Songfacts®:

• In this song, 50 Cent lets the ladies know that he won't be played. No matter their charms, he's not going to spend his hard-earned money buying them all that fancy stuff they're after. Why? He spells it out for them: he's a P.I.M.P. who's all about the money. There are plenty of guys out there they can play for cash, but he's not one of them.
• 50 Cent brings island rhythms to this track - it's a rare rap song with a steel drum as a lead instrument.
  
  The song is part of 50's debut album Get Rich Or Die Tryin', which introduced him with the single "In Da Club." That one has room-shaking bass beats courtesy of Dr. Dre, but "P.I.M.P." has a very different sound. It's produced by Denaun Porter (Mr. Porter), who has done a lot of work with Eminem and his associates. Porter and 50 Cent wrote the song together.
• "P.I.M.P." was a huge hit in the summer of 2003. This was a huge year for 50 Cent. In March, he went to #1 with "In Da Club," which stayed there for nine weeks. In May, "21 Questions" went to the top spot and stayed for four. Around this time he also featured on the Lil' Kim song "Magic Stick," which went to #3 in July. "P.I.M.P." reached its chart peak of #3 that August. By the end of the year, Get Rich Or Die Tryin' had sold over 6 million copies and 50 was entrenched as a major player in the rap game.
• This song sounds like it's based on a calypso song from long ago, but it's all original - there are no samples or interpolations. If you hear an instrumental calypso song that sounds just like it, that's probably the 2008 cover by The Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band.
• Pimping was a hip-hop trope in the early '00s, led by Jay-Z's "Big Pimpin'" in 2000. Ice-T and Snoop Dogg claimed to have actual pimping businesses, but in songs like P.I.M.P. it's more about an attitude, a swagger glorified by the stereotypical boa-wearing, money-obsessed pimp from the 1970s.
  
  Pimps of yesteryear were known for driving Cadillacs and wearing perms. In this song, 50 makes it clear that he doesn't look the part but is a pimp nonetheless.
• A remix featuring Snoop Dogg, Lloyd Banks and Young Buck was released with the single. This is the version used in the music video, which also features these rappers. The video takes place at the headquarters of the Pimp Legion Of Doom, where 50 Cent is initiated, impressing the council with his "magic stick" - his cane, of course.