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Thursday, December 29, 2011

All African Dances Aren't About Shaking Your Booty

Edited by Azizi Powell

All Black African dances aren't about hip shaking or butt shaking. This post features videos of eight African dances that either don't include any hip or butt shaking or only include a little of those dance movements. I'm focusing on these styles of African dances because it seems to me that most Black African dances do emphasize hip and/or butt shaking movements. But I might be wrong about that.

By no means are these the only videos I found on YouTube of African dances which don't include or emphasize hip or butt shaking. Nor are these featured videos from the nations indicated the only types of non-hip & butt shaking traditional dancing from those nations. Enjoy!

FEATURED VIDEOS
Example #1: "Sora Sora" [Ethiopia]



Uploaded by GilaGilaGilaGilaGila on Oct 19, 2009

Summer hit of 2009 in Ethiopia; featuring great singing, shoulder dance, pretty girls and funky boys.
The music video was shot in and around Lalibela. Enjoy.

-snip-

From http://ethiopianadventures.wordpress.com/2011/06/15/eskista/ "The dancing style, known as ‘eskista’, involves a lot of vigorous head jerking and shoulder bopping."
-snip-
According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlem_shake
the Eskista dance is source of the Hip Hop dance "The Harlem Shake" and another Hip Hop dance, "Chicken Noodle Soup", evolved from "The Harlem Shake".

**
Example #2: Tshwane Traditional Dancers [South Africa]



Uploaded by RooneyProductions on Oct 15, 2008

Tshwane cultural troupe - Temba, South Africa

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Example #3: Pretty Zulu Girls show their Wedding Dance [South Africa]



Uploaded by GlobalDVC on Apr 28, 2008

...Beautiful Zulu girl Mafuthi Mathenjwa works at the Simunye Community Tourism Association Office (sponsored by DaimlerChrysler) based at the entrance of Khula Village a small rural settlement next to the Dukuduku Forest on the fringes of the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park in Zululand...This tourism office is the first in South Africa to be entirely owned and operated by members of the local community.

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Example #4: Makhirikhiri - "Tsabana" [Botswana]



Uploaded by TheUwazi on Jun 6, 2010

"Tsa Bana is a Botswana phrase meaning For Children It's a name for a supplementary feeding product supplied by the Botswana Government Once a month you carry your under 5 kid to the clinic for checkups and you get a 5kg bag.It was meant for low income families who cannot properly feed their babies. The product is made of Soya beans, maize meal and fortified powdered cow milk.It was meant for children, BUT it has been a big hit with ADULTS too. That is the story behind the song."
- alecshapiro; October 2011

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Example #5: Kessia & Marvella - Yoronimu [Burundi]



Uploaded by idamawatu on Jun 30, 2008

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Example #6: Mbute Pygmies Tribal Dance [Democratic Republic Of The Congo]



Uploaded by PilgrimReliefSociety on Jan 19, 2010

Rare footage of Mbute pygmies (forest people) of central Africa performing a traditional dance. The Mbute forest people have been the victims of unspeakable atrocities. They are still discriminated and persecuted today. Yet the beauty of their culture still lingers. Help us keep it alive.

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Example #7: Intore Dancing [Rwanda]



Rutembesa Guillaume,Uploaded on Dec 23, 2011
-snip-
From http://www.rwanda-direct.com/rwanda-intore-dancers/
"There are three main components to Rwandan Ballet, and a standard performance by a group will contain all three. These are the songs/dances that are the essence of the art form (and are referred to here as 'the Ballet'), Intore (dance of heroes) and Ingoma ('drums').

The 'Dance of Heroes' is performed by men wearing grass wigs and carrying spears. The background is a dance performed by returning warriors, celebrating victory in battle. The dancers move from side to side combining grace and complex choreography with a raw aggression. At certain stages the dancers stop, with arms outstretched and make blood-curdling battle crys.

These calls are individual to each dancer and represent warriors declaiming the details of how many he had slain in battle. Battles traditionally involved Hutu, Tutsi and Twa fighting alongside each-other against a common enemy. The performance of Intore therefore has always consisted of warriors of all groups dancing together.
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Example #8: Masai Dancing [Tanzania]



Uploaded by bingwa90 on Feb 23, 2008

This is footage filmed in Tanzania of Masai dancing prior to a special ceremony which takes place in the bush once every 18/20 years or so. This ceremony is attended by 2,000/3,000 people from all over Tanzania, and is specially for the initiation of the young 'Morani' into becoming 'keepers of the village' with all the prestige this position carries with it. It is also time to bid goodbye to the outgoing Morani, who become elders, and are not happy about this, which creates hostilities. Spectacular displays of colour, traditional dress, and dancing are seen at the event. A later video shows the upset Morani 'thrashing about' in distress at losing their status. In the meantime, the dancing continues......

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Wednesday, December 28, 2011

The Meaning Of "African Booty" In Children's Rhymes

Edited by Azizi Powell

Latest Update - November 29, 2023

This pancocojams post provides definitions and commentary about the term "African booty". 

This post also presents various text (word only) examples of the term "African booty" that are found in the children's recreational rhymes "Mailman Mailman Do Your Duty" and "Policeman Policeman Do Your Duty". Some video examples of these rhymes are also showcased in this post.

The content of this post is presented for folkloric and cultural purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post. Thanks to all those who are featured in the embedded videos, and thanks to the publishers of those videos on YouTube.

This post was republished in its entirety on November 15, 2018 with the title "What "African Booty" Means And Examples of The Use Of The Term "African Booty" In "Mailman Mailman Do Your Duty" Children's Rhymes https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2018/11/what-african-booty-means-and-examples.html

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2018/11/my-comments-about-whether-phrase.html for a continuation of this subject entitled "My Comments About Whether The Phrase "African Booty" In The Children's Rhyme "Mailman Mailman" Is Racist".

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DEFINITION AND USE OF THE PHRASE "AFRICAN BOOTY" [Revised November 15, 2018]
"African booty", a phrase from African American English that means "a big butt", appears to be limited to its neutral or positive use in certain children's playground rhymes, or its negative, insulting use in the term "African booty scratcher".

While the term "African booty" could be applied to males, it usually is reserved as a descriptor for teenage girls and women. In the phrase "African booty", the word "African" is evidence of the widely held, although erroneous belief that all women of African descent have big butts. As is the case with a lot of African American vernacular, while the phrase "African booty" originated with Black Americans, it has also been used by non-Black Americans.

The phrase "African booty" is found in some examples of contemporary (usually post 1970s*) versions of the American children's playground rhyme family "Mailman Mailman (do your duty)". Those rhymes are also known as "Policeman Policeman (do your duty)" or similar titles. In that sub-set of that family of jump rope or hand clap rhymes, the line "Mailman mailman do your duty" is followed by the line "Here comes a lady with an African booty".

*Note below a comment from Anonymous, July 10, 2018 that she or he recalls children jumping rope "in the 1960s in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood" singing "African booty" in a jump rope song. This is the earliest reference that I've come across of the term "African booty" being found in a children's rhyme.

Examples of "Postman Postman Do Your Duty" rhymes without the "African booty" term are included in now classic 1959 collection of mostly United Kingdom children's rhymes The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren by Iona & Peter Opie. Here's an excerpt about the "Mailman Mailman" rhyme from that book:

"In all of Britain the young have sent our Valentines {Valentine cards are definitely in fashion again}, and they have written anonymous verses, In Aberdeen and elsewhere in Scotland the boy follow the old convention of putting verse on the envelopes, addressed to the post man.

Postman, Postman, do your duty
Take this to my loving beauty.
Postie, Postie, don't delay,
Do the rhumba all the way" (Opie, Lore & Language, p. 236)"

Instead of the phrase "my loving beauty", I believe that the usual pre-1970s American versions of this rhyme included the phrase "an American beauty" or "Miss American beauty".

I've also found two online examples of the use of the term "African beauty" in "Mailman Mailman" rhymes. [Read Example #& and #8 below]. "African beauty" may be a folk etymology substitution for "African booty". However, given the often negative attitudes about Black physical appearance in mainstream United States and other Westernized cultures, it would be significant if "African beauty" were purposely used in these children's rhymes.

From my online research, it appears that some children continue to use the phrase "American beauty" as the rhyming line to "do your duty", while other children use the phrase "African booty". While it's probable that most of those persons who chant "here's come a lady with an African booty" are Black, there's evidence that that line has crossed over to non-Black persons.

Various YouTube videos document the fact that a number of non-Black children routinely chant the "African booty" phrase in "Mailman Mailman Do Your Duty" handclap rhymes. Some commenters in those videos' discussion threads* and in some other online sites also have shared examples of "Mailman Mailman" rhymes with the term "African booty". These bloggers and these children featured on YouTube videos appear to use "African booty" as a matter of course. That phrase doesn't appear to have any positive or negative connotations for them

*As of Feb. 28, 2018 YouTube disabled commenting for most videos that feature children. This action was taken to "protect children from predatory comments".https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/28/18244954/youtube-comments-minor-children-exploitation-monetization-creators 

When YouTube disabled that comment feature, they deleting the comments that had been published in those video's discussion thread. Unfortunately, that action erased a treasure trove of material for folklorists and meant the end of that rich resource of children's recreational rhymes and cheers from that time on. Thankfully, prior to knowing about that impending action,  I had copied some comments from some of those discussion threads before Feb. 2018. Also, thankfully, YouTube discussion threads about children's recreational rhymes that feature adults are still active, and (for some reason) a few discussion threads that feature children are still active.
-end of note about comment feature being disabled-
 
The word "booty" may have been introduced to non-African Americans by K C & Sunshine Band's 1976 hit R&B record "Shake Your Booty". The phrase "shake your booty" may appear in a few African American hand clap rhymes or cheers, but it doesn't appear to be used that often in those play experiences. I can't recall ever coming across any use of the words "African booty" in any other hand clap rhyme or cheer other "Mailman Mailman Do You Duty" or similarly titled rhymes as "Policeman Policeman", "Postman Postman" etc.

Apart from its use in the insulting term "African booty scratcher" (which isn't used in children's rhymes), the term "African booty" doesn't appear to be common among African Americans or non-African Americans.  Instead, it's much more likely for contemporary Americans to informally say that  someone (particularly a woman) has "a big butt" or "a big booty" (with the word "butt" used more often than the word "booty").

