LIFE IN PRISON, THE MAN WHO GAINED FAME AS PIMP MR MARJANI FIGHTING SNOOKY IN THE AMERICAN PIMP DVD TELLS HIS SIDE OF THE STORY I’m just trying to keep my company afloat, because there’s some FBI agents and police that’ve been messing with me for the last 20 years. They really didn’t know that I was still alive. They thought Pimp Snooky was dead, because since I got out of Federal prison in 2000, I’ve been going under the name of Mr. Marjani. That’s my oldest daughter’s name. My name is Malani Marjani Avery, which means “black pure Avery.” Under that name, I’ve been throwing concerts and parties. I have my own artist and my own record company, Royalty Records. All of the people that said I’m one of the biggest pimps or most recognized pimps or most reputable pimps, they really don’t know the truth about who I am, Derek Avery. The person that I created fifteen years ago, has nothing to do with the person I am today. I can start and stop a war just by my presence. I’ve been affiliated with the streets for so long they doubted [I would make it out]. My brother is doing life in prison for a murder case. They told me seventeen years ago I’d end up in prison. It’s the same three cops that’s been messing with my family and have sent me to prison both times. The reason these cops [have it out for me] is because they’re only making $60,000-$70,000 a year, and that’s my tennis shoe money. When I came back to Milwaukee and opened up my clothing store, and my nightclub, the streets got to talkin’, like, “Hey, that’s Pimp Snooky’s joint.” When I was sitting in my nightclub with my kids, the police came in and said, “Nigga, you ain’t no ghetto savior.” I told ‘em they should’ve fucked with me twenty years ago. My money is legitimate now. I don’t do anything crooked. The bitches that [the police] say are my hoes are actually my baby mamas. So I can’t be around my baby mamas because y’all say they’re prostitutes? These are the same cops that told me when I got out of prison, “Your life is over. You’ll never be successful.” When I got out I moved away from Milwaukee. I moved to Las Vegas and there were some influential people around here that supported me. Everybody in the world was loving this character, Pimp Snooky, not even knowing that Pimp Snooky holds a charity event every year. I give away 300 book bags and tennis shoes to kids. I throw a yearly carnival every year with my nightclub; a whole block party. I give away a hundred tennis shoes every Thanksgiving for the last four years and forty turkeys in the neighborhood. They don’t know that part of me. They only see what’s on the internet, and none of the Pimp Snooky sites or Pimp Snooky myspace page are mine. Back in 1998 when I did the movie [American Pimp] I was on federal bond and state probation. In order to be on parole, you must comply with their rules and their stipulations; you must have a job and you must show your income. They gave me permission to do every [pimp] movie I’v done, and fifteen years later, they’re trying to prosecute me because I’m around known drug dealers, hustlers, pimps, and hoes? That doesn’t mean shit. I own a nightclub. I get paid for that. Right now, in Las Vegas, Nevada, they are charging me with pandering. I was in a casino and an undercover officer came up to me asking [if I would] buy sex. I was with my artists, and we were drunk, high, and kickin’ it. We’re like, “Lady, you don’t look good enough for us to buy no sex from ya,” so she changes up from buying sex into saying, “I wanna work for you.” [I respond,] “What do you mean you wanna work for me? You don’t even know who I am.” You know, we laughed it off. Next thing you know, I’m under arrest. They charged me with pandering and later changed it to attempt to pander. “Attempt to pander” means aiding, coercing, offering to purchase clothes, food, anything. Ain’t none of this shit happen. I didn’t make Pimp Snooky. The Hughes Brothers put me on the [DVD] cover and titled me “American Pimp.” HBO paid me for that. Jerry Springer paid me for that. Every movie I’ve been in, I’ve been paid for it. Every CD I’ve been on, I’ve been paid to do that. Why would I attempt to pander? I don’t need a broad’s money. I own five major corporations. I own a nightclub and a clothing line. Why would I need to talk to a girl to get me some money? I don’t need that. Now, if I wanted to knock her, I would. I can knock damn near any broad in the world but that’s not even my interest anymore. When I got out of prison, I was a well-known, established legend; a household name because of the movie [American Pimp]. I sent letters to the Hughes Brothers saying, “Listen, I didn’t ask y’all to put me on those [DVD] covers. Compensate me.” Nobody would pay me, so I figured if everybody’s gonna capitalize off my name while I was in prison, I’ma turn around and do the same thing. But instead of doing it with Pimp Snooky, I did it with [the name]
