If "ain't" ain't a word, I ain't the one to object.

You might look at this picture and understand exactly what the sentence up there means. It is used by your favorite American singer, actor, actress, top model as well as by Barack Obama, Tom Hanks, Michael Jackson. "Ain't" is what I would call the evolution of the language. It works as a negative auxiliary verb. Its advantage is that it can be used to replace many others.

Let's break down the sentence "Pimpin' ain't easy", the word Pimpin' which is a derived from "pimping" means to have women work for you and bring the "dough"(money). That is, if you say "I've been pimping.", you mean you have girls working for you. It is basically related to prostitution. When 50 Cent says "I'm a P.I.M.P" he means he has prostitutes working for him.

"ain't" is replacing the negative copula "isn't". In the USA, It's ordinary to see people using "ain't" instead of "isn't" or "is not".

"easy" as you already know, means the opposite of hard, rough, difficult.

Other applications of ain't:

I ain't been there. = I haven't been there. (Present Perfect Tense)

She ain't my freind = She isn't my friend. (Simple Present Be)

"Ain't no mountain high enough, ain't no valley low enough"= There is no mountain high enough, there is no valley low enough. (Countable nouns)

I ain't got nothin' to do on the weekend. = I don't have anything to do on the weekend (American English) = I haven't got anything to do at the weekend. (Simple Present Tense)

Deep rooted in the culture since the 1960's:

"Ain't" was preceded by an't, which had been common for about a century previously. An't appears first in print in the work of English Restoration playwrights: it is seen first in 1695, when Willian Congreve wrote "I can hear you farther off, I an't deaf."

It is looked down upon by a number of people in the USA, England and other English speaking countries for it's informal. Accepting changes in the language is still an obstacle to a plethora of people who do not study Languages.

Use the word "ain't" and show native speakers and teachers that you are up-to-date. If someone says it's wrong, tell him/her check what pragmatics is.

I ain't got no spare time. See y'all later on.

Rodrigo Pelegrini Honorato
ESL Teacher
rphingles@yahoo.com.br