I believe that most African American adults know what the word "booty" and the term "African booty" mean, and I believe that it is much less likely that non-Black American adults know what the word "booty" and the term "African booty" mean. Depending on their age, I believe that it's likely that a lot of African American children don't know what "African booty" means. I think that children (usually girls) regardless of their race/ethnicity who chant "Mailman Mailman" ("Policeman Policeman)" rhymes which include the phrase "African booty" do so from rote memory without any thought about what that phrase means.

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MY MEMORIES OF THE POLICEMAN POLICEMAN RHYME AND MY DAUGHTER'S USE OF THE TERM "AFRICAN BOOTY" IN POLICE LADY" RHYMES
Here's the version of the very similar rhyme "Policeman, Policeman" that I recall from my childhood in the mid 1950s, Atlantic City, New Jersey (African American girls, group jump rope)

Policeman, Policeman,
Do your duty.
Here comes [insert the jumper's name or nickname]
an American beauty.
She can wiggle.
She can wobble
She can do the flip [later the word 'twist' replaced the word 'flip']
But I betcha five dollars she can't do this:
Lady on one foot, one foot, one foot,
turn all around. [jump on 1 foot and turn around]
Lady on two foot, two foot, two foot
Touch the ground.[jump on 2 feet and touch the ground]
Lady of three foot, three foot, three foot [jump on 2 feet with one hand on the ground]
Lady on two feet say your prayers. [jump on 2 feet while folding your hands like you are praying]
Lady on four foot, four foot, four foot [jump on 2 feet while placing both hands on the ground]
[Now] Go to bed. [jump out of the rope]
-snip-
In the mid 1980s Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, my daughter and her girlfriends jumped rope while chanting a version of the "Policeman Policeman" rhyme that is very similar to the one that I recall from my childhood. However, the version that my daughter & her friends chanted reflects two significant societal changes: the inclusion of women in the police force, and the attitude that having an "African booty" was a good thing. Instead of "policeman", the girls chanted "Police lady Police lady do your duty".

In the early 2000s, my daughter - an elementary school teacher - shared with me an experience she had while taking her first grade class to a nearby public park. All of the students in her class were African American. A White man and his pre-school (White) daughter happened to be visiting that same park. Some of the girls in her classroom who were turning the ends of the jump rope sang the "Police Lady Police Lady" rhyme which included the line "here comes a lady with an African booty". (I'm not sure if the girls in her classroom knew that version before she sang it or not.) The White man asked could his daughter and he join the jump rope game, and before long he and his daughter were singing the "here comes a lady with an African booty" line. That's just one example of how versions of rhymes get passed on from one generation to another, and from one racial population to another.

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THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN "AFRICAN BOOTY" AND "AFRICAN BOOTY SCRATCHER"
It should be noted that the phrase "African booty" is not a taunt like the similar phrase "African booty scratcher".

I believe that the referent "African booty stratcher" pre-dates the use of "African booty" in these children's rhymes. Unlike "African booty" [in those rhymes], "African booty stratcher" is definitely racist as it equates Black people (and particularly Black Africans) to monkeys or and apes. Often the person being taunted by that phrase is an immigrant from Africa, and often the person doing the taunting is an African American.

I believe that the "African booty" in the "Mailman Mailman" rhymes isn't an insult. Saying that a female has an "African booty" might even be considered a compliment since teenage females and adult females regardless of race/ethnicity like to have big butts. That said, having an "African booty" wasn't always considered a compliment, and it's probably wisest to refrain from using that phrase as a description of any female, particularly any Black female.

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THE HISTORY OF NEGATIVELY DESCRIBING FEMALES AS HAVING A BIG BUTT
The stereotype of Black women having big butts was heavily influenced by, if not originated from the gross, racist mistreatment in the early 19th century of the South African woman Sarah Baartman and another South African woman. In 1810, Sarah Baartman and the other African woman were taken from South Africa and exhibited in Great Britain and elsewhere in Europe as a freak of nature because of their "big butts". These women were labeled "the Hottentot Venus”. Upon her death until 2003, a replication of Baartman's body which emphasized her large protruding butt was featured in a French museum. Click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Baartman for information about Sarah Baartman.

Americans have had ambivalent opinions about big butt females for quite some time. Jimmy Castor 1975 "Bertha Butt Boogie" Rhythm & Blues songs document the humor Americans' have for big ("heavy set") women with big butts. Click http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LQJYgs1sxc "Bertha Butt Boogie" for an example of those songs. Also, click http://artists.letssingit.com/jimmy-castor-lyrics-the-bertha-butt-boogie-8tbtw43 for the words to that song.

Among African Americans, a female with a "Bertha Butt" means a female (usually a Black female) with a large, protruding butt. I believe that phrase was used prior to the Jimmy Castor songs. My theory is that the origin of "Bertha Butt" was the 1947 American prison Blues song "O Berta". That song has a line "I call Berta, but she didn't answer me". Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/06/o-berta-prison-blues.html for a pancocojams blog post about that song.

In contrast to song's that ridicule big butt women, the 1988 R&B song "Da Butt" by the Washington, D. C. group E. U. [European Union] praises those women, reflecting the positive societal value given to women who have a big butt. Click http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FShE0VifCYs for a video of that song. Click http://lyrics.filestube.com/song/a433f344b5c91eca03e9,Da-Butt-From-School-Daze.html for the lyrics to that song.

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PERFORMANCE ACTIVITIES FOR THE RHYME "MAILMAN MAILMAN"
As mentioned above, the "Mailman Mailman" (do your duty) rhymes used to be chanted while jumping rope. However, as is the case with most jump rope rhymes, by at least the 1960s, in the United States at least, partner or three or four person handclapping was the preferred performance activity for those rhymes.

As documented by several YouTube videos and their viewer comment threads, the phrase "African booty" continues to be chanted by girls -regardless of race- as either a handclap rhyme, or a movement rhyme without accompanying handclap activities. With either of those performance activities, the girls use mimicking motions on cue- they shake their balled up fists in front of them when saying pom poms (in imitation of cheerleaders holding pom poms); they shake their hips from side to side as was done to the once popular "twist" dance; and with each rendition of the rhyme, they move their feet farther and farther apart either to do a split, or to see which girl falls down first. In the later case, the last girl who remains standing is the winner.

To date, I've not seen any off-line or online evidence on YouTube or elsewher that the "Mailman Mailman" ("Policeman Policeman") rhymes with or without the "African booty" phrase are still being used as a jump rope chant. This isn't surprising since chanting while jumping rope appears to be rarely done in the United States since at least the 1990s.

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FEATURED RHYMES
[These examples of "Mailman Mailman" ("Policeman Policeman") rhymes which include the phrase "African booty scratcher" are presented in no particular order.]

Example #1
mailman mailman
do your duty
here comes a lady with an
african booty
she can do the pom pom
she can do the twist
most of all she likes to kiss
-Guest, http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=4300 Children's Street Songs; 12/2/2004

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Example #2
mail man mail man
do ur duty hear comes a lady with an African booty
she can do the pom pom she can do the splits but best of all she can kiss kiss kiss with her read hott lips
-socalgal89 at June 16, 2005 http://blog.oftheoctopuses.com/000518.php [This blog is no longer viable]

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Example #3
Mailman mailman do your duty
here comes a lady with an African booty
she can do the pom poms
she can do the twist
but most of all
she can kiss kiss kiss
-celinababe29; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3G7c6Fj_WM; 6/24/2009

[This video is embedded below.]

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Example #4
Mailman mailman do your duty
here comes a lady with an African booty
she can do the pom poms
she can do the twist
but most of all
she can kiss kiss kiss
With her big
red
lips
k.i.ss.i.n.g
-KellyJulia12 ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgr8ApS4LWI&feature=related; 7/11/2010

[This video is embedded below.]

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Example #5
Mailman mailman do your duty
here comes a lady with an African booty
she can do the pom poms
she can do the twist
but I betcha five dollars
she can’t do this
k-i-s-s-i-n-g
-loserweirdo311; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9Gs7-MQyrE; 8/15/2009

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Example #6
Mailman, mailman do your duty.
Here comes a lady with an African booty.
She can do the pom-poms, she can do the splits, I bet you $5 she can't do this:

(Take your feet, and go back and forth, pointing your toes out, then your heels out, then toes, then heels....
As you're doing it, your feet are moving out, so you're getting closer to the ground.) [Thanks to Ciara A.]; http://www.beachnet.com/~jeanettem/chants.html#MAILMAN; retrieved 12/28/2011
-snip-
Here are two examples from different YouTube viewer comment threads which gives the phrase as "African beauty" instead of "African booty":

Example #7
the way i do it is ive got an african beauty she can do the pom poms she can do the splits but most of all she can kiss kisss kiss k.i.s.s
-123leta ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3G7c6Fj_WM&feature=related; 6/2011

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Example #8
I learned it like 'Mail man mail man do your duty. I got a date with an African beauty. She can do the pom-pom, she can do the splits, most of all she can kiss kiss kiss. K-I-S-S ( for each letter you go like if your doing the splits )
-livetolove97; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgr8ApS4LWI&feature=related; October 2011

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Here are two examples of "Mailman Mailman" rhymes that include the term "big fat booty" which I think is an equivalent term for "African booty":
Example #9 (fragment)
Mailman, mailman do your duty here comes the lady w/the big fat booty...
-Classy_Diva5 (African American female, Alpha Kappa Alpha, Inc sorority, Bay Area, California); http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/showthread.php?t=4123; 12/28/2000

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Example #10
Mail man mail man do your duty
Here comes a lady with a
With a big fat booty
she can do the pom pom
she can do the twist
but most of all she can blow you a kiss
Uggh!
-froggielover737; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80uKGksoFTA&feature=related; 1/22/2007

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FEATURED VIDEOS
Example #1: Mailman, Mailman



Uploaded by celinababe29 on Jun 24, 2009

My little sister and her cousin playing Mailman, Mailman after i taught them an hour earlier.
-snip-
These girls are chanting "with an African booty".

