shudder to think about it. Iceberg Slim is trying to control the woman that he finds uncontrollable. So he asks an older pimp how he can rein her in. And the older pimp says, “Oh, that’s easy, Iceberg. All you have to do is beat that bitch with a coat hanger. And then run her a bath. And give her some pills. She’ll be so grateful that you fixed her, that she’ll forget you were the motherfucker that beat her in the first place.” That’s some cold shit.
Now. At the end of this book, Iceberg Slim tells a story. It’s kind of the crescendo of the book. And in the story, Iceberg Slim’s bottom bitch is at the end of her mileage. If she was good for 500 fucks, she was at for 498. She was bubbling, you could see it. She was going crazy. She started saying all kinds of shit. “I always wanted to be in the circus.” Circus? This bitch is losing it. “I can juggle, too, you know?” Juggle? [laughing] He had to let her go. It was hard to let a bottom bitch go, and he wasn’t ready to let her go because his organization couldn’t handle losing her. But she didn’t know that. She didn’t know how important she was. So what he did was, he called her to ignite her. He said, “Look, bitch, you and I got to part ways.” She said, “Fine, motherfucker, I don’t need you anyway, because I know somebody at Ringling Brothers.” He was like, “All right, whatever. [laughing] I got one last trick for you. It’s a big money trick. You do this for me, you get paid, I get paid, and we go our separate ways.” She said, “Fine, motherfucker, what do you want me to do?” He said, “Okay, there’s a guy in that hotel across the street. He’s waiting for you in room number seven. I want you to go over there and fuck him. But before you do, I need to put some of this stuff in his drink. And then he’s gonna fall asleep. When he does, his briefcase on his bed, bring the briefcase to me. That’s the trick, bitch. Can you handle it?” She said, “Fuck yeah, I can. I can’t wait to get rid of you.” And then she ran outside, jumped on a unicycle and peddled across the street. And Iceberg watched her. He’s like, “Man, she’s pretty good.” “If I never jerked off in her face, maybe she would’ve been in the circus now.”
…
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