Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post presents general information about foot stomping cheers and provides a list of foot stomping cheers that I have come across that include demographic information (city/state or some other geographic location references).
This 2026 post replaces the now deleted pancocojams posts 2017 and 2021 posts on this subject. That 2021 post had three comments that I wrote and added to that post's discussion thread. One of those comments is given as Addendum #2 to this 2026 post.
Pancocojams posts include many more examples of foot stomping cheers than the ones that I've found with geographical information.
Also, read Addendum #1 given below about the cocojams.com citation that is given for some of these examples.
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.
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DISCLAIMER
The 1970s through 2010 time frame for this post reflects my direct collection activities and my my daughter's collection activities. (My daughter's name is given as "TMP" in a number of these Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania examples.I have only found a few examples online of what I would categorize as foot stomping cheers after 2010. If you are aware of any examples of these cheers after 2010, please share those examples.
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It seems very likely to me that there were foot stomping cheer examples in many cities during the 1970s through 2010 that aren't included in this geographical demographic list.
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YouTube's Feb. 2019 decision to disable comments for most of its children's videos meant that most comments that included examples of children's rhymes, singing games, and cheers (including foot stomping cheers) that hadn't been previously retrieved (by me and others) were forever lost and the opportunities to read/collect other (old or new) examples were also lost.
Click https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/28/18244954/youtube-comments-minor-children-exploitation-monetization-creators for an article about the reasons why YouTube decided to disable comments for most children's videos.
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The collection of foot stomping cheers that are found in the alphabetized pancocojams pages include many more cheers which were published without geographical citations.
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Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2016/09/foot-stomping-cheers-alphabetical-list.html for Part I (Numbers - C) of this series. The links to the other four pages of my Pancocojams compilation of foot stomping cheer are found on that post and every post in that series.
PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S COMMENTS
This post provides a list of city/state demographics for examples of foot stomping cheers that I have directly collected, or my daughter performed or directly collected from a summer camp that she attended and later where she was a counselor.
In addition, this post includes a list of foot stomping cheers that cite cities/states for the foot stomping cheers that I have found (as of this date) either online (by "surfing" the internet) or off-line (in a vinyl record or in books), or that I have received through email.
Some text (word only) examples of these foot stomping cheers are included after their titles.
For the words to most* of the foot stomping cheer examples that I've come across as of this date (March 14, 2021) click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2016/09/foot-stomping-cheers-alphabetical-list.html for Part I of a five part alphabetical listing of foot stomping cheers. The links to the other parts of this series are included in each post.
*I didn't include all of the examples that I've come across of the once very popular cheers such as "Gigalo". Note that "Gigalo" and the (also very popular cheer "Hollywood Swinging") were also performed as hand clap rhymes. My sense is that the foot stopping cheer version of these rhymes preceded the hand clap versions.
"Foot stomping cheers" are also called "cheers", "steps", "chants", "dancing games", and other referents. In her 2006 book The Games That Black Girls Play, Kyra Gaunt uses the term "cheers" and wrote that "cheers" are called "scolds".
As of the date of this post's publication, I've not found any examples of foot stomping cheers in any country but the United States, except for examples of "Shabooya Roll Call" which was popularized by its inclusion in the 2006 cheerleader movie Bring It On All Or Nothing. If you know of any other examples of footstomping cheers that are performed outside of the United States, please add that information in the comment section below.
*In the context of this study, "Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area" means many Pittsburgh neighborhoods that are considered "Black" or "mostly Black" neighborhoods" such as (my home location) East Liberty/Garfield, as well as Homewood, and the Northside. In the context of this post, the Pittsburgh Pennsylvania area also includes certain nearby communities such as Braddock, Pennsylvania and Rankin, Pennsylvania.
(Note that versions of the same cheers from Pittsburgh neighborhoods or from Pittsburgh area communities (such as Braddock, Pennsylvania and Rankin, Pennsylvania) are often at least somewhat different. However, some examples of certain cheers from the same neighborhood over decades might be the same or very similar.)