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Example #2: mailman mailman game



Uploaded by KellyJulia12 on Jul 11, 2010

Weird, huh?
-snip-
These White girls are chanting "with an African booty". The fact that they are smiling and shaking their own hips implies to me that "African booty" isn't an insult.

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Example #3: Mailman mailman do your duty



glancei, Published on Sep 26, 2015

Hand game- mailman mailman do your duty
-snip-
This video replaces one that is no longer available.

Notice that these two Black girls (presumably from the United States) chant "American beauty", which documents that not all African American girls chanted "African booty" when they performed this jump rope game.

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Example #4: Mail man do your duty



delcia50, Published on Apr 19, 2013
Este video se subi� de un tel�fono Android.
-snip-
The girl in this video says "African booty". Note that she doesn't appear to be African American, suggesting that non-African Americans also chant the term "African booty" as a part of this rhyme.

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Friday, December 23, 2011

The Changing Definition of "Soul Sister"

Written by Azizi Powell

Latest revision- February 3, 2020


I've been a soul sister for more than 60 years and I've always assumed that "soul sister" only meant "a Black female", just as "soul music", and "soul food" only referred to Black culture (or specifically to African American culture).

I know that those phrases weren't coined until the 1960s. But I lived with them so long, that I assumed that the forms of the words might be updated, but their meanings would never change.

"Soul music" is probably the earliest of the "soul = Black folks and/or Black culture" references. Here's some information about how the word "soul" came to refer to Black (African American) music:
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul_music:
"According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of funky, secular testifying...The term "soul music" itself, to describe gospel-style music with secular lyrics, is first attested in 1961."
-snip-
In 1964 when King Curtis & The Kingpins recorded the song "Soul Serenade" that title referred to "Black music" (or "African American" music if you want to get specific). In 1967 that same group recorded "Memphis Soul Stew". R&B singer's Arthur Conley now classic 1967 record "Sweet Soul Music" also referred to African American music.

In 1968 when the Fifth Dimensions recorded "Stoned* Soul Picnic", they were talking about having a picnic-Black folks style.** This was back in those days the word "stone" was used by some hip African Americans as an intensifier. "A stone soul picnic" meant "a picnic with a lot of soul food & soul music, and probably also a lot of Black people-if not only Black people [in attendance].

*REVISION January 31, 2017; latest revision: February 3, 2020
When I wrote this post in 2011, I incorrectly gave the title of this Fifth Dimension song as "Stone Cold Picnic".
I also wrote that "...the word "stone" was used by some hip African Americans".... While that is true, that sentence implies what I mistakenly believed "that stone cold" was a 1960s or so example of African American slang. Instead, according to https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stone%E2%80%93cold and other sources, the "Definition of stone–cold: absolutely ; First Known Use of stone–cold: 1592).

1592 is loooong before there were any African Americans.

It's possible that the word "stoned" in this song has the meaning "being under the influence of a drug (as marijuana)" https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stoned, i.e. being "high". However, I think that "stoned" might have [also?] alluded to the intensifier "stone" -meaning a totally cool (very hip) soul picnic (probably, a picnic that featured Black music & dance, if not food dishes and drinks that are considered [Black] i.e. "soul food", instead of "soul picnic" meaning a picnic just for Black people.

I wonder if Laura Nyro, the composer of "Stone Soul Picnic" coined that meaning of the word "stoned" and combined it with the words "soul picnic" as a play on the old term "stone cold". Did she mean that there would be a lot of people getting "stoned" at that picnic?
-end of revision-

The Fifth Dimensions also recorded a song entitled "California Soul". In 1968 the title for the instrumental hit single by Young-Holt Unlimited, "Soulful Strut", referred to the distinctive smooth, gliding walk that African Americans do when we want to walk that way. And in 1967 when the R&B singers Sam & Dave recorded their hit song "Soul Man", they were praising Black males. (But I don't think that the referent "soul man" of "soul brother" was or is used that often among Black folk. Instead, we've used the terms "brotherman" which was shortened to "brotha" which was shortened to "bros" or "the bros". The only common use of "soul brother" that I can think of is "blue eyed soul brother" which means a White male.)

Those are just a few examples of African American music that includes the word "soul" in their titles. Moving to African American "lyric" from another genre, when the verse "soul sister #9/"sock it to me one more time" was first chanted in the playground rhymes, that verse was talkin about Black females. And "sock it to me" didn't mean punching either, but that's a whole nother subject. That said, it was my interest in that "soul sister #9" verse that led me to find out that the definition for soul sister had changed right in front of my eyes.

In researching the blog post that I published about the "Sources Of The Movie Big's Rap Shimmy Shimmy Coco Pop" http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2011/12/sources-of-big-movie-rap-shimmy-shimmy.html, I happened upon several videos of non-Black girls performing handclap routines while chanting the rhyme "Soul sister #9" and I wondered if those girls actually knew what "soul sister" meant. I wrongly assumed that the original meaning for soul sister-a Black female-had remained constant for anyone who uses that referent. However, these entries from urban dictionary.com showed me how mistaken that assumption was.
From http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Soul%20Sister:
"1. Soul Sister: Someone who fully understands you. Like a soulmate, but not someone you want to marry and make babies with. The sister of your soul."
-teenagedramaqueen Apr 9, 2006

2. Soul Sister
"The female equivalent of a blood brother. A best friend of the female persuasion that you consider family. Most times, the feeling is mutual."
-wolfpacleader1986 Oct 8, 2010
-snip-

Using the "hip" spelling of "sister", here are two more definitions from http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=soul%20sista which surprised me:
"1. soul sista
"Your number one girlfriend, typically used if you are a girl."
-S1m0n3 Nov 9, 2007

2. soul sista
"A large black woman with an attitude and a deep singing voice. EX: Aretha Franklin, Whoopi Goldberg"
-Nick D Feb 9, 2004
-snip-
With regard to example #2, I suppose it's beside the fact that African American vocalist (the Queen of Soul) Aretha Franklin was not always a large Black woman (one who weighs more than the American norm for women). And I suppose it's immaterial that Aretha Franklin isn't known to have a sassy attitude (which is what I think that definition means by "attitude"). Furthermore, I suppose its immaterial that African American actress Whoopi Goldberg isn't known for her singing. As far as I'm concerned, definition #2 is a big FAIL. However, definition #1 further points out how "soul" in "soul sister" has the same definition as "soul" in the phrase "soul mate" i.e. someone who really understands you; someone you are very close to.

The two sentences given for "soul sista" use what I consider to be so-called African American given names, fake African American English slang, and exaggerated African American grammatical constructions. The blogger writing those sentences may have used that writing style and those names to confer some Black coolness on the phrase "soul sista", even though he weren't necessarily talking about Black females in those sentences. Or he might have used that particular pseudo-hip writing style to imply that the "soul sistas" he was writing about were indeed Black females. I chose not to post the entire sentence given for example #2 for "soul sista" since it contains pejorative language (the n word) and profanity. But here's the complete first sentence and part of sentence #2:

Sentence example #1
Liliana: Did you hear about Dana? Good gossip!
Claudia: WHAT! Dana's my numba one soul sista


**
Sentence example #2
Latrell: "I hear you been poppin' LaKeisha lately. Got yo' self a soul sista I see."
-snip-
Urban dictionary.com's definitions of "soul sister" and "soul sista" were a surprise to me. After reading those definitions, I submitted what I think is the original (meaning the Black 1960s) definition of "soul sister" to that website. However, to date, that definition has yet to be posted there. Here's an considerably expanded version of what I wrote:

"Soul sister" is a 1960s African American referent for Black females. Referring to all Black people as brothers and sisters reflects the over-arching view that all Black folks are family, connected to each other because of the oppression we face or potentially face.

"Sister" and "Brother" have long been used as titles of respect not just for elders of certain Black fundamentalist Christain churches but for all adult members of those churches. What may be less known is that since at least the late 1960s, "sister" and "brother" have also been used among some afrocentric African Americans as titles of respect, regardless of the person's age. For instance, in the 1969, when I moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, I was routinely referred to as "Sister Azizi" by the brothers -and following their lead- the sisters in the afro-centric circle of friends with whom I interacted. The title "Sister" prefaced my name in conversation in recognition of and respect for the level of knowledge of Black culture I had - or supposedly had - since I had been a member of a cultural nationalist organization in Newark, New Jersey which was led by the well-known poet, playwright, and activist Amiri Baraka [LeRoi Jones].

It should be noted that the title "Sister" wasn't always used to preface the names of the other women in that circle of afro-centric people, a fact that made me quite uncomfortable. Furthermore, I didn't like the use of "sister" in front of my name because it reminded me of the naming practice used for Catholic nuns. Needless to say, since I was single and 21 years of age, I didn't want to be thought of as a nun. I therefore insisted that the title "sister" be dropped, and my first name be used by itself. Eventually it was. I'm sure that the other sisters in that circle of afro-centric folks were glad that that naming custom practice bit the dust.

Years passed, years passed and since at least the early 2000s another use of the term "sista" is the term "sista/friend". "Sista/friend" is used to denote a female friend that is as close to you as a female would be if you both had the same parents. In other words, "sista/friend" means the same thing as the new "White" definition of "soul sister".

I believe what really popularized and continues to popularize that "White" meaning of "soul sister" was/is the hugely successful 2009 record "Hey Soul Sister" by the White American rock band "Train". Click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hey,_Soul_Sister for information about that record. Here's a description of the official video of that record from that Wikipedia page:
"The video was filmed in front of Chango Coffee at the corner of Morton Ave and Echo Park Ave in Echo Park, Los Angeles, California. The video intercuts images of Train singing with a woman walking around her apartment and a man painting the words to the song on the landscape."
-snip-
It's significant that the woman featured in this video wasn't a Black woman.

I know that it's the nature of the words & phrases that their meanings can change over time. I also know that different populations within the same period of time can have different meanings for the same words & phrases. But I thought that "soul sister" was somehow immune from those changes, just like "having soul" and "soul music" and "soul food" would always refer to Black folk's cultures. But now I realize that it's likely that those definitions might also change, or maybe they have already changed. And I admit that something about those changes depresses me.

