Pimp Rap

Pimp rap is a strand of hip-hop centred on the persona of the pimp, developed on the West Coast and in the South from the late 1980s. Its narrators, led by *Too Short*, *Ice-T* and *Suga Free*, deliver boastful, instructional rhymes about street economics, status and control over women, spoken with a player's polish rather than gangsta rap's menace. Production favours slow, funk-derived grooves built from P-funk and soul samples, deep bass and talkbox colour, giving the records a laid-back, cruising feel that matches the subject matter's claimed sophistication.