The Lessons of a Pimp The monikers Ice-T and Ice Cube nod to the influence of Iceberg Slim, the pimp turned author whose real name was Robert Beck, on the ethos and style of gangster rap. In further homage, Ice-T has produced "Iceberg Slim: Portrait of a Pimp," a documentary told through talking-head admirers including Chris Rock and Snoop Dogg. The film was directed by Ice-T's manager, Jorge Hinojosa, a first-time director who credits reading Mr. Beck's first book, "Pimp: The Story of My Life" (1967), at Ice-T's suggestion, with teaching him everything he needed to know about "the game" of managing a rap star with larger ambitions. A fascinating subtext of the film is that the terms "pimp" and "game" refer both to the sometimes illegal strategies for surviving street life and to the storytelling and selling of that experience through art. As Ice-T says when citing the influence of Mr. Beck's books on his music, "There are two sides: the game and the B side." But an explanation of that B side, including the nuances and paradoxes of self-exploitation, are only hinted at rather than explored. Though directed with some flourishes, including a riveting use of music and attractive animated pulp art, the film is weighed down by the testimony of bespectacled professors from hip critical studies and English departments and a psychologist, who describe Mr. Beck's biography without the punch and lyricism of his prose. He was 73 when he died in 1992. "There are no esoteric psychiatrist dialogues, dead preachments or leaden footnotes on the living pages of this book," Iceberg Slim wrote in the introduction to his 1969 book, "Mama Black Widow." If only the same could be said of this film. "Iceberg Slim: Portrait of a Pimp" is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian) for sexual content, some violent images and language, including academic use of the words "pimpin" " and "ho."