Maybe it's selfishness on my part, but I don't want to share every single last feature of African American culture with everybody to the extent that there is no more African American culture. Maybe I'm wrong, but a definition of "soul sister" that means "a female soulmate" seems to be like whitewashing blackness, especially if people forget what the "original" meaning of "soul sister" was & is (with "original" here meaning from around 1961).

UPDATE December 24, 2011
In response to a summary of this post that I added to my facebook page, an African American male wrote that he considers the "close female friend, or female soulmate" definition of "soul sister" to be a trend and a co-opting of Black culture.

While I personally dislike the fact that the definition for "soul sister" had changed among some populations (I think mostly among White people & some other non-Black folks), I realize that it's natural for the meanings of words & phrases to change or expand. I also think that the definition of "soul sister" as a close female friend is more an expansion of the phrase "soul mate" than a co-opting of the term "soul sister". Furthermore, partly because of the huge influence of the record "Hey Soul Sister", I don't think the expanded meaning of "soul sister" is a temporary change as the word "trend" suggests. However, I think that African Americans will continue to confer our meaning to the referent "soul sister" while White Americans confer their meaning to that referent. This prediction might be wrong, but I hope it's not.

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FEATURED VIDEOS
(These videos are presented in no particular order.)

Example #1: Sam & Dave - Soul Man



bluesouland, Published on Apr 18, 2013

**
Example #2: Arthur Conley - Sweet Soul Music.flv [1966]



rick shide, Uploaded on Nov 11, 2007

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Example #3: King Curtis & The Kingpins - "Memphis Soul Stew"



Uploaded by McGarVision on Feb 8, 2008

The only band that could make Booker T & The MG's sweat. "And now we need a pound of fat back drums..." King Curtis was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 6, 2000.

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Example #4: The Fifth Dimensions - Stone Soul Picnic



johnrigs654321, Uploaded on Sep 3, 2010
-snip-
In this title, the word "stone" is a (no longer used) African intensifier from American English, meaning "really" soul[ful] picnic.

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Example #5: Train - Hey, Soul Sister



Uploaded by TrainVEVO on Nov 14, 2009

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Visitor comments are welcome.

Friday, December 16, 2011

Fudge Fudge Call The Judge" - Twins & Triplets In Playground Rhymes


Edited by Azizi Powell

Latest Revision: November 7, 2022

This pancocojams post presents examples of the children's rhyme "Fudge Fudge Call The Judge" or other titles. Some versions of "Fudge Fudge Call The Judge" that refer to twins or triplets is the focus of this post although other versions of rhyme are also included in this post.

The content of this post is presented for folkloric and recreational purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to all those who are published the YouTube videos that are mentioned in this post.
-snip-
This pancocojams is dedicated with love to the memory of my twin. RIP Dee Dee.

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PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S NOTE
Most of the English language playground rhymes about twins that I've been able to find are those from the "Fudge Fudge Call The Judge" family. 

The earliest dates that I've come across for "Fudge Fudge Call The Judge" rhymes are "the 1950s" in the United States.

Ny guess is that "Fudge Fudge Call The Judge" rhymes have their  source in the "What'll I Do With the Baby-O" folk songs.  Click http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/folk-song-lyrics/Whatll_We_Do_With_the_Baby-O.htm to find the lyrics to that song as sung by the (Anglo-American) folk singer Jean Ritchie). Here's a portion of those lyrics:

What'll we do with the baby-o?
What'll we do with the baby-o?
What'll we do with the baby-o?
If he don't go to sleepy-O?

Wrap him up in calico,
Wrap him up in calico,
Wrap him up in calico,
Send him to his mammy-o.

What'll we do with the baby-o? etc.
Wrap him up in a table-cloth, (3x )
-end of quote-
"What'll We Do With The Baby-O" not only has lyrics that refer to wrapping a baby in something or another, but some versions of that song also refer to throwing the baby out the window or somewhere else- just like the lyrics of many versions of "Fudge Fudge Call The Judge.

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The Ballad Index ( https://www.fresnostate.edu/folklore/ballads/MHAp239C.htmlindicates that the earliest example of this rhyme is from 1934 and gives the following information for the rhyme family that I call "Fudge Fudge Call The Judge":

"Oh Fudge, Tell the Judge

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, fudge, Tell the judge, Mother's got a baby. Oh, joy, It's a boy, Father's nearly crazy." "Wrap it up in tissue paper, Send it down the elevator." "First floor, second floor... send it out the back door."

AUTHOR: unknown

EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Henry, from Mrs. Henry C. Gray, or her maid)"...

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Until the 1960s, "Fudge Fudge Call The Judge" appears to have been chanted while jumping rope or bouncing a ball. As is the case with most former jump rope/ball bouncing rhymes, after the 1960s "Fudge Fudge Call The Judge" rhymes appear to be chanted while performing partner hand clap routines.

Most, but not all, of the rhymes in this family reflect the fact that children aren't always pleased to welcome a new sibling into their family. Alternatively, some examples of "Fudge Fudge Call The Judge" rhymes document girls' concerns about their future child bearing experiences and/or the baby's father's* reaction to the birth of a child or children. Some other examples of "Fudge Fudge Call The Judge" rhymes serve as a way of predicting information about the jumpers' future offspring (such as whether the jumper will give birth to one child, or twins, or triplets; what gender the child or children will be; how many pounds the babies will weigh, and/or the first letter of the child's name or children's names.)

*In some "Fudge Fudge Call The Judge" rhymes the baby's father is referred to as "her boyfriend" and not "her husband". Also, the only reaction which is noted is that the baby's father is "going crazy". While it's true that the word "crazy" is a near rhyme for "baby", the words "lazy" and "hazy" are also near rhymes for "baby" and those two words are never used in those rhymes."

Visit this discussion thread I started in 2009 about the playground rhyme "We Wear Our Hair In Curls" for different parental reactions to their daughter getting pregnant: http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=123101&messages=62.

Warning: While they contain no profanity, some examples of "We Wear Our Hair In Curls" rhymes are much more sexually explicit than "Fudge Fudge Call The Judge" rhymes.

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EXAMPLES OF "FUDGE FUDGE CALL THE JUDGE" THAT MENTION TWINS OR TRIPLETS
Here are a few text (word only) examples of "Fudge Fudge Call The Judge". These examples are given in no particular order.

FUDGE FUDGE CALL THE JUDGE (Example #1)
From my eleven-year-old daughter come these jump rope rhymes. She says they don't sing them, they are more of a chant than a song. They do this at school during recess.

Fudge, fudge, call the judge, (Sally's*) having a baby.
Wrap it up in toilet paper, send it down the elevator,
What shall it be?
Boy, girl, twins, triplets, boy, girl, twins, triplets...
(repeat until jumper misses)
*substitute jumper's name
-Jon W; http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=4300#23452 Cinderella Dressed In Yella; 3/10/1998

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FUDGE FUDGE CALL THE JUDGE (Example #2)
There was one extremely long one I knew with very complicated gestures/clapping, but I can't remember all of it ...

[something something something]
That's how nice neighbors can be
Fudge, fudge, fudge
I called the judge
[something about the singer's mother being pregnant]
If it's a boy, I'll give it a toy
If it's a girl, I'll give it a curl
If it's a twin, I'll give it a spin
Wrap it up in toilet paper
Send it down the elevator
First floor, STOP
Second floor, FREEZE
Third floor, you better watch out,
Before I give you a SQUEEZE!!

(Then each player tries to grab the other by the wrists. The successful grabber wins.)
-sparkofcreationlhttp://linguaphiles.livejournal.com/4327510.html#comments; 2/20/2003

Editor:
Note that this rhyme appears to have been played while doing handclaps.

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FUDGE FUDGE CALL THE JUDGE (Example #3)
the jump rope song goes like this.......................

fudge, fudge!
call the judge!
_______'s havin a baby,
_______'s goin crazy!
wrap it up in toilet paper,
send it down the elevator.
boy, girl, twins, triplets?
repeat until jumper screws up, and that is what she supposidly had, lol!
-lexy; Whee Blog (website no longer viable); June 24, 2005

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FUDGE GUDGE CALL THE JUDGE (Example #4)
Fudge, gudge, call the judge!
[girl's name] Is having a baby!
Hey boyfriend's going crazy!
Wrap it up and toiliet paper,
Send it down the elevator.
what will it be?
A boy?
A girl?
Twins or aliens?
A boy?
A girl?
Twins or aliens?
[Jumprope game. Player jumps until they mess up. Whatever they land on is what they have.]
-Liz again. ; Whee Blog (website no longer viable); April 12, 2005

Editor: "gudge" is probably a typo for the word "fudge".

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FUDGE FUDGE CALL THE JUDGE (Example #5)
fudge,fudge,call the judge(name),having a baby, her boyfriends going crazy, how many babys will she have,1,2,3,4.... what kind of babys will she have,boy,girl,twin,triplets....what will their names be(start with a and go on until they stop on a letter and then pick the name.kepp on doing it until you cover all the babys names)
Source: http://www.homeschool.co.uk/resource/jump-rope/baby.html ; Dec 03 2005

Editor:
This example doesn't include any concerns about the birth of the baby/babies, i.e. there's no mention of "boyfriend's going crazy" or "wrap the baby up" and "throw the baby away".

**
FUDGE FUDGE CALL THE JUDGE (Example #6)
ABC, easy as 123,
my daddy drank Cocafee(don’t ask what that is) right off of my feet.
That’s how nasty people can be.
Judge, judge, call the judge!
Mama’s gonna have a baby,
a sweet little choc-o-late baby!
If it’s a boy, I’ll give it a toy.
If it’s a girl, I’ll give it a curl.
If it’s a twin, I’ll give them a spin.
Wrap it up in toilet paper,
Send it down the elevator.
First floor, STOP.
Second floor, STOP.
And then it would just go on until someone screwed it up….usually me.
-ChloeMireille, http://kateharding.net/2009/10/02/miss-lucy-had-friday-fluff/
-snip-
I'm considering the line "ABC, easy as 123" as an introductory line and not the title of this rhyme.

