Audiobook10 hours
Street Poison: The Biography of Iceberg Slim
Written by Justin Gifford
Narrated by JD Jackson
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
The first and definitive biography of one of America's bestselling, notorious, and influential writers of the twentieth century: Iceberg Slim, ne Robert Beck, author of the multimillion-copy memoir Pimp and such equally popular novels as Trick Baby and Mama Black Widow.
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.
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.
More audiobooks from Justin Gifford
Shetani's Sister Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Revolution or Death Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related to Street Poison
Related audiobooks
Baldwin's Harlem: A Biography of James Baldwin Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Kevin Powell Reader: Essential Writings and Conversations Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUncle Tom's Children Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5BMF: The Rise and Fall of Big Meech and the Black Mafia Family Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Black Gangster Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Infamous Life: The Autobiography of Mobb Deep's Prodigy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Never Die Alone Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Raw: My Journey into the Wu-Tang Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Crime Partners Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5From Pieces to Weight: Once Upon a Time in Southside Queens Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Comedy Blueprint Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Cross the Tracks: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Diary Of A Madman: The Geto Boys, Life, Death, and The Roots of Southern Rap Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5THE HARLEM PLUG: The Richard 'Fritz' Simmons Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Harlem Godfather: The Rap on My Husband, Ellsworth “Bumpy” Johnson Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5White Man's Justice, Black Man's Grief Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Manchild in The Promised Land Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Autobiography of Gucci Mane Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Power & Beauty Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Street Players Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Eddie Griffin: E-Niggma Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ruffhouse: From the Streets of Philly to the Top of the '90s Hip-Hop Charts Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Gucci Mane Guide to Greatness Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Complex Presents Dummy Boy: Tekashi 6ix9ine & The Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Unsuccessful Thug: One Comedian's Journey from Naptown to Tinseltown Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sweat the Technique: Revelations on Creativity from the Lyrical Genius Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Loyalty & Deceit Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Magic City: Trials of a Native Son Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Across The Bridge a Rikers Island Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Criminals & Outlaws For You
Bind, Torture, Kill: The Inside Story of BTK, the Serial Killer Next Door Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Exile on Front Street: My Life as a Hells Angel . . . and Beyond Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mob Daughter: The Mafia, Sammy "The Bull" Gravano, and Me! Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mad Madame LaLaurie: New Orleans' Most Famous Murderess Revealed Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hell's Princess: The Mystery of Belle Gunness, Butcher of Men Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Daughter's Deadly Deception: The Jennifer Pan Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5To Kill and Kill Again: The Terrifying True Story of Montana's Baby-Faced Serial Sex Murderer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Black Flags, Blue Waters: The Epic History of America's Most Notorious Pirates Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cold-Blooded: A True Story of Love, Lies, Greed, and Murder Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing the Mob: The Fight Against Organized Crime in America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5No Angel: My Harrowing Undercover Journey to the Inner Circle of the Hells Angels Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Pale-Faced Lie: A True Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Boston Strangler Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Perversion of Justice: The Jeffrey Epstein Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Black Hand: The Bloody Rise and Redemption of "Boxer" Enriquez, a Mexican Mob Killer Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5One Day She'll Darken: The Mysterious Beginnings of Fauna Hodel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Madam: A Life in the New Orleans Underworld Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing Season: The Unsolved Case of New England's Deadliest Serial Killer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Life and Trial of Lizzie Borden: The History of 19th Century America's Most Famous Murder Case Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Manhattan Cult Story: My Unbelievable True Story of Sex, Crimes, Chaos, and Survival Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Murderer's Maid: A Lizzie Borden Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Girls of Murder City: Fame, Lust, and the Beautiful Killers Who Inspired Chicago Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of the Con: The Most Notorious Fakes, Frauds, and Forgeries in the Art World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wiseguy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Trigger: Narratives of the American Shooter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sharon Tate and the Manson Murders Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stranger Beside Me Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Street Poison
Rating: 4.42307691923077 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
26 ratings4 reviews
- 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