Edited by Azizi Powell
This post showcases two fake videos of President Barack Obama dropping the mic and a real video of President Obama jokingly performing that gesture.
Information about what "drop the mic" means is also included in this post.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to President Obama for being cool enough to incorporate this gesture in his last Washington Correspondents Dinner speech. Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publishers of these videos on YouTube.
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2016/04/what-mic-drop-really-means-history.html an earlier pancocojams post on "dropping the mic". That post features information about the history and meaning of the "dropping the mic" gesture, along with the videos that are featured in this post plus another video, and along with selected comments from some of those videos' viewer discussion threads.
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WHAT DROP THE MIC MEANS
From https://www.quora.com/What-does-drops-mic-mean-exactly-How-did-the-phrase-come-into-use
"What does "drops mic" mean exactly? How did the phrase come into use?
-Joshua
A "mic drop" is the rap/comedy parallel to spiking a football. It says, "My performance was so definitive that there's nothing more to say."
It seems to come mostly from black culture...
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Notice that the commenter wrote that "it [examples of mic drops] mostly* come from black culture". "Black culture" in that comment means "African American culture".
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*Italics added by me to highlight that word.
Click the pancocojams link given above for more information about the history and meanings of the "mic drop" gesture.
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TWO FAKE VIDEOS OF PRESIDENT OBAMA DROPPING THE MIC
Video #1: Key & Peele - Obama Raps
Comedy Central Uploaded on Feb 7, 2012
President Obama schools everyone when he shows up at a rap battle.
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This is a skit that was performed by African American comedians Kay & Peele. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_%26_Peele provides this information about that performance duo:
"Key & Peele is an American sketch comedy television series created by Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele for Comedy Central. Both Key and Peele previously worked on MADtv.[4]
Each episode of the show consists mainly of several pre-taped sketches starring the two actors. The sketches cover a variety of societal topics, often with a focus on American popular culture, ethnic stereotypes, and race relations.[5] Key & Peele premiered on January 31, 2012[6] and ended on September 9, 2015, with a total of 53 episodes, over the course of five seasons."...
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Video #2: Obama Drops the Mic
TheEllenShow, Published on Jan 15, 2016
President Obama's last State of the Union address had an unexpected ending. Watch what happened, here!
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A REAL VIDEO OF PRESIDENT OBAMA DROPPING THE MIC
President Obama Drops Microphone on Floor at White House Correspondent Dinner 2016
USNews, Published on Apr 30, 2016
4/30/2016 President Obama and Larry Wilmore at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner The annual White House correspondents’ dinner—the last of Barack Obama’s presidency—will take place Saturday night.
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Read my comment below about the two fingers to his lips gesture that President Obama made before saying "Obama out" and dropping the mic.
Click http://www.businessinsider.com/the-best-jokes-from-the-white-house-correspondents-dinner-2016-4 "'Obama out': President literally drops the mic after one final amazing White House correspondents' dinner speech
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Visitor comments are welcome.
This is a revised version of two previous published comments that I made yesterday to this post.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the saying "Obama out" that President Obama jokingly made at the end of his 2016 White House Correspondent's Dinner speech:
"Obama out" is an adaptation of the relatively common (among some African Americans and others) saying "Peace out".
"Peace out" is a parting (farewell) statement that early on (in the late 1960s or early 1970s?) was most often associated with those in the African American Hip Hop culture. However, I believe that "Peace out" was coined from combining the English word "Peace" as a translation of the Arabic "Salaam" that is found in the Arabic greeting "As-salāmu ʿalaykum" with the word "out".
With regard to that Arabic greeting: In the late 1960s in Newark, New Jersey I recall hearing the Arabic greeting "As-salāmu ʿalaykum" from some young adult African Americans who had converted to Sunni Islam. Although I wasn't Muslim, I learned how to return that greeting with "Waʿalaykumu s-salām" ("and upon you, Peace"). I (and other non-Muslims) who I knew also began giving that Arabic greeting to Muslims we saw.
By at least the early 1970s, I noticed that that Arabic saying had been transformed to the saying "Peace & Love". However, "Peace & Love" was (is) not used as a greeting, but as a farewell saying. Soon afterwards, the farewell saying "Peace & Love" was shortened to "Peace".
The saying "Peace out" has been popularized by African American rappers, White hippies, and other folks. But, I don't think that "Peace out" is used that often in everyday speech by African Americans anymore not that it was ever formally or informally used by most African Americans. But in my experience, the word "Peace" is still used as a farewell statement by afro-centric African Americans.
I think that the saying "Peace out" may have also evolved from the rather common informal saying "I'm out of here" (meaning "I'm leaving). The word "out" in "Peace out." probably also came from the ending saying "over and out." that is used on CB radio.
Notice that "Peace out" (like "I'm out of here." and "over and out") are statements and not exclamations. Those statements are said in a matter of fact tone of voice and not shouted. In written form a period and not an exclamation point is used. A person would be uncool if he or she exclaimed "Peace out!".
"Peace out" can be said to mean "(You) Be at peace. I'm leaving." But most of the time I think it really just means the same thing as "Good-by".
"Obama out" is President Obama's adaptation (for fun) of the African American Vernacular saying "Peace out". People don't really use their last name or their first name with the word "out" instead of saying "Peace out".
It'll be interesting to see if President Obama's use of his last name with "out" starts a new trend.
At the end of his 2016 speech at the White House Correspondents Dinner, President Obama jokingly said "Obama out" and then made a closed two finger to the top of his mouth hand gesture with his left hand while dropping his mic with his right hand.
ReplyDeleteI'm interested in documenting the name and meaning of that closed two fingers to the top of the mouth gesture.
I believe that that gesture comes from Hip Hop culture and probably is an adaption of the "Backwards peace sign". However, in contrast to that gesture that President Obama made, the backwards peace sign is made with the two fingers opened.
http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Backwards_Peace_Sign has one photograph of a young Black man making the backwards peace sign. [Warning: That page includes some profanity.] The caption under the photograph reads "This gangsta is showing off the backwards peace sign before capping his prey in the ass, yo."
However, a quote on that page reads:
“Dude, it's like displaying love for like, the world...only backwards!
~ Dirty Hippie on Backwards Peace Sign"
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Or, maybe President Obama just made part of the closed two finger gesture to the lips that people make when they pretend to throw someone a kiss (i.e. A gesture that conveys "Here's a kiss from my lips to yours.") If so, that gesture wasn't complete because he didn't "throw the kiss" outwards.
I'm sure that President Obama isn't the only one who has ever made that closed two fingers to the lips gesture. So, what is its name?
Correction:
DeletePresident Obama made a closed two finger to the top of his mouth hand gesture with his right hand while dropping his mic with his left hand.
Sorry. I get those directions from pictures wrong a lot.