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FUGE FUGE CALL THE JUDGE (Example #7) 
It's  fuge fuge Call the  Judge mommy's having a baby daddy's going crazy what will  It be girl boy twin or alien
-Chelsey Hooten, 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJOXgz89OLc , [comment in] Fudge Fudge Call The Judge, Theatre Geek, August 4, 2015
**
-snip-
The word "fuge" is a typo for "fudge".  The person who published that video wrote this comment in reply to that example:
"I didn't learn it that way. It's a jump rope rhyme and they get changed all the time."
-Theatre Geek, 2020

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EXAMPLES OF "FUDGE FUDGE CALL THE JUDGE" THAT DON'T MENTION TWINS OR TRIPLETS

JUDGE JUDGE CALL THE JUDGE (Example #1)
Judge, Judge call the judge momma's got a brand new baby
It ain't no boy, it ain't no girl, it's just a plain ol baby
1st floor stop: (trap the jump rope with your feet) second floor stop: (trap the jump rope with your feet) third floor kick it out the door (run out)
Now there is no b a b y!
Source: http://www.homeschool.co.uk/resource/jump-rope/baby.html ; 2006

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FUDGE FUDGE CALL THE JUDGE (Example #2)
In Michigan City, Indiana, in the late 50's at our Catholic grade school we jumped rope to:

Fudge, Fudge, Call the Judge
Momma's got a newborn baby
It isn't a girl
It isn't a boy
It's just an ordinary baby

Wrap it up in tissue paper
Send it down the elevator
First floor-push
Second floor-Push
Third floor- Kick 'em out out the door
Momma doesn't want that baby anymore
-Guest, Mary;
http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=99131&messages=9 Fudge, Fudge Call The Judge; Feb. 11, 2011

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FUDGE FUDGE CALL THE JUDGE (Example #3)
We played a ball bouncing game to this.

Fudge Fudge call the judge
Momma's having a baby
It isn't a boy; it isn't a girl
It's just a plain old baby.
Wrap it up in tissue paper.
Send it down the escalator.
How many pounds did the baby weigh?
Close your eyes and I shall say:
(with eyes closed and bouncing ball under leg)
One
two
Three...until you miss.
Sinsull, http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=99131&messages=9 Fudge, Fudge Call The Judge; July 9, 2011

Editor: Notice that this is described as a rhyme chanted while bouncing a ball.

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FUDGE FUDGE CALL THE JUDGE (Example #4)
Back in the 50s in Flint, MI. We chanted while jumping rope:
Fudge, fudge. Call the judge.
Mama's gonna have a new born baby.
Wrap it up in tissue paper.
Send it down the elevator.
First floor - miss.
Second floor - miss.
Third floor - kick it out the door. (kicking motion)
That's the end of the baby (Run out from swinging rope)
- dulcimer42, http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=99131&messages=15 , August 1,2013

Editor: Notice that this is described as a jump rope rhyme.

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JUDGE JUDGE CALL THE JUDGE (Example #5)
Judge, Judge, call the judge, Mama had a newborn baby
It isn't a boy and it isn't a girl, It's just an ordinary baby.
Wrap it up in tissue paper, Send it down the elevator.
How many floors does it go ...1, 2, 3,
(And so on until the jumper misses)

Where learned: Michigan
[...]

Date learned: 00-00-1967 [Jump rope rhyme]
-http://research.udmercy.edu/find/special_collections/digital/cfa/index.php?term=J&field=keyword&start=500 The James T. Callow Folklore Archive
-snip-
All of the words of this rhyme were written in capital letters on that page.

**
FUDGE FUDGE FUDGE (Example #6)
Yeah, so me and my sister sat on the phone last night trying to remember some more chants. I know, I need a life.

Fudge, Fudge, Fudge
Let's go tell the Judge
Mama's gonna have a baby
A cute little chocolate baby
If it's a boy, I'll give it a toy
If it's a girl, I'll give it a curl
Wrap it up in tissue paper,
throw it down the elevator :eek: (We used to say that?!?)
First floor STOP
Ba doom doom doom
Second floor STOP
Ba doom doom doom
Third floor you'd betta watch out
'Cuz here comes the lady with the big boom bop.
-Bamboozled, http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/archive/index.php/t-31403.html, 03-26-2003, 11:38 AM
-snip-
Commenters on this discussion thread were members of historically Black Greek letter sororities.

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FUDGE, FUDGE (Example #7) 
Here's how we did it (1950s):

Fudge, fudge
Call the judge
Mama's had a newborn baby!
Wrap it up in tissue paper
throw it down the elevator -
how many floors did it fall?
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven (etc.).

Gruesome, but  we thought it fun as a counting out rhyme.
-phoebecatgirl, 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJOXgz89OLc , [comment in] Fudge Fudge Call The Judge, Theatre Geek, August 4, 2015

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FUDGE, FUDGE (Example #8)  
Fudge fudge call the judge
Mama's gunna have a baby not a girl not a boy just a plain old baby
Wrap up the dirty diaper throw it down the elevator
How many floors does it fall?
-Possim :}, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJOXgz89OLc , [comment in] Fudge Fudge Call The Judge, Theatre Geek, August 4, 2015

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FUDGE, FUDGE (Example #9)  
Here's how I learned it.

Fudge fudge call the judge mom is going to have a baby not a boy not a girl just a plain old baby wrap it up in tissue paper send it down the elevator first floor stop 2nd floor stop third door shut the or you'll windup on the floor
-supreme Savage 5923, 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJOXgz89OLc , [comment in] Fudge Fudge Call The Judge, Theatre Geek, August 4, 2015

**
RELATED RHYMES
Here are two closely related playground rhymes:
Neither rhyme includes the "fudge fudge call the judge" line. The first rhyme mentions wrapping up the babies and throwing them away, but the babies are wrapped up in tissue paper instead of "toilet paper":

CALL THE ARMY CALL THE NAVY
Call the Army, call the Navy
(name)'s gonna have a baby.
Wrap it up in tissue paper,
send it down the elevator,
(Rope turned double time)
Boy, girl, twins, triplets, boys, girls, twins, triplets, etc
Source: http://www.homeschool.co.uk/resource/jump-rope/baby.html

Editor: Note that in this example, the baby is wrapped up in tissue paper and not toilet paper.

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OH MY BABY JUST KICKED
Oh My Baby Just Kick
Oh my baby just kick, oh my baby just kick
time for the baby to come,time for the baby to come
is it a girl? is it a boy? is it a twin? is it a triplet? (pick a boy or a girl)
it's a _____ !
how many mouths? how many years?
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11...... (pick the mouth or year)
What letter should the name start with?
A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I,J,K,L,M,N,O,P,Q,R,S,T,U,V,W,X,Y,Z
(pick a letter)
And i name ______(pick a name)
and that's my baby
-Guest,my baby; http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=4300 Children's Street Songs; 1/17/2005

Editor: This rhyme mentions twins or triplets. The word “mouths in line 5 is almost certainly a typo for “months".

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HOT SHOT BABY
hot shot baby
chicken and gravy
here comes a lady
with a bald head baby
*point to other person* THATS YOU
-http://www.inthe00s.com/archive/inthe80s/smf/1109960765.shtml This is a topic from the The 1980's forum on inthe00s.
Subject: Those clapping songs
-snip-
No racial/ethnic identification is given for the person who contributed this rhyme.

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VIDEO EXAMPLES 
Update: Sept. 15, 2022
When I first published this post, there were no YouTube videos of children jumping rope or doing any other activities while chanting "Fudge Fudge Call The Judge". I noted that chanting while jumping rope or bouncing balls appear to be rarely done nowadays..

As of Sept. 2022, I've come across a video of a young girl jumping rope while chanting this rhyme and two other rhymes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsGQMfUOSDk&t=8s "Jump Rope Songs: Fudge, Cinderella, and Lemonade' published by The Great Outdoor Kids, June 23, 2020. 

I've also come across a video of a father jumping rope while his daughter's chant the rhyme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpk6EiW3Egw "Momma's Having A Baby? published by AndreCadillac, May 25, 2012

I decided not to showcase those videos but continue to focus on the video that was featured in this post when it was originally published.
-end of update- 

...I found a video of a young girl reciting a variant form of the "fudge fudge call the judge" rhyme. In the beginning of the video, believe that the words the girl chants are:
"Fudge fudge call the judge
Gary’s* havin a baby
Sponge Bob’s getting crazy
How many babies do they got
They are crying
Color white and blue
Is it 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4
3, 2, 1"

-snip-

From then on, the words of the rhyme are more difficult for me to decipher. The words appear to be made up on the spot which is a creative exercise in & of itself. Here's that video:

Fudge,Fudge,Call the Judge!



Joshua AwsomeOne, on Jul 9, 2011
-snip-
Update: 1/14/2012

* Here's a comment that I received in response to my query to the video uploader:

@azizip171 she told me the lyrics were based on the show SpongeBob, so what you thought was mary, was really gary, since i THINK he's a character in that show
- MULTIAWSOMEONE

-snip-
Note: A girl in another video of this rhyme prefaces her example by saying that she does this while she jumps rope. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccX3E7kB1Ig.

And in another video of this rhyme a girl pantomines the words along with her little brother. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7AqdCoLqjs

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Wednesday, December 14, 2011

The REAL Meaning Of "The Nitty Gritty"

Written by Azizi Powell

First off, despite all those who say so, the phrase "nitty gritty" has NOTHING to do with enslaved Black Africans or the crap that they left in the bottom of slave ships during their horrendous forced voyages to the Caribbean, the United States, or elsewhere. Also, "nitty gritty" has nothing to do with nits (the eggs of, or actual body lice or head lice). Furthermore, the phrase "nitty gritty" has nothing to do with gravel, or sand, or dirt - notwithstanding The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.

And, the phrase "nitty gritty" has absolutely nothing to do with grits or hominy grits the food so named. Also, "nitty gritty" has nothing to do with the movies "True grit" or being "gritty" (stubborn, determined, preservering, hardnosed). Furthermore, "nitty gritty" has nothing whatsoever to do with being a "nitwit" (a foolish person), although some people foolishly believe all of those fake definitions - which is a low down cryin shame since "gettin right down to the real nitty gritty" actually means being the opposite of fake.