DEFINITION OF AND MY GENERAL COMMENTS ABOUT "FOOT STOMPING CHEERS"
"Foot stomping cheers" is my term for a sub-set of children's cheerleader cheers which appears to have originated among African American school girls in the mid 1970s. Briefly put, foot stomping cheers are formulaic compositions which have a modified call & response structure that I refer to as "group/consecutive soloist". What "group/consecutive soloist" means is that the group voice is the first voice that is heard in those cheers. A designated soloist responds to the rest of the group's words and those voices alternate until that rendition ends (usually with the soloist's voice or the soloist & the rest of the group's voice). However, the cheer immediately begins again with the next designated soloist and this pattern continues until every member of the group has had a turn as the soloist.
Foot stomping cheers are chanted while their performers execute choreographed, syncopated, percussive movement routines that are very similar to African American originated Greek lettered fraternity & sorority stepping (steppin). Most foot stomping cheers use this beat pattern: "stomp clap/ stomp stomp/ clap". Another beat pattern is "stomp stomp clap/ stomp stomp clap." Those two standard beat patterns appear to be used for all foot stomping cheers. Moderate tempo 4/4 beats created by those foot stomps alternate with the chanters'(individual) hand claps, body pats (especially thigh pats), and less frequently, finger snaps. Because these 4/4 beats are omnipresent in R&B, Hip-Hop, Rock, Gospel, and other forms of music, foot stomping cheer routines aren't that difficult for many African Americans (and others) to learn.
The well known 1977 record "We Will Rock You" by Queen is an excellent example of a Rock song that has a 4/4 beat and therefore could serve as a backdrop for a foot stomping routine (recognizing, of course, that foot stomping chants aren't meant to be performed to recorded music).
The "Shabooya Roll Call" cheer that is performed in the 2006 cheerleading movie Bring It On All Or Nothing is probably the most well known example of a foot stomping cheer, although I consider the stepping/dance movement that the girls do in that movie while chanting that cheer to be quite exaggerated.
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LIST OF CITY (AND STATE) WITH EXAMPLES OF FOOT STOMPING CHEERS
The city/state names are given in alphabetical order. With the exception of examples from "Pittsburgh Pennsylvania area", the titles of the foot stomping examples that I have collected or found online etc.
Because my "collection" contains so many examples from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (from the mid 1980s to sometime in 2009), I've chosen not to add the names of those examples under the Pittsburgh, PA. area entry. Instead, when an example from another city is the same or similar to one or more versions from the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area, I've noted that with these words in parenthesis (example/ multiple examples same/similar in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area). When versions of that examples are also found on other examples with no demographic I've added this note: (multiple examples same/similar in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area and elsewhere throughout the United States).
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2016/09/foot-stomping-cheers-alphabetical-list.html for Part I of a five part alphabetical listing of foot stomping cheers that includes these city/state demographics, including those for Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area. The hyperlinks for the other posts in that series are given on each posts in that series.
These entries are given in alphabetical order. The entries include the city (and/or state) name [given in bold font*] then the name/s of the examples, the way the example/s were collected, and the date of collection/retrieval. Some other editorial notes may be included after some of these entries. I've also added the words to the three examples that I've found which are from the late 1970s.
*bold font added March 12, 2021
A, B
Ann, Arbor, Michigan
"Oolay Oolay"* in The Games Black Girls Play by Kyra D. Gaunt, (page 77) contributor Tomika and Laura, mid 1990s
-snip-
This is a version of the cheer "Hula Hula", (multiple same/similar examples in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area and elsewhere throughout the United States)
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Atlantic City, New Jersey
"Introduce yourself" [late 1970s, Atlantic City, New Jersey]
"Hey girl, hey you, introduce yourself. Introduce yourself."
Then each individual girl says a rhyme about themselves, like,
"My name is Joan (group says "check") I'm from AC ("check") I come to say ("check") Don't mess with me ("Check it out")
-Joan C.(Anglo-American female ; chanted by Black, Latino, and White girls at Catholic High School in Atlantic City, New Jersey, late 1970s; electronic message to Azizi Powell; 2/11/2007 (via Mudcat)
-snip-
; (multiple same/similar examples in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area and elsewhere throughout the United States)
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Birmingham, Alabama; 1990s
“Angels Go Swinging”, posted in cocojams.com (my no longer active cultural website)
(version of "Hollywood"; (multiple same/similar examples in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area and elsewhere throughout the United States)
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Brooklyn, New York [Read the entries below for New York City.)
