Pimptuition
Rosebudd Bitterdose, retired hustler and budding memoirist, is one of the featured players in the Hughes brothers’ upcoming documentary American Pimp. Having played the sex game from the mid-1970s to the early ’90s, he has moved into a comfortable autumnal existence as a square and author but remains dedicated to sharing his pimptuition with book-on-tape listeners everywhere. For a view of how the world’s oldest middlemen are faring in the age of disintermediation, we spoke with the éminence mack from his home in Hollywood. The movie American Pimp addresses the difference between pimp reality and the overly dramatic pimp characters from Blaxploitation films. Let me tell you what the Hughes brothers actually did, because I went to Sundance with them. The reason pimps are able to catch broads like they do — not the reason but one big reason — is because you guys, white people; the media; and even some black people describe motherfuckers that ain’t pimps. You describe whoever you want to describe — the big hats, the big shoes, the crazy, loud whatever dude. But that ain’t the dude that pulls up on the broads and gets them to ho. The Hughes brothers showed pimps from all over the country, but they were so suave, they were so on another level, that the people that saw it didn’t want to believe they were pimps. When we had a question and answer session, they wanted to believe that the Hughes brothers set this up with all these guys. Yeah, you’ve seen the ho that’s a junkie, you’ve seen the pimp that’s a junkie, you’ve seen the pimp beat the shit out of bitches, you’ve seen the ho that looks crazy because she got ran over by a trick or whatever. But you’ve never seen motherfuckers that’s real pimps.

That’s why when they showed that shit, at first, the people just went negative crazy. People didn’t want to believe, for example, that if a broad didn’t want to be with me, she could just get the fuck on outta here. They did not want to believe that. Why would you want to keep her if she don’t want to be with you? But you get the media telling you, “When that happens, he’s gonna grab you, he’s gonna beat you, he’s gonna do this and that.” But the Hughes brothers asked questions like, “What do you do when your woman goes out to work?” What do you think? What do I think a pimp does when the ho goes to work? Yeah. Um, I have no idea. Takes care of the accounting? Bookkeeping? That’s what I’m saying: You guys have got some kind of trip about it. A pimp might go to sleep, a pimp might watch TV, a pimp might do whatever. But he sure ain’t worried about what the ho is doing. He ain’t following the ho to watch her…. Now don’t get me wrong, you do have pimps that do that. But those are the pimps that a regular John Q. Society person wants to believe are the representative pimps. But those are the wannabe pimps, those are the pimps that ain’t even matter in the game. You never get to see a real pimp. So that’s what the Hughes brothers did, showed you the real pimp, all across the country, that you’ve probably talked to and didn’t even realize he was a pimp, because he was educated and wasn’t the big hat, big shoes motherfucker. He can talk to you about Bill Clinton, he can talk to you about the Soviets, he can talk to you about anything you want, and that’s why he’s the caliber of pimp he is. Because that’s how you catch. But you don’t want to describe that guy to your daughter, because then in your mind you’re enticing your daughter to go out and meet this guy. Because this is a hell of a guy! So that’s why they describe the opposite. And when a girl sees a motherfucker like me, she sees what I’m representin’. She’s curious. And then when you’re bold enough to tell her what you do, she can’t believe it, because it’s the opposite of what she’s heard. A lot of brothers in the movie were saying different versions of what I’m saying. And people in the audience were just not wanting to believe it. First they were screaming at the Hugheses: “Why would you risk your reputation on such crap?” Then when they got to me they were asking all kinds of questions. But they couldn’t figure out, in the end, whether they wanted to like me or not. When we got off that stage, you should have seen those 60-year-old women, 15-year-old girls running up to me: “Let me take a picture with you!” Old white ladies asking me, “How can I pose to look like a hooker?” We’re in Park City, Utah, and I’m thinking these people are totally turned off to me because of the kind of questions they asked me. But when they saw that I had conversation, that however deep they wanted to go I could go, they realized that they liked me, even though, knowing that I was a pimp, they knew they should hate me. So you think people would have a higher regard for pimps if not for misinformation from the media? Not necessarily, man. It’s not just misinformation. It’s