Prince is ahead of the times once again, it seems:



NEW YORK (July 24) - Ten years ago, it seemed as if every rapper wanted to be a gangsta. Now, everyone wants to be a pimp.

50 Cent and Snoop Dogg strut in full pimp regalia, surrounded by a bevy of beauties, in their new video ``P.I.M.P.'' Rappers like Lil' Jon bounce through their videos holding jewel-encrusted chalices popularized by pimps.

Even old-school soul veteran Ronald Isley personifies the pimp style with his alter-ego, ``Mr. Biggs,'' right down to his elaborate cane.

Modeling yourself after figures most people consider among the degenerates of society might not seem like the most respectable path to follow - but no one ever accused rappers of wanting to be respectable.

``Rappers just always want to be something bad,'' said producer-rapper Jermaine Dupri, who's touted himself as a ``young pimp'' in his own lyrics. ``Just the same way rappers want to be gangstas, rappers want to be pimps.''

Yet the self-proclaimed king of pimps, Bishop Don Magic Juan, would disagree with the sentiment that pimping is a bad thing. Although he's given up the pimp business for preaching - he's an ordained minister - he still sticks up for his former profession.

``It's been portrayed negatively through movies and television,'' says Juan, who has not forsaken his pimp wardrobe. ``Now people are seeing it for what it is.''

Snoop Dogg - perhaps the biggest pimp purveyor in today's rap game - agrees.

``It's cool to look good, it's cool to have girls on your arm, and get money from them, and that's a good feeling, you dig? There ain't nothing wrong with it,'' he told The Associated Press in a recent interview.

``We're teaching people how to hustle and how to look good,'' he said. ``I'd rather be a pimp than a gang-banger, because I grew up being a gang-banger, and I tell you, you live longer being a pimp.''

Yet others point out that pimping is the business of procuring women and girls as prostitutes for profit.

``It's just like gang-banging and doing drugs,'' says the singer Monica. ``I think it's one of those things that people have started to glorify.

``People still go to jail for that for long periods of time. People get killed behind that. So the unfair part is our audiences don't get to see the real side of it,'' she adds. ``They hear it on records and see it on TV and they glorify, and it's totally backwards.''

Chris Rock was appalled by ``Lil' Pimp,'' a cartoon movie in the works about a child pimp.

``That's where I draw the line. That's where I get corny. My daughter will not be at the kid pimp movie,'' says the comedian, whose movie ``Pootie Tang'' was akin to a pimp fashion show. ``I want to meet the white executive who said, 'Yes! Lil' Pimp!'''

The pimp game has been rapped about for more than 20 years. Oakland native Too Short and Los Angeles pioneer Ice-T celebrated it in the early '80s. Brooklyn's Big Daddy Kane talked about it in the late '80s. In the '90s, The Notorious B.I.G. rapped: ``Pimpin' ain't easy but it sure is fun.'' And one of Jay-Z's most popular songs remains the 2000 anthem ``Big Pimpin.''

Such popularity is due partly to a generation of rappers who grew up watching the glorification of pimps in blaxploitation films such as ``Dolemite,'' ``Superfly'' and ``The Mack.'' Sharply dressed, dripping with money, in control and draped with ladies, pimps were portrayed as the ultimate hustlers.

``When I started seeing those movies in the '70s, like 'The Mack' and 'Superfly,' that helped me to more of less pick who I wanted to be in life, how I wanted to live my life, how I wanted to represent me,'' said Snoop.

Recently, though, pimp appeal is peaking. It's hard to find a rap song these days without at least some passing reference to pimps. 50 Cent's ``P.I.M.P.'' is a Top 10 hit on the Billboard chart; rapper David Banner idolizes the lifestyle on ``Like a Pimp''; and rapper Nelly pays tribute with his hit song ``Pimp Juice.''

Not that all these rappers are selling sex. Like much of rap music, almost all pimp lyrics are just talk.

Thanks largely to documentaries like HBO's ``Pimps Up, Hos Down'' and the Hughes brothers' ``American Pimp,'' real and former pimps have become celebrities themselves, appearing in videos, even rapping on songs. None more so than Bishop Don Magic Juan, who's even currently in talks to star in his own reality series.

Then there's the pimp fashion - the canes, the gold-encrusted chalices, the hats, and the fancy threads.

No other major rapper embodies pimp style more than Snoop. When he first emerged a decade ago, his style was L.A. gangsta Crip- baggy jeans, blue flannel shirts and sneakers.

Now, the millennium Snoop is more apt to wear smooth pink pinstriped suits, flashy shoes, wide-brimmed hat, and curled hair that falls to his shoulders.

Snoop says pimp culture showed him how to carry himself with style and pride.

``I wanted to look good and feel good about myself,'' he says. ``Those are qualities that you get from a pimp that everybody's not really understanding.''

``(People) just think it's, take money from a girl and slap her and send her to the corner, but nah, it's other things about this pimpin' that you really don't even know,'' he adds. ``(It's about) the freedom of the females and the thought of a female getting you money.''

Not surprisingly, women don't seem to fare too well in the rap pimp world, objectified as booty-shaking nymphets that can be easily replaced or dismissed, as 50 Cent profanely describes in ``P.I.M.P.''

But the Bishop says anyone, including a woman, can be a pimp, as long as he or she embodies the pimp attitude, like Lil' Kim, Pamela Anderson and Mariah Carey - sexy, powerful women who are in control.

And the way some rappers see it, pimping is just an extension of the American way, from the days of slavery onward.

``We've been pimped since we were ripped from the underbelly of Africa,'' says Banner. ``We built America but never got paid for it, yet we get treated the worse. So pimping has always been a part of our society, so to feel that we're finally the pimps, why not embrace that?''

But not everyone sees rap's love affair with pimps as something that should be embraced.

Drummer Ahmir ``?uestlove'' Thompson of The Roots says rappers acting like pimps is really no more than ``playing dress-up,'' trying to posture for power.

``The only type of people that give you the illusion of control are those who are really not in control,'' he says ruefully. ``If you want to talk about really pimping, you've got to talk about a being a government official.''

But the Bishop is aghast at such talk, instead describing pimping as a world of opportunity.

``(It's) the jewelry, the style of dressing, the cars, the houses - to be able to feel like you're doing it your way, nobody tell you what to do. You can move and groove like you want to,'' he says.

Bishop tries to import his pimp philosophy to today's hip-hop generation as much as he can. He's Snoop's ``spiritual adviser,'' part of Snoop's posse and even travels on the road with him sometimes.

He admits he never thought he'd see the day when a former pimp like himself would be a celebrated figure.

``I stayed pimped out for 30 years - I ain't never let the game down. I always believed in it,'' he says. ``Now that I say I don't want to pimp no more, everybody wants to be a pimp!''

The "pimp" look has always been "in" 4 the most part. It isnt much different from the look of "the mafia". Prince sported "the pimp" look 4 quite awhile & looked "COOL". Gangsters & their sexy looks with those sexy expensive three peice suits were always romanticized and turned lots of women on, together with their power, & money. It still does today. I like "the look".

CHEECHWIZARD said:

tru dat cuz a real pimp know it's all about the game anywayz, now dayz u wouldn't know a real pimp from the average joe unless he told you he was pimp, what u see in rap videos is just the stereotype pimps and i hate that cuz they be giving the game a bad name
[This message was edited Sat Jul 26 21:22:06 PDT 2003 by DigitalLisa]

grandebelle said:

How could this look ever go out of style?