Interview with Pimpin Ken. His book Pimpology/48
Laws of the Game is a best-seller. He is currently promoting
his DVD "The Best of Both Worlds." He starred
in the DVD with his close friend the late Pimp C.
What made you decide to write your book Pimpology/48 Laws
of the Game?
Pimpin Ken-Basically,
these guys came to me four years ago and they wanted to
do the book. They came with $30,000 and I told them they
would have to get their weight up. Four years later they
came with me and decided to give me a quarter million dollars.
What really inspired me is I wanted to inspire young African-American
men to read and write books.
How long have you been involved with your radio show?
Pimpin Ken-It's been
about two years now.
How is it doing the show?
Pimpin Ken-It's kind
of different for me. I have to do a lot of shows and pre-record
stuff. I have to get use to it. If you have many hats and
that's not your soul purpose in life its different.
I was reading your bio and it just sounds so interesting
and exciting to me because its so far removed from anything
I know. But what was it like for you being a real pimp in
Milwaukee?
Pimpin Ken-Well I come
from an environment where we don't have no water, no cocaine,
we didn't have none of that stuff we only had pimps and
hoes. Growing up You were either going to be a pimp or you
were going to be a gangsta. I didn't want to be a gangsta
even though I tried my hand a that. At 16, the game chose
me. One of my friends gave me my first girl Dirty Red. From
there a woman give you some money and you get a taste of
that life you get addicted to it and I became addicted to
checking money.
From there I got in a little trouble and went to the penitentiary
and when I came home I said that was my last stint and that
I was never going to jail again. While I was in jail, I
educated myself and continued to educate myself. My mind
was always on how to get out of the game. When HBO came
up to me and did the movie Pimps Up Hoes Down, that
was a way for me to get out of the game. I've been very
successful. I've bought a lot of cars, a lot of homes, I've
done a lot of interviews. I've worked with every famous
person you can imagine from 50 Cent to Nelly, I just lost
my best friend Pimp C. Had I not pimped, I would not have
been the person I was I wouldn't be the person I am now.
Pimpin is that psychological warfare game that prepares
you for the music and the entertainment industry.
Have you been to any of the legal brothels out in the
Las Vegas area?
Pimpin Ken-Yeah, I went
out there but we always looked down at that. To us that
was like low class hoe'in because we always figure if it's
in the street, keep it in the streets. I'm not sharing my
money with any white man.
What are the main projects you are working on right
now?
Pimpin Ken-I'm working
on the Best of Both Worlds DVD which is featuring
me, myself, Pimp C, Young Jeezy. I'm working on the movies
out in Hollywood. I'm working with MTV, I got some things
going on with Playboy. I'm reconstructing my website so
people can watch all my movies and listen to music for
free. You can check that out on Myspace
or Pimpinken.net.
Your book was critically acclaimed and such a best-seller.
Do you plan to write another book?
Pimpin Ken-It's funny
that you say that because people never thought the book
would sell and be a best-seller. The book has only been
out four months. It came out in July so it's really baffling
a lot of people. People have been coming at me already
trying to negotiate and offer me money. I'm giving them
the stiff arm.. The industry is full of sharks and I'm
one of the sharks. You can't just jump out there right
now and give them another deal. You have to make them
suffer and make them wonder and beg them. If they jump
too fast they will try to throw you some peanuts like
an elephant. They tell you that you're big but they'll
give you peanuts. Elephants are big but they don't feed
them steak they feed them peanuts.
I know you have so many business ventures.
You're name is Pimpin Ken. Do women still approach you
thinking you are in the game and want you to put them
on?
Pimpin Ken-As a matter
of fact, every other day. A lot of women want to be with
me on that level. What I try to explain to them is that
they can take that same knowledge they have and do something
else. Why don't you go and start a corporation or something.
The only women I'm trying to mess with, if it's a woman
trying to get some money or something, better have the
last name Winfrey, or Hilton, or Ritchie or Ross or something.
You know what I mean? I don't mess with anybody broke.
It's not worth it to get a little thousand dollars a day.
I know everybody's watching me. I got bi-focals, tri-focals
on me all kind of telescopes or whatever. They come at
me but I don't bite the hook because there ain't nothing
there. Its an illusion and I'm not going to get caught
up on that. I will say this though. I don't knock the
fella's in the game and I don't knock the women in the
game. If that's what they want to do, that's what they
want to do.
Do you ever go to the Player's Ball anymore? Do they
still have that?
Pimpin Ken-Yeah, they
had one last week. Bishop Don Juan had one. I don't go
for this reason. If it's not a bunch of money being made
I don't want to be there. I don't want to hob knob with
a bunch of dudes that was or is still gonna be in the
game. I will say I will be organizing my own Player's
Ball and it will be about putting money in the hands of
the players. Let's do it in Las Vegas, invite some personnel,
invite the media and do it like an awards show. If its
just about what you wear and watching a bunch of people
get some trophy's I'm not with that. Let the people say
who is the Player of the Year, who has the most game.
Do it like "American Idol." All that other stuff
I ain't with that.
What's a typical day for you like?
Pimpin Ken-A typical
day is like getting on the phone, doing interviews about
my book, promoting The Best of Both Worlds, working
on my others businesses, TV and magazines I'm working
on, I have a two daycare businesses, real estate companies
and real estate ventures I'm involved in. Working with
my man Paper Chaser. He has a big time album coming out
that is gonna be tight. Chris from Atlantic Records and
a couple people called up. I'm a shark and I know how
to deal with sharks. I'm just gonna make them wait because
they know I'll put it out myself. They've seen how good
my projects do. I know the same people they know.