racism. They say they dislike pimps because of what they do to women — like it’s all about the exploitation of women. But they’ll let a motherfucker own the Mustang Ranch, knowing what he does. They say it glamorizes gangsterism. But they’ll practically make Al Capone’s birthday a holiday or some bloody massacre on the fourth of July or Valentine’s Day or whenever it was. So they send mixed messages. If that shit is negative then all of it is negative. Why glorify this Italian motherfucker taking a machine gun and killing babies, when a pimp ain’t doing nothing but pimping on a bitch? I’m saying they could both be terrible. But why are you glamorizing one and making the other one so terrible? The only thing is, the one has brothers in it. At one time, if you said, “pimp,” goddamnit, you were talking about a black motherfucker, period. Well if you’re talking about popular images, Taxi Driver has the worst pimp in movies, and he’s a white guy. Yeah but listen to this: That’s the view that they’ve taken for the word pimp. So he’s just a white boy who happens to be a pimp. But the reality is that they were just being politically correct and casting a white boy as a pimp because, believe me, if they would have cast a brother as a pimp, he’d have had on a big hat, the shoes, the whole works. That’s just a part in a movie; it has nothing to do with what the producer really thinks about pimps. They’re not going to let you see what they really know a pimp has become. But at the same time pimping did evolve according to the media definition. Because at first, pimps were not violent at all. It was elegance; that’s why the pimp was a “gentleman of leisure.” You’ve got to understand: Everybody cannot do this. And some people who get wind of it are not gonna be able to do it. But they’re gonna want to do it. And they’re gonna start manipulating what is to be done, and they’re gonna start taking short cuts. Even back in the 1890s, you had black pimps going to the tailor, getting their suits made. They were looking different, they were standing out because they were hustlers. But they weren’t beating no woman to do this. But when you get the drug addict in there, he ain’t got time to talk to this woman and finesse her into doing what he knows these finessing pimps do. He’s gonna beat the shit out of her. Now you also take the police; who are the police gonna arrest? So when the cop sees examples of drug-abusing pimps and drug-abusing hos, what is his idea of pimps going to reflect? It’s going to reflect what he’s exposed to. But what does that have to do with the big-hat mack style, which, let’s face it, is a pretty cool style? You’re right about that, but I said two things. Let me clarify. The big hat and the shoes — there were people who did that. But that’s not the way it’s represented in the cartoons. In the cartoons it’s overly big, so that they can make pimps look like clowns. It’s a clown image. That’s why if you don’t look like no clown you ain’t no pimp. But if you go somewhere where you got on an orange hat and some yellow shoes — even if you’re just a fool that don’t know how to put your colors together — you’re a pimp to a person who associates that shit with pimps. So the Hughes brothers sought out pimps who represented that style. Which style? Real game. You don’t see real game. You don’t know anything about it. Nobody does. That’s the part of it that’s still a secret, and you cannot imagine how motherfuckers get ahold of girls, besides tricking them with drugs. And let me tell you, a pimp thinks like this: “I don’t want no motherfucking drug addict counting my money before I do.” A pimp is selfish. He’s too selfish to have a drug-using broad. I want to be able to let this bitch go to work and come back so I know I got all my money. I don’t want to worry about her stopping off at a crack house first. A real pimp isn’t thinking, “I got to stand over here to keep an eye on her.” There are pimps who think like that. But those be little pimps. Those be pimps that are not willing to risk losing a broad over their principles. I’m willing to risk it for my principlesOK, leave aside popular stereotypes. The most common complaint I hear about pimps is a classic labor and management issue: The ho is doing all the work, and the pimp is getting a cut of the money for doing nothing.

No, the pimp is getting all the money. They don’t get no cut; they get all the money. But let me tell you what they’re doing. ‘Cause you ain’t gonna understand, but when I tell you this, you’re gonna be able to see it. You don’t want to look at the ho as a woman, but she is a woman. Now here’s this woman that’s whoring, and she don’t have no man. Now she’s got this big secret. She can’t tell you, because you just came upon her in a bar and you don’t know she’s a ho. She looks presentable to you. You’re talking to her and you’re getting close.