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C, D
Chicago, Illinois
[version] "Tell It, Tell it" (also known as "Tell It Like It Is"
Chrystal Smith, comment dated July 14, 2017 (comment in discussion thread for vlog https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfzHL_1PdbY
Let's Discuss: Black Girl Childhood Hand Games and Sing Songs")
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Also, from Chicago, Illinois, (early 1980s) noted in The Games Black Girls Play by Kyra D. Gaunt; contributor: LaShonda (pages 182) "Planet Rock"
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"Hollywood Swinging"; (multiple same/similar examples in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area and elsewhere throughout the United States)
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"Take Your Time"
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Also, Chicago Illinois:
"[insert name] Got The Rhythm"
comment from Jennifer Martin (posting as a guest on I'm Rubber . You're Glue: Children's Rhymes thread, Mudcat , Feb 3, 2012
"When I was growing up in Chicago in a primarily African-American neighborhood in the mid 70s (This was probably 1976-1978) we used to do a song where a small group of us would stand in a circle and take turns doing little dance solos with different body parts, for example if Jane, Susan and Mary were in the circle we would all sing:
It's 35 years later and I still get that song stuck in my head sometimes and nobody here in California seems to have ever heard it..."
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"Tell It"
[comment]
Yes!!!! I grew up in Chicago and me and my aunt JUST had this conversation!!! How about "tell it, tell it tell it like it is. I go to school (tell it tell it)
Smoking kools (tell it tell it)
I walk the streets (tell it tell it)
10 times a week (tell it tell it)
I'm number third (tell it tell it)
Smoking herb (tell it tell it)....
& the nonsense continues. Smh... my grandmother wouldn't let us sing that one.
-Chrystal Smith, 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfzHL_1PdbY&ab_channel=EbonyJanicePeace "
-snip-
I've found a number of versions of this cheer online without any city/state demograpics.
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South Chicago (Chicago Heights), Illinois
Ruth Nicole Brown was born and raised in South Chicago (Chicago Heights), Illinois (quoting the forward of the book xvii Black Girlhood Celebration: Toward a Hip-hop Feminist Pedagogy by Ruth Nicole Brown, 2008
[page 43 of that book]
"In “Eastgate” cheers were “serious” Black girl battles. In a social and cultural capital sense we were gangs. Groups of girls formed a posse and challenged girls on any street corner in particular to battle using our words and cheers to rhyme, our bodies to make beats.
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.
That’s how I remember one of my favorite cheers"...
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Chicago, Illinois
"Gigalo"
Rafeldelaghetto, June 26, 2017 in https://www.lipstickalley.com/threads/black-girl-rhymes-what-was-yours-growing-up.1196979/page-2 "Black girl rhymes: What was yours growing up)
(quoting another commenter Zazu who listed words from several rhymes and then wrote
"My hands up high my feet down low
And this the way I gigolo (this was a dancing game)".
(Rafeldelaghetto then wrote: "Yasss are you from Chicago? I remember all of those."
Later in that discussion Zazu wrote: "Yes, I am! Where ever I made friends in Chicago, we did all of these."
-snip-
WARNING: Some examples and rhymes on that discussion thread contain profanity, sexually explicit references, and the n word.
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Cleveland, Ohio
"Check"
Shelly H. (African American female, Cleveland, Ohio, mid 1980s., collected by Azizi Powell in the early 2000s.
