Iceberg Slim

Best known as an author of gritty tales of street life and hustling, Iceberg Slim (Robert Beck) sold over six million copies of his books, the most popular being Pimp: The Story of My Life. Since many authors before him had seen fit to record and release spoken word albums, Slim followed suit in 1976 with Reflections, which found him reciting his lurid vignettes over suitably funky backing from the Red Holloway Quartet. The street-tough pimp persona projected by Slim proved highly influential to hip-hop, especially two artists who paid tribute to him through their own names, Ice-T and Ice Cube. Slim passed away in 1992 at the age of 73.