That's a typical day, spend a little time with my shorties,
jump in and out of airplanes. One day might be normal,
the next day might be different. Like today we jumped
up and drove from Atlanta to Texas, thirteen hours. Did
I know we weren't going to be able to get a flight and
we were going to do something like that, know I didn't.
We didn't have time to wait for a flight we wanted to
check on my main Pimp and his family.
I know that must have been hard for you.
I thank you for talking to me one day after that happened.
Pimpin Ken-I don't
know if I told you, but to me, Pimp C was what people
wanted. He was like Malcolm that he was radical, he was
like Dr. Martin Luther King when he came home he was trying
to bring peace to the streets of Houston in the rap community.
He was like Tupac in the sense he was always talking about
death. He said he'd rather die than live in this world.
He was a motivator. He always told me that my book was
better than Iceberg Slim. I said, "Man, quit lyin'."
He said, "No, it is." I said, "Well prove
it." He said, "What do you want me to do?"
I said, "Go to Youtube and say it," and he did
if you go to his Myspace there's a Youtube and he says,
"This book is better than Iceberg Slim." He
truly believed that.
That was the kind of person he was. The day before he
died he was out there producing an album for Triple Six
Mafia for free. That was the kind of person that he was.
He was learning how to work the computer. Pimp was a good
dude, he was a real dude. He got mad at everybody at the
end. He said a lot of these rap dudes was faking and they
aren't really who they say they are. A lot of them was
jivin' and he was thinking a lot of them was real like
us and when he saw they weren't real like us he got to
snappin.' But I told him, "Don't trip, it's all entertainment."
You can't expect all these people to act the same way
you act if they don't come off the same block you come
off of. I grew up around nothing but pimps and ho's. I
don't expect these guys that came up around ex-drug dealers
and gangsta's to have the same mentality as me. From a
human perspective you treat a person how you want to be
treated. That was my foundation to treat people a certain
way. That is the only way to look at these cats. There
are a lot of fake people and that was hard for him to
digest. He used to say, "Man, I didn't know so and
so was like that I thought that cat was real." You
know how that goes.
You mentioned you just drove from Atlanta. Is that
where you are based out of?
Pimpin Ken-No, I was
born in Chicago and raised in Milwaukee. I've been traveling
around the world the past twenty years. Atlanta just happened
to be one of the places I kind of fingered as one of my
destinations when I'm away from home. It's a good market
to be in. There are a lot of African-American entertainers
and football players. If you want to get a feature or
get someone to appear in your movie you can do something
like "Hey Big Boi from Outkast I need you,"
"Alright, I'll be there tomorrow." You can't
do that in Milwaukee.
What can you tell me about your Best of Worlds DVD?
Pimpin Ken-The
Best of Both Worlds is about rappers who want to be
pimps and pimps who want to be rappers. Pimp C and Pimpin
Ken, is a former pimp and he is a current rapper. When
you put us both together you get the best of both worlds.
We both have money and driving fly cars. Both got big
jewels and we speak on the other rappers who talk about
pimpin' all the time and they ain't even got a picture
of no hoe. We do a little wealth showing and show that
off. We showcase some other people. We got Rick Ross,
and Buck and T.I. and all of them talking about how they
feel about the pimpin' and the hustling.
The pimps always outshine everybody. Just the street hustling.
The pimps always outshine everybody so the rappers always
want to be like the pimps. Pimpin is the only hustle where
the actual person doesn't take the chance, the female
takes the chance and brings the money back while the man
just sits back and picks his toes and goes and spends
her money at the shopping store. She gets money too. It's
like a management thing, you have you blue collar workers,
your white collar workers and your executive side. It's
like corporate America everybody wants to be on that executive
side.
It's about the marriage of hip-hop and pimpin' how
they have influenced each other.
Pimpin Ken-Yeah. How
they influence each other and me and Pimp C we consider
each other the best of both worlds. I consider him to
be the premiere rapper on the pimp game along with Too
Short and I consider myself the premiere entertainer/
pimp in their world that comes in and mingles with them.
Do you think prostitution should be legal?
Pimpin Ken-Well the
way women are sitting here giving away their bodies for
free it should be. Years ago when I was in the game I
was on a flight to Tennessee, I met this young lady who
was a flight attendant. When we got off the plane we ended
up staying in the same hotel room. She gave me her room
number I gave her mine. She came up to my room looking
all sexy and all ready and we talked for a minute and
she said don't you want to get comfortable. I said, "For
what, do you want to have sex?" and she said, "Yeah,
let's have some fun." I said, "How about I give
you $500," she said, "I ain't no prostitute,
you ain't about to give me no money." I said, "You
want to have sex for free?" She said, "Well
yeah that's different." I said, "Well you just
want to have sex for free?" She said, "Yeah,
you're cute, you're handsome." I said well yeah,
"You got the wrong concept, you are out here giving
away your body for free when you should preserve it for
your husband or your man. You're out here having sex with
somebody just because he's cute that's not a good look.
Whether they look cute or they look like a monkey in a
gorilla suit you need to get your money up front. It doesn't
make sense.
The way people act now a days its legal, prostituting,
the accepting of money, yeah they should allow people
to accept money. They giving it away anyway. You might
walk away with a wet butt but you gonna have some paper
too. I'm just a realist. It might sound harsh, but that's
just how it is.
Related Links-http://www.myspace.com/pimpinkenradioshow
http://www.pimpinken.net
Pimpin Ken-interview
copyright Dorrie Williams-Wheeler, and Thabiz.com 2007
Visit Dorrie on the web at www.sparkledoll.com
or add her as a friend at MYSPACE.
Pimpin
Ken-interview
may not be reprinted, copied or distribute without permission.
You may link to this interview.Interview copyright Dorrie
Williams-Wheeler, thabiz.com December 2007.
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