Denver, Colorado
"Ola Ola"* in The Games Black Girls Play by Kyra D. Gaunt, (page 78) contributor Arielle [1995]
-snip-
This is a version of the cheer "Hula Hula", (multiple same/similar examples in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area and elsewhere throughout the United States)
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Detroit, Michigan
"Hula Hula (version beginning with "Step, step, take a step"
-Cookie, http://thechocolatetease.blogspot.com/2013/03/childhood-rhymes.html, March 11, 2013
E, F
Elkhart, Indiana:
"Introduce Yourself Roll Call"; from Sonjala; memories of the late 1970s and early 1980s; collected by Azizi Powell (multiple same/similar examples in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area and elsewhere throughout the United States)
All: Chick – boom Ah Ah chick a boom roll call
First Person: Hey Sonji
Second Person: Yeah baby
First Person: Hey sonjie
Second Person: Yeah baby
First Person: Introduce your self
Second Person: Right on
First Person: Introduce your self
Second Person: Right on my name is sonji
First Person: Check
Second Person: I like to sing
First Person: Check
Second Person: And when I sing
First Person: Check
Second Person: I do my thing
All: OOOOHHHH roll call Chick a boom, ah ah chick a boom roll call
Then each person is “called” one at a time. They make up a rhyme about what they like and the cheer repeats itself {African American girls; Late 70’s – early 80’s Elkhart Indiana}
-Sonjala A. (African American female); collected by Azizi Powell, 3/15/2008
Also, "Tab" from Sonjala; memories of the late 1970s and early 1980s; collected by Azizi Powell
-snip-
Elkhart, Indiana is about two hours by car from Chicago, Illinois.
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Fayetteville, North Carolina
"I TT I TI TI" [cheer title]
"I live in fayettville,nc i am 9 my cuzin taught me this
I TT I TI TI Break it down I TT I TI TI Break it down My name
is Euraja and I'm the ist Cheerleader And when I break
it down I break it I break it to the ground And when I get
up I don't get stuck And there aint nothing to it yall Can't
do it."
-aja; 10/4/2008, cocojams.com
-snip-
cocojams.com was my multi-page cultural website. That website was active from 2000 to Nov. 2014 when I deactivated it. A number of rhymes and cheers that were featured on that page came from children. pre-teens, and teens since there was an easy to use page for examples that people could fill out without an email address and only using their first name (and hopefully other demographics such as age and city/state). I reposted many of the rhyme and cheer examples that were on cocojams.com on my cocojams2 blog https://cocojams2.blogspot.com
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Fort Worth, Texas (Tarrant)
from CBWELLS26, 1/2/2001, http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/showthread.php?t=4123&page=4 childhood chants and games
cheer name: "Suffocated Lady"
[first one "Little Sally Walker")....
"the second one all the girls would get in a circle and chant & clap
Suffocated lady, Suffocated la-dy(this is said twice), then the first girl would sing
I'm a bad bad girl from a bad bad town, it take a thousand n%$%@* just to hold me down, if you don't like my apples don't you pick em (not them) off my tree cause I'm after you're lover and he's after me. (this is repeated until every girl in the circle gets her turn)"...
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G, H,Houston, Texas
From Apples On A Stick: The Folklore Of Black Children by Barbara Michels and Bettye White (1983; p. 14);
"Hollywood Rock Swinging"- (multiple examples same/similar in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area and elsewhere throughout the United States).
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"Hula Hula"- (multiple examples same/similar in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area and elsewhere throughout the United States).
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I, J
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K, L
Los Angeles, California
Tether ball (three examples)
1) Milan W; November 18, 2009, cocojams.com
-snip-
Milan W added this comment to her version of this cheer
"Little black girls at Windsor Hills Elementary School in Los Angeles, CA during the early 1990s chanted this rhythmic taunt in a circle on the playground"
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2) bitsy196; http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/showthread.php?t=4123&page=4 ; “remember when”’-06-25-2003
-snip-
bitsy196 prefaced this example with this comment: ..."I remember one that surprisingly (sp?) has not been said.I grew up in LA and I am sure this made across the US"...
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3) "You Know I shake The Best"
-Nikkole Salter, 2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfzHL_1PdbY "Let's Discuss: Black Girl Childhood Hand Games and Sing Songs" [comment]
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"Tetherball"
-Nikkole Salter, 2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfzHL_1PdbY "Let's Discuss: Black Girl Childhood Hand Games and Sing Songs" [comment]
"This is an L.A. perspective:... This first one is not so much a hand game as much as it is a cipher: You know, I shake the best, hey, hey/ You know, from the east to the west! My name's (enter your name) and my favorite color's black (or whatever color you like) / I took your man and you won't get him back, hey hey / You know, I shake the best, hey, hey/ You know, from the east to the west! (and every person gets a chance, state your color and your bravado in rhyme)...
