Edited by Azizi Powell
This is Part IV of a four part series that provides an alphabetized list of text (word only) examples of foot stomping cheers that mention zodiac (astrological) signs.
This compilation can be referred to as the "pancocojams (Azizi Powell) collection of foot stomping cheers-zodiac signs".
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2021/11/astrology-zodiac-signs-mentioned-in.html for Part I (Numbers- I of this series.
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2021/11/astrology-zodiac-signs-mentioned-in_19.html for Part II (J - P). of this series.
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2021/11/astrology-zodiac-signs-mentioned-in_11.html for Part III (Q - S)
These examples aren't numbered as additional examples may be added if I come across them.
This series is a sub-set of a larger compilation entitled "Foot Stomping Cheers Alphabetical List". Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2016/09/foot-stomping-cheers-alphabetical-list.html for Part I of that series. The links to the other part of that series are included in that post. That post also includes additional notes about the general topic of foot stomping cheers.
Additional information about a specific cheer may be found after that example in its entry in the foot stomping cheer alphabetical list.
Also, click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/05/an-overview-of-foot-stomping-cheers.html for the pancocojams post entitled "An Overview Of Foot Stomping Cheers (Part I- Characteristic & Sources)".
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A DEFINITION AND A BRIEF HISTORY OF FOOT STOMPING CHEERS
"Foot stomping cheers" is a relatively new category of children's recreational play that involves chanting and choreographed foot and hand clapping movements. The earliest documentation of these types of cheerleader cheers is the 1978 vinyl record entitled Old Mother Hippletoe, Rural and Urban Children's Songs. That record included four children's cheers, two of which I'd categorize as foot stomping cheers. Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2021/11/an-overview-of-foot-stomping-cheers.html for more information about the cheers on that vinyl album.
This pancocojams collection includes examples of foot stomping cheers from my direct (face to face) collection in the mid 1980s to around 2008, from the Old Mother Hippletoe, Rural and Urban Children's Songs, from several books on African American children's culture, from online sources including YouTube videos and their discussion threads (when comments to children's videos were allowed).,and from my no longer active cultural website cocojams.com. I also found examples of this subset of children's cheers on other websites and blogs, particularly those which cater/ed to African Americans such as discussion threads where that were dedicated to members of historically Black Greek letter sororities, and lipstick alley.com discussion threads.
The scarity of post 2009 text examples and the lack of recent online references to these cheers leads me to believe that foot stomping cheers are rarely if ever performed anymore. Unfortunately, I can't find any YouTube videos of the performance of foot stomping cheers (and not just the chanting of some of those cheers) as I recall them from the 1980s, 1990s, and the early 2000s. The few videos that I embedded on some old pancocojams posts are no longer available.
A good example of the percussive 4/4 beat that is used for foot stomping cheers is the Pop song "We Will Rock You" by Queen. Click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tJYN-eG1zk&ab_channel=QueenOfficial for a sound file of that song.
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ASTROLOGICAL SUN SIGNS IN CHILDREN'S CHEERS
Astrology was really popular in the 1970s to the late 1990s- the relatively brief period of time in the United States when a number of African American (and sometimes other ethnicity/race) girls performed foot stomping cheers. Astrology's popularity during that time is reflected in the number of references to that subject in various Rhythm & Blues records. Some of those songs are the direct source for specific children's cheers. Other R&B songs which mention/ed sun sign astrology just help/ed to familiarize children with that form of astrology.
Here's an excerpt from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_sign_astrology:
"Sun sign astrology is the form of astrology most commonly found in many newspaper and magazine columns. It is a simplified system of astrology which considers only the position of the Sun, which is said to be placed within one of the twelve zodiac signs depending on the month of birth. This sign is then called the sun sign or star sign of the person born that month."
-end of quote-
Astrology (Zodiac) references in children's cheers are almost always "sun sign" references. Since sun signs purportedly provide information about an individual's personality, telling someone your sun sign is a quick way of sharing introductory information.
Read Part I of this pancocojams series for additional Editorial notes about astrological sun signs in children's cheers.
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NOTES ABOUT THESE EXAMPLES
These examples are presented in alphabetical order based on the first number or the first letter of the first letter of the first word.
The source (i.e. book, direct collection, or website) is given below the example along with demographic information and/or comments.
The numbers fthat are given below for the versions of a specific cheer in this serie may not be the same as the numbers for that cheer in the Pancocojams Foot Stomping Cheers Alphabetical List compilation.
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EXAMPLES: T - Z
TELL IT (Version #1)
My name is Mocha (Tell it, tell it)
I'm on the line (Tell it, tell it)
I wanna do it (tell it, tell it)
with Nas' sign (Tell it, tell it)
And you know what? (what?)
My man will rough you up.
Hey!!!
The alternate version said, "and you know what? My man
don't do enough".