You’re overestimating my rap, but go on. Well, she can’t get close to you and tell you what she does, because the moment she tells you, you see her in some different views. You’re through with trying to be cool with her. Now she’s a ho. A pimp is the only man who can see that woman as a woman. A pimp is the only one that’s gonna make her feel like a woman, because he’s the only man she can tell everything to. There’s gonna be nothing dishonest in her mind about this man/woman relationship. Now a lot of pimps don’t want to hear this shit: “Bitch, I don’t want to hear what the fuck you doing.” But the important thing is not that she tells him everything, but that he knows she’s a ho. So it ain’t about the money. Because you send the broad out, you’re at home, you’re maybe in Las Vegas, and she’s in San Francisco, and if it’s only about the money, how can you control her? But the thing is, it’s not about the money to her, it’s about the dude. The dude knows he ain’t got to worry about no money, ’cause she’s gonna bring it all to him. She don’t give a damn about no money because whether she’s with him or not she can make money forever now. That’s why hos need pimps, because a pimp is the only motherfucker they can be real with. Believe it or not they want to have a real relationship. But is that really worth 100 percent of her salary? What service do you provide in exchange? See, if you don’t see it, then you ain’t gonna see it. And it’s not something that you’re supposed to see. Who’s supposed to see it is a ho. She sees the benefit of having a man. And if you don’t see that, that’s because you ain’t no ho. But I’m a freelancer, so … But you’re trying to look at it from some sensible, common-sense situation. The broad ain’t looking at it like that. Neither is the dude she’s bringing it to, ’cause there ain’t none of it that’s common sense. But tell me this: Why can a lobbyist bring a Senator x amount of hundreds of thousands of dollars to promote his shit, and they call it lobbying, but if I do it, they call it a bribe? I’m not talking about right and wrong here; it’s just a labor issue. Who’s getting what for his or her effort? I know, it don’t make sense. I know. But what don’t make sense to you don’t mean shit when it’s in an environment that you’re not in. Because if you were in the game, either as a pimp or a ho, you would understand totally, just like that politician I just talked about understands that lobby shit. You’re on the outside, trying to figure out how a race car goes 300 miles per hour when it looks just like a regular car. I don’t know that shit. All I know is it can do it. And to a racing car enthusiast, it makes plenty of sense to go that fast. My point is: You can’t make sense out of it unless you’re involved in it. Did you ever have to smack a ho? Let’s say you’ve decided to be in the game. You know that hos go out nightly and challenge men and handle men. Do you believe that? Yeah. Do you think that sooner or later she ain’t gonna come home and try to challenge her man? I think she is. OK, I’m just drawing a picture for you. Now I know this is going to happen. I also know she’s either gonna be with me afterward or she’s not. ‘Cause that’s how slight shit is in the game. She might come home and challenge you, and you might be asleep and don’t realize it and you don’t stand up to the challenge: She’s gone the next day. You stick your key in the door to kick it with her: her clothes, everything’s gone, you don’t know what happened. You have to understand this shit when you’re in the game. So here comes this broad, she comes home and challenges you. Now you see the challenge. You know also that this broad is giving you $400 every night. Now if you just don’t need $400, you can afford to fail the challenge and let her go to some other pimp and give him the $400 every night. Otherwise, you could check that bitch right there, stop her, slap the shit out of her, and let her know don’t fuck with you. What would you do? I have no fucking idea. The challenge is this: She’s coming in and you say, “Baby, what’d it look like?” And she says “I don’t got time. I don’t feel like talking about it.” That’s a challenge, that’s disrespectful. That’s her not responding to you, and that’s not how it’s supposed to go. If she’ll do that she’ll do something else. What I’m saying is you’ve got to check shit right away in the game. If you don’t, it’s gonna automatically escalate to something else. What you’ve gotta do, as soon as she says, “I don’t want to talk,” you’ve gotta follow her, say, “Wait a minute, bitch.” You checked her. You were on top of that situation. And she’s saying to herself, “Damn, I can’t be fucking with him.” But if that happens and you let her walk off, and she goes into the bathroom and closes the door, she’ll be saying to herself, “Damn, that motherfucker didn’t even check me. Man, I wonder if that motherfucker a punk.” That’s how they think! So I’m saying, what would you let her think you’re a punk for, knowing she’s gonna go give the money to somebody else. What did you do in that situation? If I checked her and she accepted being checked, then she was checked. But if I had to, I’d have slapped her down to the ground, and while she was on the ground, I’d have let her know, “Do not fuck with me, ’cause I ain’t having none of that shit.” But let me tell you something: You do that one time. You don’t make a habit of that. Next time, you act like you’re gonna kick her ass, but then you say, “You know what, bitch? I ain’t fucking with you, ’cause