Then there was this other call & response cipher (which I don't hear too many people mention outside my generation and region)... Tether ball, tether ball/Oosha, asha!/Tether ball, tether ball/Oosha, asha! My name's (enter your name) (tether ball), super cool, (tether ball) You mess with me (tether ball) You's a fool (tether ball) I got this man (tether ball) On my mind (tether ball) You mess with him (tether ball) Your butt is straight up mine. Oooh. Tether ball, tether ball/Oosha, Asha! etc. -- You make up your own rhyme of bravado..."
Super Fly Girl
-Westside Jaguars (Los Angeles, California), posted by LABELmeCUTE on Jul 31, 2010, https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=68&v=aearuurOh_w
-snip-
This updated version of the "Fly Girl" cheer is performed by a cheerleading squad. Gymnastic movements are performed by some of the cheerleaders during their solo.
M. N.
Memphis, Tennessee
Who now Who now, Now who think they bad
Who now Who now, Now who think they bad
I do
I know I'm bad cause Afro's my name
Uh Huh
Football's my game
Uh Huh
Black is my color dont u worry about my lover
Um she think she bad
Bad bad super bad, bad enough I know I'm bad
Um she think she tough
Tough tough super tough tough enough to kick your butt
Um she think shes fine
Fine enough to blow Eric's mind
Um she think she's cute
Cute enough to steal your dude
-Afrochic (Memphis, Tennessee), http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/showthread.php?t=31403&page=5 Old School Chants, 03-30-2003
"Jiggalow"
This is how it goes in Midway, Georgia.) Jiggalo, Jig, Jigggg----alooooo. Jiggalo, Jig, Jigggg----alooooo. Group: Hey _____! Person: Yeah? Group: Are you ready? Person: For what? Group: To Jig! Person: Jig what? Group: Jigalooo! Jigalooo! Person: Well, my back aches My bra (belt, pants, Dickies) to tight. My booty shake from left to right. With the sky up high And my J's down low This the way I Jiggalo (does a cute, short dance) Group: Well, her back aches Her bra (belt, pants, Dickies) to tight. Her booty shake from left to right. Wit the sky up high And her J's down low And this the way she Jiggalo (copies their cute, short dance) (Repeats with new person)
-Brianna (Midway,Georgia); 9/26/2008, cocojams.com
from kisses, 1/1/2001, http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/showthread.php?t=4123&page=3 childhood chants and games
"Does anyone remeber the cheers we used to do?
Really uh uh really uh uh
Really my name is kisses
really my sign is sropio
say what
scorpio
say what
cause I'm more than a dollar I can make your boyfriend holler cause I'm sweet and fine like a bottle of wine cause I'm a pro
say what
a P R O
say what
I'm a triple P triple R triple O
a sexy pro.
New York City, New York (East Brooklyn)
"We Are The Ridgewood girls", -Yasmin H., (Latina), via email to cocojams.com, 2/25/04 (memories of East Brooklyn, New York, in the late 1980s.)
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"Rock The Boat"
Rock the boat,
Rock, rock the boat
[repeat]
My name is Yasmin (rock the boat)
I know I'm fine (rock the boat)
Just like my sign (rock the boat)
My sign is Leo
I go bang-bang choo choo train
Wind me up and I do my thing
Reeses pieces butter cup
Don't mess with me, cause I'll mess you up,
Rock the boat, rock rock the boat...
-Yasmin H. (Latina female; memories of East Brooklyn, New York, in the late 1980s), 2/25/04
-snip-
The words in parenthesis were chanted by the other members of the cheerleading squad.
This cheer was found in multiple cities.
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"A Bull Dog"
-Mellie Grant, Jun 24, 2017, https://www.lipstickalley.com/threads/black-girl-rhymes-what-was-yours-growing-up.1196979/page-2
-snip-
WARNING: Some of the examples and comments on that lipstickalley.com discussion thread contain profanity, sexually explicit content, and/or the "n word".
