EPIMPIN’: GAME DON’T STOP “Only one thing can sell better than cotton and candy and that’s a lady of leisure,” shares the now-retired Bay area pimp Gangsta Brown. And perhaps Brown is right. If there are any sure things in life then the fact that there will be horny johns lining up to buy their fantasies seems to be as sure as any. What has changed and will continue to change, however, is the way pimps deliver johns their lusty desires. The pimp game, which once heavily depended on using the streets to lure clients, has long since launched itself into the technology age, making the Internet its new showroom. Bay Area rapper and the son of a pimp, Mistah FAB, pins the move to the online world over ten years ago. “This ain’t something new,” FAB tells. “Women have been on websites for years now.” While this may seem surprising, Brown recalls the story of how ePimpin’ first came to be in the Bay area. “A pimp from Oakland came down to us in the early 80s with business cards, telling is that we could join up with this call service if we were tired of doing our thing in the streets,” he explains. “It started off where we were screening calls using the computer, ignoring all the blocked calls. By 1990 you had girls with their pictures and a phone number online and then by the mid-90s, it really took off.” Older pimps were hesitant to take their pimpin’ to the online realm and slowly eased themselves into the new trend. “A lot of playas didn’t want to go to the Internet,” shares Brown. “I had a lot of high potential females from wealthy families. Their families were high-powered so we had to protect them. The Internet could keep their family from finding out what they were doing.” ePimpin’ had one up on the streets in other ways, too, besides just protecting the integrity of the working women. In fact, the internet provided pimps and their ladies of leisure a little added security and provided a healthy boost in profits. “Outside bitches are all after that one car and put themselves at risk of going to jail. Online it’s safer. You may run into that that surprise prostitution bust, but that’s it,” comments Fillmore representative San Quinn. The Internet also helped increase profits, allowing pimps to charge more and offer better quality services. At his peak, in what he refers to as the “Hollywood 80s,” Brown was almost solely using the Internet and charging anywhere from $500 to $1,000 an hour for the services his ladies provided, banking upwards of $30,000 a month. “I’ve been in the game for over 37 years,” says Brown. “I did the old school and the new school and when it comes down to the money, online you make more of it.” ePimpin’ brought the business out of the streets and to corporate America through the internet. This alone helped increase profits, according to Quinn. “Someone looking from that computer is someone who’s gonna spend some money,” he offers. Those online were the ones who were willing to spend money, both for pleasure and protection. Married executives could now simply go online and find a girl without running the risk of getting caught trying to pick a girl up on the streets. Johns caught looking for pleasure in the streets of Oakland are often publicly revealed. “A lot of corporate people use the Internet now to get ladies of leisure,” shares Brown. “The police on the street stepped their game up and now when johns are caught they’re put on billboards and in the newspaper. When we went high-end corporate they were paying for protection.” The ladies of leisure also experienced benefits with the move online. The women now knew exactly how long their encounter with a client would be, exactly what the client wanted and could make sure that the encounter happened where they felt safer, such as in a hotel. As the Internet changed the pimping game for the better, so came the downside. The Internet made it easier for people to become self-proclaimed pimps and the Bay Area became saturated with knockoffs. What these new pimps lacked was knowledge about the game and the 101 rules. “These new booties messing the game up,” says Brown. “These guys don’t know the game and the game won’t correct itself, it’s too late. These new playas need to go to an OG and learn the 101 rules.”
Bay Area pimps are also complaining about an increase in the number of girls without pimps (a.k.a. renegades), minors trying to pimp, and minors being pimped. One Bay Area O.G. pimp speaks out against the the problem: “I could never condone a 12 or 13 year old selling her Bay Area retired pimp Gangsta Brown and Too $hort body. It’s like sex shops in Cambodia or Thailand. Anybody in that should die a slow death.” Older pimps aren’t only upset about minors in the game but d-boys as well. “Drug dealers have no place in the game,” says Brown. “A d-boy has no heart and a playa has to deal with ladies of leisure who are human. A d-boy is quick with the trigger and that’s not what the game’s about.” The number of pimps birthed by ePimpin’ has “made the game more cutthroat” according to both FAB and Quinn. It has also lead to ignorance of the rules which has lead to a breakdown in the procedures pimps once followed. While pimping protocol once required a pimp to serve another pimp his papers if he was taking one of his women, this is often ignored today. Dave, a Bay Area pimp, comments, “A pimp will just email your chick now and try to steal your chick. He won’t even serve you your papers.” Pimps are now also becoming more public with their work. Older pimps remember when they didn’t share what they did and when only those who had to know knew what they did. As Fab puts it, “Pimps were like vampires coming out at night.” Now, pimps are happy to share what it is they do and, according to older pimps, are outright disrespecting the game. “A playa is born, not made,” says Brown. “And the Internet is letting people think they can just become a playa. That’s why the Internet hurts the game. Otherwise, for the real playas who know the rules, it helps.” With a rich pimpin’ history, it is no surprise that the Bay area would pioneer new ways to pimp. The Bay’s heritage also means more people are drawn into the game. But a pimp is nothing without potential customers and the Bay offers pimps just that. With several technology firms and financial institutions, the Bay Area is full of needy executives who want the highest quality leisure service that money can buy. In addition to the large number of pimps and wealthy clients, being in Silicon Valley makes the Bay area the obvious cradle for pimpin’s march into the online world. But there’s yet another reason that the online pimpin’ revolution took place in the Bay, and that’s Craigslist.com. Calling the Bay Area home, Craig’s List took the city and then the rest of the nation by storm. With this tool at their disposal, pimps put some of their women online with promises of a good time. Craig’s List was only the first and lead to the rise of other websites. While some of these websites were similar to Craig’s List in that they offered several different products for sale, some websites simply began selling ladies of leisure. “You got a bunch of sites that people be using to sell women,” says FAB. “It’s just that Craig’s List was kind of the first one that was used it like that because everyone was using it.” As ePimpin’ is on the rise, an old culture of pimping is falling to the wayside and a new culture is rising. While the older generation of pimps realizes the benefits of taking their game to the internet they are skeptical of the Internet, at the same time, as it has corrupted a culture that was once based on strict rules. But in the end, whether it’s through the streets or online, it comes down to one thing for older pimps like Brown: “In the end I love making an old man smile for a small fee.” // Words by Rohit Loomba & Mike Li // Photo by Julia Beverly OZONE WEST // 23