So how did the phrase "nitty gritty" become associated with the enslavement of Black people? Check out this quote from http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/nitty-gritty.html:

...it has been alleged that 'nitty-gritty' is a derogatory reference to the English slave trade of the 18th century. The phrase is usually used with the prefix 'getting down to' and there is a sense that, whatever the nitty-gritty is, it is at the bottom of something. The suggestion is that it originated as a term for the unimportant debris left at the bottom of ships after the slaves had been removed and that the meaning was extended to include the slaves themselves. That report became widely known following newspaper reports of an 'equality and diversity' course for Bristol Council employees in 2005. Had the firm that was conducting the training known that their claims were to reach so wide a public they may have chosen their words more carefully...

There is no evidence to support the suggestion that 'nitty-gritty' has any connection with slave ships. It may have originated in the USA as an African-American expression, but that's as near as it gets to slavery. It isn't even recorded in print until the 1930s, long after slave ships had disappeared, and none of the early references make any link to slavery.

The first reference that I can find of the phrase in print is from the New York Catalog of Copyright Entries, Part 3 - Musical Compositions, 1937. That lists a song entitled 'That Nitty Gritty Dance' which was copyrighted by Arthur Harrington Gibbs.

The phrase isn't found in print again for some time and reappeared in several newspaper citations in print dating from 1956, for example, this line from Alice Childress' novel Like One of Family:

"You'll find nobody comes down to the nitty-gritty when it calls for namin' things for what they are."

Another is from the Texas newspaper The Daily Journal, in June 1956 and comes from a piece which gave examples of 'the language of 15-year old hepcats':
"She buys, with buffalo heads, ducks to the local flickers, but they prove to be corny and along comes a nitty-grittygator in a cattle train which she hops."

Unfortunately, the Journal didn't include a translation, but I have it on authority of several US contributors of the correct vintage that, in that context, a 'nitty-gritty gator' was a 'lowlife hip dude' and a 'cattle train' was a Cadillac."

-end of quote-

That same source gives this meaning for "nitty gritty" - "The heart of the matter; the basic essentials; the harsh realities.". I believe that excluding "the harsh realities" part, that definition of "nitty gritty" fits the way I & other African Americans I know have used that phrase- as far as it goes.

It's interesting that the first documented reference to "nitty gritty" is the title of a novelty dance because that phrase was popularized in 1963 by Shirley Ellis' Rock & Roll hit "The Nitty Gritty Song" (let's get on down to the real nitty gritty). Shirley Ellis followed up that hit in the same year with the record "(That's) What The Nitty Gritty Is", but that song didn't chart nearly as well. Gladys Knight & The Pips also recorded a version of this song, but few people remember that version. (YouTube sound clips of each of those 1960s records are found below.)

In the context of dancing, "gettin right down to the real nitty gritty" means more than "getting to the heart of the matter or the basic essentials". When it comes to dancing, "gettin down to the real nitty gritty" means to dance REAL GOOD. It also means to be real in the way that you dance - to put aside fake societals notions of being stiff, or refined, or too controlled in the way you move. Gettin down to the real nitty gritty means to get FUNKY. "Funky" means to be hip, cool, hot, smokin, ace, fly, dynomite, the bomb, off the hook, off the chain, the shizzle, the sh*t, ill, sick, and any other superlative descriptor that originated or will originate from African Americans' creativity. But people are funky on the dance floor because they have allowed themselves to be real (to get down to their basic essence) and not worried about them working up a sweat and stanking up the place. ("Stanking" here is purposeful Black talk which means "really stinking"). People who are funky dancers don't smell good but they don't worry about that because their focus is gettin down on the dance floor (with "getting down" meaning to move down low, but also to work the dance -to show off, to out dance other people). And back in the days before chemical perms and before weaves, when Black females were funky because they were dancing funky, their hot comb straightened hair was liable to "fizz (back) up" to its natural state - a description alluded to in this verse from Shirley Ellis' record "(That's) What Nitty Gritty Is":

Everybody's asking what the nitty gritty
The nitty gritty's anything you want it to be
Just stir it up from the soul
And when it starts to fizz
That's what the nitty gritty is
That's what the nitty gritty is

[Update Feb. 28, 2017: The full Lyrics and their online source are given below]

In that record, Shirley Ellis sings that the nitty girtty is a WAY of dancing, talking, walking, playing, and doing (whatever).

There's a nitty gritty way of doing
Boom digga boom... tell the beat

But if people want to say that nitty gritty is the name of a dance, Shirley is fine with that too:

Some people think the nitty gritty's a dance
You think it's a dance, do the nitty gritty
Come on and do the nitty gritty
Come on and dance the nitty gritty

-snip-

But the implication is that that's not really what "nitty gritty" means. If that was the case, then she would have come right out and said so just like the singers do on so many other Rock & Roll and Rhythm & Blues instruction dances (for example, on Rufus Thomas' "The Funky Chicken" record and on Archie Bell & The Drells "Tighten Up" record).

But note that Shirley Ellis doesn't say that "nitty gritty" is a type of slavery or that "nitty gritty" is a type of head lice or body lice. That's because those definitions are modern day fake nonsense.

Since the 1960s, several African American dance songs have included the phrase "nitty gritty". But the song that everyone thinks of when they hear the phrase "nitty gritty" is still Shirley Ellis "The Nitty Gritty Song" (and not so much the Gladys Knight & The Pips version of that song). Which ever song floats your boat, remember when you get right down to the real nitty gritty, you gotta get real & you gotta keep it real!

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YOUTUBE SOUND FILES

The Nitty Gritty



Uploaded by negrosounds on Jan 18, 2011

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shirley ellis - (That's) What The Nitty Gritty Is

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FH3k6eEMi1w&ab_channel=ShirleyEllis-Topic

Shirley Ellis-Topic, July 31, 2018
-snip-
This sound file replaces one that is no longer available.


**
YOUTUBE VIDEO [added to this post on July 13, 2015]

"THE NITTY GRITTY" EMPRESS OF SOUL GLADYS KNIGHT & THE PIPS



EMPRESSGLADYS, Uploaded on Apr 8, 2008

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ADDENDUM- LYRICS: THE NITTY GRITTY

Yeah, mmm, yeah
Do you know that some folks know about it, some don't
Some will learn to shout it, some won't
But sooner or later baby, here's a ditty
Say you're gonna have to get right down to the real nitty gritty
Now let's get right on down to the nitty gritty
Now one, two nitty gritty
Now yeah, mmm, nitty gritty now
Ooooowee, right down to the real nitty gritty
Ooooowee, can you feel it double beatin', I keep repeatin
Get right down to the real nitty gritty
Say it again double beatin'
Get on down, we gotta get right down to the real nitty gritty
Let's get, let's get right on down to the real nitty gritty
It's all right, it's all right
Get on down, get on down
Get right down to the real nitty gritty
Listen to me now
Oooowee, ooowee
Come on and let the good times roll
Let the music sink down in to your soul
Double beatin', keep repeatin'
You gotta get right down to the really nitty gritty
Get on down, get on down
Talkin' about the nitty gritty
Get on down, get on down

Written by Lincoln Chase • Copyright © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Music Sales Corporation

Source: https://play.google.com/music/preview/Tvuvi3vspmiduknrecy5dl77b4a?lyrics=1&utm_source=google&utm_medium=search&utm_campaign=lyrics&pcampaignid=kp-songlyrics&u=0#

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Three Versions Of The Gospel Song "I'm A Pilgrim" - Lyrics & Comments


Uploaded by bcimasschoir on Apr 17, 2008
-snip-
The lead was sung by Paul Foster.

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Edited by Azizi Powell

Latest revision - March21, 2023


This pancocojams post features videos and lyrics of three African American versions of the Gospel song "I'm A Pilgrim". Information about this song is also included in this post.

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INFORMATION ABOUT "I AM A PILGRIM"
From http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=40998&messages=12 Lyr Add: I'M A PILGRIM (gospel-spiritual).

According to information posted by Dicho in 2001 on a Mudcat discussion thread about "I'm A Pilgrim", the oldest documented version of that song is from 1864 (The Southern Zion Songster, 1864, compiled by Editor, North Carolina Christian Advocate, Raleigh, NC. No author cited.)

In my opinion, the lyrics to that 1864 version of "I'm A Pilgrim" don't read like it was composed by African Americans. The words aren't written in "Black" dialect as was the case with songs by African Americans which were transcribed in the 19th century. And the song isn't given in call & response format. That Mudcat discussion forum also includes a version of "I'm A Pilgrim" from 1939. In contrast to the 1864 version, the 1939 version is written in "Black dialect". I'll add just one point about the words to that song- the 1939 version uses the "barber land" (meaning "barbarous") land instead of the phrase ("barren land") that is found in Versions #1 & #2 on this page, or the phrase "wearisome land" that is found in Version #3 on this page.

Without other comments, here are those three versions:

VERSION #1 [The video is placed at the beginning of this post]

I'M A PILGRIM
(The Soul Stirrers's version)

Chorus:

Whooo! I’m a pilgrim
[I’m a pilgrim]
And a stranger
[And a stranger]
Travelin through
[travelin through]
This ole barren land
[Barren land]
I got a home
[I got a home]
In yonder city, Lord
And I will do
The best I can

Chorus: (repeated with group responses as above)

I’m a pilgrim
Nothin but a stranger
Everyday I’m travelin
this ole barren land
But I got a home
In yonder city Lord
And I’ll do
the best I can

Verse 1
(Group humming as counterpoint to the soloist)
I’ve been tempted, Lord
I’ve been tried
I’ve been discouraged
On every side.
While travelin
through this land, Lord
Lord I’ll do
[Lord I’ll do]
the best I can.
[The best that I can]

Chorus:
Lord, I’m a pilgrim
[I’m a pilgrim]
And I’m a stranger
[I’m a stranger]
Don’t you know I’m travelin
[I’m travelin]
This ole barren land
[Barren land]
But I’m not worried
[I’m not worried]
I’ve gotta home
[I’ve got a home]
Somewhere yonder city
[In yonder city]
And I’ll do the best I can.

Verse 2:
(When I) Get to River Jordan
With the tide
I can see Canaan
on the other side
When I get there
Take my stand
Lord I’ll do
[Lord I’ll do]
The best I can
[the best that I can]

Chorus:
Lord, I am a pilgrim
Yes! Travelin through
this ole barren land
But I’m not worried
I gotta home
Somewhere in yonder city
And I’ll do
the best I can.

