COPYRIGHT The Orlando Sentinel
Byline: Aline Mendelsohn
Mar. 31--Once upon a time, there were bejeweled glasses called goblets and chalices. Today, they have a new name: pimp cups. There's The Pimpstress and The Pimpadelic, The Throwback and The Big Tyme, the Viceroy and The Royal. Those are just a few of the many varieties of the pimp cup, an accessory that has become popular among a segment of the hip-hop community. For the uninitiated, pimp cups are goblets -- sometimes trophy-sized -- decorated with rhinestones, cubic zirconia or even diamonds. Many of the cups spell out in jewels the word "pimp," "playa" or the cup owner's name. In the past few years, the cups have been a visible party accessory among rappers such as
Lil' Jon, 50 Cent and Snoop Dogg. "The pimp cup itself is so iconic of the flamboyance and ostentatious nature of the pimp culture," says Jeffrey O.G. Ogbar, who studies hip-hop culture and is an associate professor of history at the University of Connecticut. "It's just an extension of . .
. the same impulse to be ostentatious and gaudy." "I'd imagine they'd think it's a good accessory, just as much as would a businessman see cuff links as a standard accessory." A hobby grows Debbie Harrison is known in some circles as the "queen of bling." Also known as "Debbie the Glass Lady," Harrison says she originated pimp cups about 25 years ago. The Chicago woman made a hobby of painting glasses as gifts. As a bartender, she used to give them to her favorite customers.
Harrison, now 56, noticed that hip-hop videos showed artists drinking out of plastic cups. "I thought that was terrible," she says.
In 2000, she began selling the cups, which range in price from $100 to $1,000. Word spread, and now Harrison says she makes them for celebrity clients such as rapper Lil' Jon. Locally, Mark Layton runs a business in Seminole County called cus tomcups.net. Attempts to interview him were unsuccessful. "I don't want to go into the secrets of how we do it," Layton told The St. Petersburg Times in December. His Web site features dozens of cups in various shapes and colors. And for the women out there, Layton sells "Honey cups," because, as the Web site points out, "Ladies are pimps, too!" It goes with the outfit Chris Perry sees pimp cups as an exotic accessory and a good conversation piece. Perry, an Orange Park rap producer who goes by the handle "Tight Daddy," owns six cups in blue, burgundy, gold and platinum. He likes matching the cups with his outfits. "It's like a really, really nice showpiece at the club," Perry, 27, says. "It just catches everybody's eye. It really intrigues people, the glitz and glamour of the cup." About a year ago Orlando rapper Cesar Gallardo, a k a Fidel Cashflow, received a pimp cup anonymously.
He's not sure who sent him the stainless-steel cup encrusted with "crystal-looking type things," but he likes it. "I like the way it represents me, and it's different than anybody else's cup," Gallardo, says. "You don't just bring it everywhere," he says. "It's for a special occasion when you're looking to show off. You'll have your pimp cup, your jewelry on, your beautiful girls around." For Gallardo, the cup is an accessory, not a utensil. He avoids using it as a drinking cup because alcohol tends to take the shine away. But he acknowledges, "Depending on how drunk I am, I may end up drinking out of it." One thing is for sure, no matter how hard he has been partying, the cup stays with him at all times. "You don't leave it unattended," Gallardo says.
Copyright (c) , The Orlando Sentinel, Fla.
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