Mr. Marjani. I can show people how to go into a bank without a business plan, without collateral, with just a credit score, and show you how to get $65,000 to $75,000. I can show you which bank to go to. I know how to get rated on Dunn & Bradstreet. I know how to build a corporation. The same energy we put into hustling and negative shit and criminal shit and hurting each other in the streets, we can put that energy into doing some positive shit. That’s what the banks are there for; to loan us money. When I started to do that over the last three or four years – I was going into banks and getting $200,000 and $300,000 [loans] with no static. I started showing everybody [how to do it]. “Hey brother, the same way you go out here and sell two, three, four, five ounces of drugs and take a risk of going to prison, why don’t you apply that same energy with your crew and find out who’s got a good credit score?” Know how to show equity. Know how to buy commercial property and then you can go to the bank. And you can still ride around with these jewels and cars and everything else that you think is gonna make you happy. Ain’t no retirement or 401K in the streets. [The police] think my money is all street-affiliated. But my investors are all people that exist. The FBI has went to [my investors] and said, “Did you give this man half a million dollars?” and they say, “Yes.” [The FBI] asks, “Why? He’s a convicted felon. He’s a pimp. He’s been to prison.” [The FBI] keeps thinking that I get my money from women, but I’ve gotten my money from private investors for the last three years. And I’ve juggled my money very well. I’m facing life in [prison] in Nevada and I’m facing life in the Eastern district of Wisconsin. I’m fighting both charges. They’re trying to say that I’m a habitual offender, but I don’t even have a bad criminal record. I’ve been to prison for child support and felony possession of a firearm, but that’s not habitual. I’ve never been charged with pandering [before] in my life. Even the photos that we took [for OZONE Magazine] at my celebrity birthday party [in Minneapolis] are being used as evidence against me. They’re saying that the ladies in the pictures are prostitutes, and the guys in the pictures are my artists. [But] the ladies in these pictures are my kids’ mothers. They’ve been with me for twelve, eight, nine, thirteen years. But that’s the kind of evidence they’re using. They’re using the Pimp Snooky Myspace page as evidence, and that’s not even my Myspace page. The whole case is malicious. It’s biased. It’s entrapment, because at the end of the preliminary hearing, they clearly stated that all three of the cops that arrested me that night saw [my] Pimps Up, Hoes Down video in the American Pimp DVD. The state is using these same cops as “expert witnesses.” If you ask them, “What makes you an expert [on pimpin’]?” They’ll say they read some Iceberg Slim books and studied HBO’s Pimps Up Hoes Down and the American Pimp DVD. So the whole Vice [department] in Nevada studied me. I’m the person they saw on the DVD covers of those videos and I’m the person who stands out on those tapes. If you see Wesley Snipes at the Mandalay Bay, are you gonna think he’s a vampire slayer or a daywalker just because you saw him on Blade? That’s the same way people identify me. We really don’t know exactly all the charges Milwaukee is bringing against [me]. They’re still postponing court dates and looking for more witnesses. If you’ve gone to court four times with the same evidence and they said [it wasn’t enough] to try me, then leave me alone. My advice to everybody is to take the same energy and motivation and skills that you would put into the streets and apply it into some positive things. Don’t be afraid. Be determined about what you want. If you’re in the game, you’re gonna die or go to jail. Period. There’s no future in it. And if you think the materialistic shit is gonna make you happy, you’re sadly mistaken. It’s lonely at the top. Money doesn’t bring happiness. Understanding, respect, and love is what’s gonna carry you. I’m struggling right now trying to keep my kids. [The Feds] are trying to stop me from seeing my kids. They’re telling my kids’ mothers not to communicate with me, and I don’t think that’s right. I have a total of 23 kids and I have no child support problems. They’re trying to cause child support problems. None of my kids are neglected. I have five kids that are getting aid from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, by two different baby mothers. I pay $750/month and I’ve been current with my child support and they aren’t complaining about anything. The federal government and the IRS guy, Robert Warren, is going to my kids’ mothers asking them to [pursue] me for more money. They’re trying to hit me from all angles. It’s heavy. I could go real deep, revealing dirty cops and a whole bunch of crooked ass shit. So they really don’t wanna play with me.
OZONE MAG // 59