Even if you have never heard of Iceberg Slim, you have no doubt felt his influence on pop culture. The author of seven novels which glamourized and romanticized his experiences as a pimp in Chicago in the thirties, forties, and fifties, Slim had a tremendous impact on injecting the image of the pimp – primed, styled, cold, and in control – into the mainstream imagination. In his new documentary, filmmaker Jorge Hinojosa strings together archive interviews with Slim, as well as interviews with a number of musicians and actors, to retell Slim’s story and measure his impact.
Retracing the trajectory of Slim’s life alone offers a fascinating storyline. He grew up in an abusive family, received his education from the streets, spent a spell in jail where he was mentored by a con man named Trick Baby, and eventually went straight, moving to Los Angeles, marrying and having kids. Slim’s legacy is due to the novels he wrote after moving to LA, which capture not only the exploits of his pimping years, but the language of the seedy underworld about which he wrote. His books can be credited for serving as a lexicon of street vernacular during a certain era, and the exploits of his characters serve as a manual of style cited by musicians from Quincy Jones to Snoop Dogg.
And yet, what is most intriguing and complicated about Slim’s life and legacy is what is most lightly treaded by the new documentary, which presents Slim as a charismatic and enigmatic hero for whom we are never quite allowed to doubt our affection. And yet, when the film touches on the abuse that followed Slim through his life, his strained relationship with his wife and family, and the lingering impact of that relationship on the tumultuous lives of his daughters, it leaves a desire for a less straight-forward homage of the pop cultural hero, one that more deeply investigates this strange, appealing man whose life was touched by so much violence and pain.
