Minor rant: When did "pimp" become a good word????!!!!

[politicat]

One of the women Mr. Pcat works with (she's a junior programmer; he's a senior/architect) has been introducing him to new slang... which means he brings the words home and asks me to define them....

Her word for cool, neat, nifty, whatever is.... pimpin'. :wow: He was hoping he misheard her. We're both rather dumbfounded.

:wtf: ? When did a word that means extorting money from prostitutes in return for protection and/or clientele become a good thing? What the hell is wrong with this young woman?

If she and I worked together, of course, we'd have lunch and I'd very quietly and calmly explain that the word is not appropriate in a business setting, as well as being extraordinarily derogatory and blah-blah-blah.... but Mr. Pcat can't quite do that (other than the appropriateness... he's done that.)

Where did this crap come from?

Pcat

/rant

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

1. Rap music and urban culture

I would say. Lots of rap songs are about pimps and how cool pimps are.

[King of New Orleans]

2. Pimpin ain't easy but

it's necessary.

I've used it in the workplace too. Primarily in reference to times the company seems to be putting excessive effort in selling a particular product, usually a proprietary one.

[politicat]

5. Not in that context. More like: "That's a Pimpin' computer" or "What a

pimpin' tie."

If they were using it in that context, it would be understandable. As it's being used, it's a synonym for cool.

Which worries me.

Pcat

[Bernardo de La Paz]

3. It comes from the worst of rap and cop-killer bitch-slapping hiphop

It comes from the worst of rap and cop-killer bitch-slapping hiphop. Most rap and hiphop is not like that, but there is enough trash that gets enough bad-boy rebel-without-a-clue thrill-seeking publicity that it sticks.

Misplaced priorities by record companies eager for a quick buck.

Lack of good family upbringing leads to condoning treating women like whores.

Women who think that it is there lot in life that they should take that kind of treatment.

Republicans have been badmouthing feminism for decades.

[onebigbadwulf]

4. It means a few things

it means styling sometimes as well as the ability to draw in women. It's because pimps are always wearing outrageous clothes, or have suped up cars, and always have women around them.

A pimpin' ride means your car is decked out and you pull in girls with it.

If you call a guy a pimp, he is a "player" which means he just goes through girls. This is cool if you're a guy.

"Pimpin' is probably this generation's equivalent to "bitchin'. I still don't understand where that came from. Nevertheless, the previous generation will always have some new word to complain about.

[politicat]

6. "Previous generation" hah!! She's 23; I'm 28, he's 34. We're the SAME

generation (according to demographics.)

Different subcultures, different education levels....

Pcat

[onebigbadwulf]

15. I'm 23 and I don't think I'd consider 30 year olds in my generation

And isn't 18-25 a demographic?

[Ricdude]

7. I first heard it about 7 years ago...

I was reliving my old glory days of 8-bit computer geekdom by hanging out in a Linux/geek irc channel, and managed to help some kid through a programming problem. He responded with, "Dude, you're a pimp!". I had to ask, "Is that a good thing?" He assured me that it was... I suspect the Contemporary Urban revival of the 70's has something to do with it.

My personal favourite invokation of it is MTV's car makeover show, "Pimp My Ride". Wherein XZIBIT (a contemporary rap artist) takes a junker of a car from someone, usually with a street value of $100, and puts about $25,000 of custom body work, interior work, and entertainment system into it.

[politicat]

8. Thanks for the point.

Weird.

But that's what I get for abandoning television, commercial radio AND my CMJ subscription all about the same time.

I just hate to hear women buying into it. I've got no issues with prostitution, but pimps are another thing all together. I hate the idea. Leeches.

Pcat

[Guy Fawkes]

9. About the time "tits" became bad...

So instead of "that book on political science is tits!" one might say: "That book on political science is pimpin'!"

(can you tell if I'm joking?)

[JohnKleeb]

10. yes because I never heard a book was tits

Now if you said those nude photos of that girl are "titaliting" I would see your point. I for one prefer boobies to tits as a word.

[makhno]

11. Hmm

we'd have lunch and I'd very quietly and calmly explain that the word is not appropriate in a business setting

Hmm, for personal or liability reasons? Most engineering teams I've seen are pretty liberal with the language, despite the very real possibility that a misplaced word can create some legal trouble for the company. Engineers are usually careful in front of non-technical management types or team members believed to be sensitive to such things, but regular conversations routinely involve "abusive language of a sexual nature." As is the case of the experience recounted in your post, the offenders are by no means exclusively male.

Not sure what the environment is like where you work, but "pimping" seems to be now firmly established in daily workplace conversation. Over the past year or so, I've also noticed "gay" making inroads into the workplace vocabulary, a South Park influence perhaps, although I'm not particularly knowledgeable about pop culture. I've also noticed that the NY-based teams I've worked with tend more toward the profane than their SF-area counterparts, all the while sharing similarly progressive views on politics and gender.

Hopefully, this is a sign of mere linguistic evolution rather than widespread acceptance of intolerant or discriminatory practices.

[DrZhivago]

13. its not pimpin'

that sounds like something whitey would say. Its just plain ol' pimp, as in "those shoes are pimp, yo", you wouldnt say "that ride is pimp" however, you would say "thats a pimp ride". Better yet, you would say something specific like, "damn, those rims are clean", with an emphasis on KLEEEN.

Thats the end of today's lesson boys and girls.

[makhno]

14. Interesting observation

Out of curiosity, when did "pimp" enter common usage as an adjective? This thread piqued my interest enough to give an old NWA record a listen and "pimp" didn't appear to be employed often if at all. The American Heritage dictionary also only lists it as a noun or verb.

[sleipnir]

12. I da pimp who be foolin' you...don't front unless you got the goods.

Bad news for ya my friend,

Pimp became popular about 10 years ago, you've been livin' in the dark ages longer than you thought.

I'll search my pop culture computer in my head and say the the earliest most popular and widest-spread (Though all races and regions) would be Ice Cube's "Today Was a Good Day." In which he emphatically expresses the the Goodyear blimp clearly states "Ice Cube's a Pimp!"

It's slightly a misogynist term, but again, refers to anyone with Bling-Bling (Victorian-era superficial physical monetary expressions, reborn) or anyone who has style enough to get a decent amount of "Hoes" into the sack on a weekend.

I'd be a pimp if I could get my cash-money to work out better and didn't spend it on food, rent and college loans. Damn the real world, I think I'll stick in the Elysian Fields of Rap music....