(Repeat the chorus)

* This is my transcription of "I'm A Pilgrim" from that video. In this transcription, the group's responses to the soloist are given in brackets. Note that the interjections like "Whoo!" and "Lord" were probably changed with each performance. I didn't attempt to write all of those interjections. I also didn't write the lyrics as they are pronounced. However, (as is usually the case with African American English), the word "a" is pronounced "ah".

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VERSION #2: The Hawkins Family - I'm A Pilgrim



Uploaded by robtyree2135 on Jul 4, 2010

From the album "The Hawkins Family Live"
Released In 1980, Light Records
Soloists: Tramaine Hawkins, Freddie Hawkins

I'M A PILGRIM
(as sung by The Hawkins Family)*

Soloist:
Lord I’m a pilgrim
travelin through
this ole barren land
I want you to please
guide my footsteps
and please hold my hand.

Lord, I get so weary
travelin through
this land
Lord I want You to
Guide my footsteps.
And please hold my hand.

Chorus (Soloist & Choir):
Lord, guide me
As I travel
through this land
Lord, guide me.
Lord I want You to please
Hold my hand.

Soloist:
Lord I’m just awaitin
For the day to come
When I can see your face
And hear you say
“Well done”.

Chorus: (repeat 2x)

Soloist:
I can’t make it without you Lord
I can’t make it
I need you to be my guide
Please hold my hand
Please hold my hand

Soloist & Choir:
I’m a pilgrim
travelin through the land
But I need you Jesus
I said I need you Jesus
Just to hold my hand

Please hold my hand
I need you Lord
Lord I’m waitin
I’m just waitin
For the day to come
When I can see your face.
When I get to heaven
I can see Your face
And hear you say well done
Please hold my hand
I need you Lord
Please hold my hand
Please hold my hand.

* My transcription is based on that video but without the choir's interjections and without some repeats of the end refrain.

VERSION #3: The Gospel caravans i'm a pilgrim



MegaBlackisBeautiful, Uploaded on Aug 15, 2011

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ADDENDUM
There are several videos online of White vocalists singing "I'm A Pilgrim (And A Stranger) ". Here's a link to one of those videos http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YC8LQ1UQO8k.

Here is the lyrics to that version as sung by White American country singer Johnny Cash:

From http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/j/johnny_cash/i_am_a_pilgrim.html

I AM A PILGRIM

I am a pilgrim and a stranger
Travelling through this wearisome land
I've got a home in that yonder city, good lord
And it's not, not made by hand
I've got a mother, sister and a brother
Who have gone this way before
I am determined to go and see them, good lord
For they're on that other shore
I'm goin' down to the river of jordan
Just to bathe my wearisome soul
If I can just touch the hem of his garment, good lord
Then I know he'd take me home
I am a pilgrim and a stranger
Travelling through this wearisome land
I've got a home in that yonder city, good lord
And it's not, not made by hand

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A BRIEF COMPARISON OF THE LYRICS TO THESE THREE VERSIONS OF "I'M A PILGRIM"

 While I love many songs sung by The Hawkins Family, in this case I strongly prefer The Soul Stirrers' rendition of "I'm A Pilgrim" to that of The Hawkins Family or to the version led by Bro Mayo. (From now on I'll use the references, Version #1, #2, and #3. These comments refer only to the lyrics and not the performances, though the way the songs were sung also influenced my preference for Version #1).

For me, the lyrics to Version #1 of "I'm A Pilgrim" was much more powerful than the other two versions. Unlike the other two versions of that song given in this post, the lyrics to Version #1 explained why the people depicted in that song considered the world to be "barren" (Verse 1). The people looked forward to going to heaven because they had a home there where life would be better than it was on earth. Knowing that they had a home in Canaan (heaven) gave them the strength to preservere, to endure, to "make it the best way they could". In spite of all of their troubles and the things that discouraged them, they weren't worried because they had the promise of a better life in their heavenly home. These people were strong in their faith.

In contrast, the people depicted in Version #2 seemed to me to be much more child-like and needy. The promise of heaven wasn't enough for them. They needed God to watch over them, to guide them, to hold their hand. However, they also were demanding of God ("Lord I want You to please/Hold my hand".) Furthermore, the reason why the people depicted in this version wanted to go to heaven was so they could see God's face and hear Him say to them "Well done". That seems rather prideful to me, especially since no reason was given in those lyrics for the belief that God would judge that they had done well in their lives.

In Version #3, both the land and the people's souls are referred to as "wearisome". However, no reason is given for either description, except perhaps for the fact that the families of those persons depicted in that version had died leaving them alone. Being reunited with their family is the reason given in the song for why the people in Version #3 want to get to heaven. In my opinion, the emphasis on being reunited with their family makes the reference to home (not made of hand or otherwise) much less powerful than the reasons why the people in Version #1 spoke of a heavenly home. And "home", heavenly or otherwise, wasn't mentioned at all in Version #2 of "I'm A Pilgrim".

I'm aware that the words to religious songs may not be as important as the spirit, intent, and the way that song is sung. However, for the record (please excuse the unintended pun), I wanted to share my thoughts on these three versions of this song.

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Monday, December 12, 2011

The Globalization Of Hip-Hop Culture

Written by Azizi Powell
[The majority of this post was originally published as a comment on http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2011/12/12/another-example-of-socialization-baby-rapper/#disqus_thread]

My comment refers to this video:

khaliyl iloyi rapping at 2 years old with Alim Kamara



Uploaded by ukroyalpriesthood on Nov 27, 2011


Khaliyl Iloyi rapping like his mother Roucheon Iloyi. Like mother like son. His father Femi Iloyi aka smooflow is in a group with Roucheon and together they are called Royal Priesthood. http://www.feromedia.co.uk

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Yes, the little boy is adorable. Yes, it's great to see a father interacting with his sons (there are two boys shown in that video). And yes that baby rapper has mad rhythmic skills & great presence.

However, more than the subject of socialization which Sociological Images focused upon, what interested me was that the father, his older son, and his young rapper son featured in this video are from London. And that started me thinking about the globalization of Hip-Hop culture.

Through Google, I found a website called Translating Hip Hop: http://translatinghiphop.de

Here's a quote from that site:

Originally derided as “Black Noise”, Hip Hop has spread around the globe in the last 30 years. The various dimensions of this energy-laden form of culture are practiced all over the world: Rap, DJ-ing, Breakdance, Graffiti. The body language and gestures are understood almost ubiquitously and translations can pass unnoticed.
Here's a quote from another page on that site:

http://translatinghiphop.de/20
Talking about Translating Hip Hop (2): RAYESS BEK November 13, 2011

I think that “translating” has many meanings. If we consider Hip Hop lyrics as poetry, as artistic texts, we notice that it can have multiple layers of comprehension.

The first layer would be the words used in that text. The second layer would be the emotions. Third layer is the cultural background that the author refers to...

Because Hip Hop is a culture, it has its own universal language. The advantage is that Hip-Hopers from around the world can communicate through this music. The disadvantage is that a lot MCs will talk about similar subjects (ghetto, drugs…). Is it a globalization factor? I can’t tell. I was interested by MCs who talked about politics, social and emotions in a mature way. I loved to hear personal stories from other countries. And hear about the oppression they are living in other countries. Do oppressed people feel the same everywhere on this planet?

Check out those sites!

And thanks again to that dad (& mom) who are raising their children to appreciate the Hip-Hop musical genre which is sooo much more than the industry approved & promoted gangsta rap.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Sources Of The Movie Big's Rap Shimmy Shimmy Coco Pop, Part 3

Written by Azizi Powell

This is Part III of a three part of a pancocojams series on playground rhymes sources for the "Shimmy Shimmy Cocoa Pop" "rap" in the 1988 American movie Big.

Parts 2 & 3 include examples of older playground rhymes that are probable sources for or have some very similar words as the movie Big's rap "Shimmy Shimmy Cocoa Pop". Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2011/12/sources-of-big-movie-rap-shimmy-shimmy_11.html for Part 2 of this post.

Part 1 of this post provides my general comments about children's playground rhymes. In that first part of this post, I also provided the words to three examples of the movie Big's "Shimmy Shimmy Coco Pop" rap. Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2011/12/sources-of-big-movie-rap-shimmy-shimmy.html for
Sources Of The Movie Big's Rap "Shimmy Shimmy Cocoa Pop" Part 1.

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PART 3
METHOD OF POSTING EXAMPLES FROM SELECTED RHYMES
The featured line or phrase is given in capital letters, followed by numbered lines from the three examples of the movie Big's "Shimmy Shimmy Coco Pop" rap found in Part 1. The title of selected examples of "source rhymes" is given in capital letters followed by the code SR ("source rhyme" or "selcted rhyme") and an assigned number. These numbers are used consecutively throughout Parts 2-3 of this post. In each example, the focus line is given in italics to highlight that line.

ICE CREAM, SODA POP, VANILLA ON THE TOP

The lines "ice cream, soda pop, vanilla on top" is given as lines 7 and 8 of Example #1 of that rap. Those lines are also given as lines 11 and 12 of Examples #2 and #3 of that rap.

Refer back to SR #8 for a source example of those lines. Here's another source example of those lines:

"Ice Cream Soda"
The line "ice cream, soda pop, vanilla on the top" probably comes from this children's jump rope rhyme:

Source Rhyme #10:
"ICE CREAM" -
iIce cream soda
with the cherry on top

Tell me the name
of your sweetheartt.
A B C D E F G H etc.
Brenda Brenda
Do you love Kenny?
Yes, no, maybe so.
Yes, no, maybe so.
How many children will you have?
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc.
Source: Let's Slice The Ice (Eleanor Fulton and Pat Smith; St. Louis, Missouri; Magnamusic-Baton; 1978; p. 29 [This is a collection of African Americans' children rhymes from various states; hereafter given as "Slice The Ice", with the example's page number]

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OOH, SHELLY'S OUT WALKING DOWN THE STREET; 10 TIMES A WEEK
The lines "ooh Shelly's out walking down the street/10 times a week is given as lines 9 and 1O of Example #1 of that rap.

The very similar lines "Ooh Shelly, walking down the street/ten times a week!" is given as lines 13 and 14 of Examples #2 and #3 of that rap.