-Miss Mocha,
http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/showthread.php?t=31403&page=5,03-28-2003
-snip-
"Nas" is the stage name for an American rapper.
His Wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nas indicates that he started
his recording career in 1991, but his highly regarded album Illmatic wasn't
released until 1994. This information suggests that this version of "Tell
It" was probably not chanted until 1994. The word "sign" here means "astrological sun sign".
Note: "Nas" isn't the same recording artist as "Lil Nas X" who recorded "Old Town Road".
Btw, my guess is that these "Tell it" girls'
rhymes were inspired by the 1966 hit R&B song "Tell It Like It
Is" which was recorded by Aaron Neville and then by other vocalists.
tell it, tell it, tell it like it is
uh oh!
tell it, tell it, tell it like it is
me: my name is Goddess
homegirls: tell it, tell it
me: I'm on the line
homegirls: tell it, tell it
me: and I'm gon' do it
homegirls: tell it, tell it
me: with a Scorpio sign
homegirls: tell it, tell it
me: and you know what?
homegirls: what?
me: and you know what?
homegirls: what?
(alternate replies)
me: my man was rollin on the ocean, he was rollin on the sea, and the best part about it, he was rolling on me (insert fast azz 8 year old sexy move here)
OR
me: I'm just gon' kick yo butt
-GODDESS!, http://www.lipstickalley.com/showthread.php/43158-Hood-Cheers/page2?s=c36b81842e44a5cd4a49678538954ac4
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TELL IT (TELL IT LIKE IT IS (Version #3)
Tell it tell it tell it like it is (uh hun)
tell it tell it tell it like it is
My name Nicole (tell it tell it)
I’m on the line (tell it tell it)
And I can do it (tell it tell it)
To the Capricorn sign (tell it tell it)
And you know what? (what?)
And you know what (what?)
Your man was in my body and he did some karate and he
knocked on my door, but he didn’t get no more.
-Black Girlhood Celebration: Toward a Hip-hop Feminist
Pedagogy by Ruth Nicole Brown, published in 2008; Page 43 (Google
books)
TELL IT TELL IT (Version #4)
My name is ______________ (Tell it Tell it)
Zodiac sign my sign (Tell it Tell it)
And if you don't like it (Tell it Tell it)
You can kiss my behind (Tell it Tell it)
You know what? (What?)
You know what? (What?)
My name ________and I can do it like this! (do a dance)
-Honeykiss1974,
http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/archive/index.php/t-31403.html, 03-26-2003
-snip-
The "1974" in her screen name is probably her date
of birth which means that this cheer may be from the mid 1980s.
****
YOU AINT GOIN NO WHERE
Entire Group: You ain’t goin no where
no where
You ain’t goin no where
You ain’t goin no where
no where
Y
Hey, Shadeya
Soloist #1 (Shadeya): Too shy
Group without the soloist: Introduce yourself
Soloist #1 (Shadeya) : I’ll try
My name is Shadeya
I cheer for Garfield*.
My sign is Libra.
And when I’m up
Group without soloist: When she’s up.
Shadeya: I’m hot stuff.
Group: She’s hot stuff.
Shadeya: And when I’m down.
Group: And when she’s down.
Shadeya: Don’t mess around.
Group: Don’t mess around
Shadeya: Don’t make me scream
cause you will be _knocked _out.
Repeat the entire cheer from the beginning with the next
soloist who says her name or nickname, the name of the sport or community team
she cheers for. The girl doesn't have to really be a cheerleader. She is
engaging in dramatic play- that is-she's pretending to be a cheerleader.
Continue this pattern until every one in the group has had
one turn as the soloist.
-Shadaya, Fort Pitt School; (Garfield), 2002; collected by
Azizi Powell; I also collected the exact same cheer in 2008 from Conraya and
another girl from the same school.
-snip-
__ means to pause a beat
*The soloist names her community or school athletic cheerleading team.
"My sign" means the person's astrological sun sign.
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WE ARE THE RIDGEWOOD GIRLS
We are the Ridgewood girls
We are the get-fresh crew
My name's "Sweety" (believe it or not that was the
name I had chosen for myself)
My sign's Leo
This is how I show it off: (strike individual pose)
-Yasmin H., visual artist (New York City, New York), 2/25/04
(memories of East Brooklyn, New York, in the late 1980s.)
-snip
This example and several others in this collection are from an
email that I received from Yasmin H. Here is an excerpt from her email:
"We would begin each performance session with this
piece because every girl had to go through this process and so it became the
"introduction" piece. I also want to point out with the above piece
that the term "get-fresh crew" was something we had borrowed from the
then popular "Get-Fresh crew" which was a hip-hop act consisting of
Dough E. Fresh and Slick Rick. The beats in our cheers and even song-tunes
usually mimicked popular hip-hop beats of the time."
This concludes Part IV of this pancocojams series about astrology signs in children's foot stomping cheers.
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