Mellie Grant noted that she was from Brooklyn [New York]. This version of "A Bull Dog" includes the line "And then you disco like Sisquo". That referent to Sisquo helps date this version. c https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisq%C3%B3
"SisQó), is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, dancer and actor. He is most prominently known for "The Thong Song," his membership in Dru Hill, and has also released solo material. Sisqo's successful debut solo album, Unleash the Dragon (1999), included the hit singles "Thong Song"[4] and "Incomplete"....
Years active : 1995–present"
-snip-
Therefore this version of that cheer couldn't have been chanted until 1995.
The exact same version of "A Bull Dog" cheer was posted by dijah.love (Location: New York); Apr 25 2008; http://forum.blackhairmedia.com/lil-girls-hand-games_topic128043_page5.html
This may have been the same person.
I've added a comment from that blackhairmedia.com discussion to the comment section of this pancocojams post. That comment mentions "doing steps" when she was 8 years old.
I collected a version of this cheer that doesn't include the name "Sisquo" from three African American girls in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 2000.
I also have come across another example of "Bull Dog" and a very similar example called "Panthers". Neither of those examples include the name Sisquo and they are given without any demographics.
WARNING: Some of the examples and comments on that blackhair.com discussion thread contain profanity, sexually explicit content, and/or the "n word".
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"A Boom Boom Tick" [Read the entry below for Washington, D.C.]
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"Hollywood Go Swinging"
A reference to a "Hollywood Swinging" cheer is included in this New York Times article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/19/nyregion/thecity/19jump.html "The Jump Rope Girls, 20 Years On" By Susan Hartman, Oct. 17, 2008
[photo caption: "The Parkside girls in 1988 — Elbe Vasquez, far left, Peachie Navarro, and Jackie and Steffie Rendon"]
Here's the only line of that cheer that is given in that article:
"Oh , look at that body, ain’t it fine?” they sang to Jackie in a cheer titled “Hollywood Go Swinging.”
That article may refer in general to other foot stomping cheers without using that term.
O, P
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
From Recess Battles: Playing Fighting, and Storytelling by Anna R. Beresin (University Press of Mississippi, Jackson, 2010, page 104-105, in the section of that book whose sub-title is "Steps"), African American girls, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
"Fly Girl" (1999) (multiple same/similar examples in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area and elsewhere throughout the United States)
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"Hollywood" (1992) (multiple same/similar examples in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area and elsewhere throughout the United States)
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"I Work" [1992]
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"Pump It Up" (1992) (multiple same/similar examples in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area and elsewhere throughout the United States)
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"Shoo shoo Sharida" (1992)
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"Telephone" (1992) (A similar cheer is included in a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area version of "Cheerleader"; also examples of "Telephone" found elsewhere throughout the United States)
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"A Boom Boom Tick" [An example of this cheer is given below for Washington, D.C.]
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"Really" (1992)
This cheer was "really" popular in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area in the early 1990s. I've collected versions from the greekchat.com website, from lipstick alley.com, and from cocojams.com (all without locations and decade when the cheer was performed).
Also, from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Here's that version of "Jump In The Car":
"jump in da car...
step on the gas
move to the side
and let (ur name here) pass
she said a oooih uhhh look atr that booty
oooh uuuuhh ain't she fly
ooohh ahhh look at that booty
wish she was mine
-datbeyoncehair (Location Philly), Apr 25 2008; http://forum.blackhairmedia.com/lil-girls-hand-games_topic128043_page4.html Lil Girls...Hand Games!
-snip-
WARNING: Some examples and comments on that discussion thread contain profanity and/or sexually explicit references..
-snip-
Versions of "Jump In The Car" cheers were found in multiple cities.
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Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (and some nearby communities)
Most of the examples of cheers in my collection are from the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area, including those which are noted as such in the parenthesis in this post.