I believe that "Ooh Shelly" is a folk etymology form of the phrase "I'll be". That phrase changed to "ah beep beep", in part because of the popularity of the 1968 Latin Boogaloo song "Bang Bang" by the Joe Cuba sextet. That song has the very infectious chanted chorus "beep beep! aaaaaah! beep beep ah!).

The "Ah Beep Beep"/ "I'll Be" rhymes often include the word "ungawa".
-snip-
[Update June 24, 2017]
Although it may be possible that the phrase "Oh Shelly" [or "Oh Shalida" or some similar sounding female name] is a folk processed form of the words "I'll be", it's also possible that those words are a folk processed form of the words "ah beep beep" came from the popularity of Donna Summer's song "Bad Girls". The words "Toot toot, hey, beep beep" and "beep beep uh-huh" are repeated in that hit record which also talked about girls "out on the street."

Girls hearing this song used the positive African American meaning of the word "bad" and ignored the part of those lyrics that said "talking ’bout the sad girls".

While it's probably that the 1968 Latin Boogaloo song "Bang Bang" contributed to the public's familiarity with the phrase "ah beep beep", that record wasn't the direct source for the "ah beep beep "phrase in children's rhymes. "Beep beep' is the sound of men honking their car horns at "bad girls" (i.e. prostitutes) who were "walking the streets", looking for customers. The horn honks were a sign that the men liked how the prostitutes were dressed and/or looked.

However, look at how closely the beginning words of the rhyme in the 1988 movie Big fit the beginning word for this street rhyme that is published in a 1973 book: [also given as Source rhyme #11 below]

[no title given]
I'll be I'll be
Walking down the street,
Ten times a week.
Un-gah-wah, un-gah-wah (baby)
This is my power.
What is the story?
What is the strike?
I said it, I meant it,
I really represent it.
Take a cool, cool Black to knock me down.
Take a cool, cool Black to knock me down.
I'm sweet, I'm kind.
I'm soul sister number nine.
Don't like my apples,
Don't shake my tree.
I'm a Castle Square Black.
Don't miss with me.
-John Langstaff and Carol Langstaff, editors Shimmy Shimmy Coke -Ca-Pop!: A Collection Of City Children's Street Games And Rhymes (New York, Doubleday & Company, 1973, p. 57)
-end of update-

"Umgawa" is a word that was coined in 1932 by Cyril Humes, a MGM screenwriter, for the Tarzan movies. In July 2004, Dr Techie, a commenter on http://wordoriginsorg.yuku.com/topic/8045/Umgawa#.VcFKDf3wtv4
wrote "For his books [about the fictitious character Tarzan], (Edgar Rice) Burroughs, created a complete ape language. Hume, who adapted Tarzan, the Ape Man (1932) for the screen, reduced Tarzan's language abilities considerably by inventing the all-purpose command Ungawa, which could mean up, down, halt or go."
-snip-
"Umgawa" was formed by changing one letter of the Kiswahili word "ungawa". The English translation of "ungawa" means "entangled". A similarly spelled word "ugawa" means "grouping". There is no word spelled "umgawa" in Swahili.
For the purposes of the Tarzan movies, the word "umgawa" could mean anything that the writers wanted it to mean. Although the original English spelling of the word in the Tarzan movies was "umgawa", "ungawa" is the spelling that has most often been used in the United States for this word.

Here's my transcription of a video clip that provides information about the Hollywood appropriation of the Swahili word "umgawa":
From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkRtsJtWVEU
Scott Tracy Griffin [White male], [identified as] Edgar Eice Burrough’s historian:
“The films used a combination of Swahili and made up words. One of my favorites is “Umgawa” which can mean anything we want it to mean. [smiling] It means “stop”, go away, come here, danger, or “Elephant, carry boy to safety.” [laughing]. “Umgawa” is a terrific word and is another one of our cultural touchstones. [.27]

[Another speaker: a White male]- “Originally, it meant “Get down”. But as time progressed, as the movies went on, it seemed to have a multiple layer of meaning. [chuckling]

[scenes from Tarzan movie: Tarzan talking to animals and to Black people in movies]

[same White male speaker] “And it became, you know, “Umgawa!” and everybody just rose to the occasion. [laughing] And they went into action.

[Video clip ends with a scene of Tarzan and Jane talking in a made up language].
-snip-
In the late 1960s & early 1970s, afro-centric African Americans took hold of that word and included it in a rhyme that both celebrated Black power and dared White people to challenge them for that pride. A common verse in those rhymes was "Ungawa!"/"Black power!" or "Ungawa/"We got the power" (with "power" in both examples pronounced like "po-wah").

Here are some examples of what I believe are probable source versions of the "Aah Beep Beep"/"Ungawa" rhymes:

Source Rhyme #11:
[no title given]
I'll be, be,
Walking down the street,
Ten times a week.
Un-gawa, un-gawa, (baby)
This is my power.
What is the story?
What is the strike?
I said 1t I meant it.
I really represent it.
Take a cool, cool Black
to knock to knock me down.
Take a cool, cook Black to knock me out.
I'm sweet, I'm kind,
I'm soul sister number nine.
Don't like my apples,
Don't shake my tree,
I'm a Castle Square Black,
Don't mess with me.
Source: Shimmy Shimmy Coke-Ca-Pop! A Collection of City Children's Street Ganes and Rhymes (John Langstaff and Carol Langstaff: Garden City, New York, Doubleday & Company,1973; p. 57)

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Source Rhyme #12:
"AH BEEP BEEP"
Ah Beep Beep
Walkin down the street

Ugawa. Ugawa
That means Black power.
White boy.
Destroy..
I said it. I meant it
And I'm here to represent it.
Soul sister number 9
Sock it to me one more time.
Uh hun! Uh Hun!
Source: Tracey S.,(African American female}; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; childhood remembrance,1968); collected by Azizi Powell, 2000

Editor: Comments that the informant shared with me about that rhyme can be found on this Mudcat thread that I started: http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=112857#2392802 Number Nine In Songs & Rhymes

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Source Rhyme #13:
"AH BEEP BEEP"
Ah beep beep, walking down the street
10 times a week

Ungawa, black power, Puerto Rican power
I said it, I meant it and now I represent it"
-Yasmin Hernadez, memories of childhood in a mixed Latina/o and African American neighborhood of New York City, 1980s; http://www.cocojams.com (School yard taunts page)

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Source Rhyme #11:
"AH BEEP BEEP"
OMG i'm finally remembering it...
ahh beep beep walkin down the street
10 times a week...

ungawa, ungawa this is black power
destroy
white boy

i said it
i meant it
i really represent it

i'm a soul soul sista from a soul soul town

aint too many sista gonna keep me down.

if you don't like my apples
don't shake my tree

cuz i'm a soul soul sista named... Ja-nie

LOL
again i'm not black.
-Guest, janie (Guest, duh) http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=6600 Downtown Baby; 2/29/2009

Note: There are two entries from that guest of that rhyme. The first entry was incomplete. Also, there are several other very similar examples of this rhyme (including one with the "n word)" and all of those examples "happen" to be from New York City. This may be an interesting coincidence or it may be the New York City area is where that rhyme originated.

I READ IT! I SAID IT!/ I STOLE MY MOMMA'S CREDIT!
These lines are given in lines 11 and 12 of Example #1 of the movie Big's "Shimmy Shimmy Cocoa Pop" rap.

I READ IT! I SAID IT!/ I STOLE MY MOMMA'S CREDIT!
These lines are given in lines 15 and 16 in Examples #2 and #3 of that rap.

Comment: I believe that both of those verses are folk etymology forms of the African American folk saying "I said it/ I meant it/ (and) I'm here to represent it."

Refer to Source Rhymes #11-#14 for examples of that saying in children's playground rhymes.

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I'M COOL I'M HOT/SOCK ME IN THE STOMACH THREE MORE TIMES
These lines are given in lines 13 and 14 of Example #1 of the movie Big's "Shimmy Shimmy Cocoa Pop" rap and in lines 17 and 18 of Examples #2 and #3 of that rap.

Comment:
"I'm cool! I'm hot!" are examples of African American slang that were added to this rap because of their cultural cache. There are a lot of contemporary playground rhymes that refer to punching someone in the body. The line "sock it to me one more time" as found in the movie Big's rap, refers to punching someone. However, that's not the original meaning of the African American slang phrase "sock it to me".

"Hit me with it one more time" and "give it to me one more time" are sayings that had the same African American vernacular meaning as "sock it to me". None of those lines had nothing whatsoever to do with physically hitting someone. I associate "sock it to me" with Aretha Franklin's late 1960s hit song "Respect". In one part of that song she repeatedly sings "sock it to me". In that song "sock it to me" means "give it to me". I can leave it to your imagination as to what "it" is.

I also associate that saying most with superstar R&B singer James Brown's instruction to his drummer to "Hit me with it one time (and the drummer would play one beat). Then James Brown would say "Hit me with it two times" and the drummer would play two beats etc.

Here are two examples of playground rhymes that include the line "sock it to me". The first example also includes the line "I'm cool and calm" which is very similar to the "I'm cool. I'm hot" line in the movie Big's rap.

Source Rhyme #15:
"AHH BEEP BEEP"
Ahh, Beep Beep!
Walking down the street
Ten times a week
Ungawa!
Black Power!
Destroy!
White Boy!
I said it, I meant it
I'm here to represent it
I'm cool, I'm calm
I'm Soul Sister Number Nine
Sock it to me one more time!

Uh-Uh! Good God!

(from Brooklyn, New York in the early 70's...the Brownsville version:

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Source Rhyme #16
"SOUL SISTER NUMBER 9"
Soul sister number 9
sock it to me one more time
said, un ungawa we got the power*
said un ungawa we got the power
Little Sally Walker’s walking down the street
She didn’t know what to do
so she jumped in front of me
She said, “Go on girl do your thing
Do your thing do your thing
Go on girl do your thing
Do your thing do your thing. Stop!
-The School Of Rock transcript embedded in video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvGia9u1McM 2003 American movie[This video is reposted below]

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VIDEO
Soul Sister Number Nine (?)



Uploaded by rachelarmstrong on Jan 24, 2008

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