you’ll have me going to jail. Get your shit and get outta here.” Fire the bitch. Ha ha! Fire her ass. She won’t do it again then. But if you beat her up, and she knows she can bring you to that point, she’s going to challenge you again periodically. But if they know you ain’t playing, you’re gonna fire their ass, they ain’t gonna challenge you ever. I had different bitches challenge me, but they didn’t do it regularly, because they knew, after I showed them I wasn’t a punk, that I would get rid of them for any out-of-pocket-type situation. What about checking the clients? Game protecting. That’s your job, that’s a pimp’s job. The pimp’s job is to kick game. That means conversations with the knowledge and understanding so this broad can spot danger, because you’re not gonna be out there watching her pick somebody up that looks stupid. When I had a fresh broad and she’d come in at night, I wouldn’t let her sleep for damn near eight hours, talking about the game, so she’d understand what to do so she wouldn’t get hurt. Believe me, the tricks beat them up and all that shit. But they get beat up maybe once, sometimes twice. One good ass-whupping from a trick and then they really wake up, because nine times out of 10, it’s a situation they knew they shouldn’t have been in. You’ve got to kick some ass yourself once in a while, right? I ain’t no punk, but I ain’t willing to go out and kick no ass. But I will stand up for a situation when I get the call and I can come to do it. I had some Jap karate motherfuckers once who tried to beat me up with some karate shit, and I told them, “Look, you motherfuckers may be here on vacation, or you may have some kind of visa, but you don’t want to fuck with the wrong motherfucker,” and they left. What I’m saying is, if I’d had a gun I’d have peeled it out. And I’d be in the penitentiary now. What’s the most dangerous situation you’ve been in? I had a motherfucker pull a gun on me, but what I’m saying is, I didn’t get in those situations. I pimped in New York, in DC, in Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood. And never carried a gun. I avoided those situations. Did you provide any benefits for your hos — insurance, Keough plan, etc? This became a job-type thing when white people started fucking with it. But the real description has nothing to do with what you’re asking about it. The pimp knows and the ho knows. That’s why it ends up the same way for both of them — they both end up broke. Because they don’t even know if they’ll be around tomorrow, so they spend every penny. Now, as a square, I wish I had saved more when I was making that much money. But if I’d been careful I wouldn’t have made money. You have to be reckless to make money in the game. What’s your view on the legalization of prostitution? It’s like anything else. If they legalize it, they’re doing nothing but squeezing you out. I don’t know how it would be, but I believe it would be more disease ridden. Believe it or not, hos are really clean. If it was legal you’d have all kinds of broads without the mentality of being careful. Where do you see the game heading right now? It’s gonna go on. It’s not gonna be detoured, because certain broads just want to be hos. And certain men want to be pimps. Believe me, there’s nothing in my family background that would indicate I was gonna be a pimp. I was just drawn to it. Ever since I can remember, I wanted to be a pimp. Even as a kid? When I was a kid I wanted to be a pimp. I’m serious, man, I’m 47 now and I’ve never smoked a cigarette in front of my mother, never been drunk in front of her or anything else. You don’t see the desire to cut out middlemen in the New Economy as working against the pimp business? The pimp is gonna exist. Aspects of the game are changing. It used to be if you met another pimp you could have a drink with him. Now you’ve got these suckers that want to kill you if they see you’ve got a broad. But how you catch, how you ho, that’s never gonna change. The only thing is that more things will be diverted from that pot of money; the trick is spending. Will the Internet have an impact on the business? People are just crazy now. I cannot see a person who is used to pulling up on a ho going online and having cybersex. But they do. All of that is happening. Did the Heidi Fleiss case have any impact on the business? I can’t say nothing about Heidi Fleiss, because she had all those things, she had all that money, and she went to jail. I can’t say nothing about that because that’s exactly what would have happened to me. It ain’t like she got busted and told on somebody and got out of it. She did her time, and I haven’t heard of nobody — no entertainers, nobody — getting busted as a result of that. So I tip my hat to the bitch. Even though she’s a pimp’s worst enemy, a madam, trying to talk bitches out of being hos. Talk them out of it? Yeah, when you’re with a madam, supposedly you’re no longer a ho. You’re a “working girl” or some other bullshit. They pull psychology with you. You can take a street ho that was making $300,000 or $400,000 on the street, then she gets with a service, making the same money, and she’ll look down at the girl on the street. Did you like working with the Hughes brothers? Man, they was the bomb. At first I was concerned that they would just splice together the interviews to make us look stupid. But they were real cool, they kept their word. They did hellified filming and the soundtrack is great. Rosebudd’s memoirs are available on cassette, individually or as a set.