Airtight Willie & Me: The Story of the South’s Black Underworld

＂Iceberg Slim breaks down some of the coldest, capitalist concepts I’ve ever heard in my life.＂ --Dave Chappelle, from his Netflix special The Bird Revelation In this collection of six gritty tales from the underground, Iceberg Slim creates a tribute to the streets and those forced to try to survive them. Iceberg Slim’s story is now depicted in a major motion picture distributed worldwide. From slick con men, classic tales of revenge, to a heist gone awry, Robert Beck, the man many know as Iceberg Slim, brings us on a ride through the terrifying urban streets. With the same unforgettable and distinctive prose, Airtight Willie & Me is further evidence that Iceberg Slim is the only author capable of capturing the language of the streets. Compelling always, funny sometimes, and typically bleak at their ends, Slim gives us six slices of city life that will leave you thirsting for more.

Iceberg Slim, aka Robert Beck, was born in Chicago in 1918 and initiated into the life of the pimp at age eighteen. He briefly attended the Tuskegee Institute but dropped out to return to the streets of the South Side, where he remained, pimping until he was forty-two. After several stints in jail, culminating in a ten month stay in Cook County, he decided to give up the life and turned to writing. With a family to feed, Slim folded his life into the pages of seven books based on his life; The Naked Soul of Iceberg Slim was the second autobiographical account Slim wrote. Slim died at age 73 in 1992; one day before the Los Angeles riots.