Here's a few of the foot stomping cheers that were found in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area which are also found in at least one other African American community if not in more than one other African American communities throughout the USA:
"Bang Bang Choo Choo Train"
-snip-
"Bang Bang Choo Choo Train" is a VERY widely known recreational composition that is performed as a hand clap rhyme and as a cheerleader cheer. Both the hand clap rhyme versions and cheer versions have basically the same text, but it I believe that "Bang Bang Choo Choo Train" is usually performed by some Black Americans and most other Americans as a unison chanted hand clap routine. Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2015/08/bang-bang-choo-choo-train-rhyme-cheer.html for more information about this rhyme/cheer.
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"Candy Girl"
-snip-
This was posted as a cheer (Los Angeles, Cal.) in the Black Greek sorority women's "remember when" discussion and was also mentioned as a handclap rhyme in The Games Black Girls Play
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"Disco"
-snip-
This cheer includes the line " what you gonna do when they come for you?" I collected it in Pittsburgh and it was also posted to cocojams.com (no location given). Of course, the person posted it could also have been from Pittsburgh area.
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"Get Down"
-snip-
In this cheer, the group commands a soloist to "show me how you get down". That line is also given as "Show me how to get down". ("Get down" meaning - to dance really well, to dance in a funky, seductive manner.) I first documented this cheer in the mid 1980s from my daughter and her friends. I collected examples of this cheer in Pittsburgh with almost the same exact words up to around 2006 (I stopped directly collecting recreational rhymes around 2008). An example of this cheer with similar wording was posted on cocojams.com with no location.
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"Really"
This cheer was "really" popular in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area in the early 1990s. I've collected versions from the greekchat.com website, from lipstick alley.com, and from cocojams.com (all without locations and decade when the cheer was performed).
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Soloist #1: Jay Jay Kukalay
Group: Jay Jay Kukalay
Soloist #1: Salesah lahndah
Group: Salesah lahndah
Soloist #1: Step back, Shalanda (or back, back Shalonda)
Group: Step back, Shalanda
Soloist #1: Oosh, my lover boy!
Group: Oosh, my lover boy!
Soloist #1: I’m callin on,
I’m callin on
I’m callin on - Rhonda
-T.M.P. (African American female; from her memories of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the mid 1980s); Also collected by Azizi Powell; in 1998 (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Garfield- the same collection neighborhood as in the mid 1980s)
I also collected a version of this cheer from Washington. D. C. entitled "J. J. Cool Aid" (This is how the contributor wrote this title.) Read my notes about this cheer in the Washington, D. C. entry in this post.
"Gigalo"
I collected foot stomping cheer versions of "Gigalo" in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania ("Gigalo" is also performed as a hand clap rhyme). Here's a large excerpt of a comment that I wrote in November 25, 2007 on http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=63097 Folklore: Do kids still do clapping rhymes? -Note: The words in brackets are what I added today to help clarify what I meant by what I wrote in 2007.
[...]
"Gigalo"
All:
Gig ah lo-o
Gig a lo-o
Gig ah lo-o
Gig gig a lo-o
Group:
Hey, Kayla *
Kayla:
What?
Group:
Are you ready to gig?
Kayla:
Gig what?
Group:
Gigalo
Kayla:
My hands up high
My feet down low
And this is the way
I gig a lo
Group:
Her hands up high
Her feet down low
And this is the way she gigalos
* substitute the soloist's name or nickname
{repeat from the beginning with the next soloist, and continue until everyone in the group has a turn as soloist}
Girls stand in a horizontal line. While chanting, they step to a percussive, continual stomp clap/ stomp stomp/clap beat. When the girl who is the soloist responds "What?", she says it with attitude {like "Why are you bothering me to ask a question?"}. When she says "My hands up high my feet down low" She raises her hands and sashays down to the ground, in a sensual manner. When she says "This is the way I gigalo", she does a fancy step to the beat. The group then imitates her foot movement. The cheer then repeats again with the next soloist whose name is called and she does her soloist step.
Btw, recently, I've seen the soloist move to the front of the horizontal line when it's her turn to do her soloist {this does not mean moving in front of the other performers in the center of the line-but just moving in front of where she was standing}. When her soloist turn ends, she moves back to the line. Also btw, the girls don't stand in consecutive order 1 through 4 for instance. And the order of soloist {who is first, second, etc often depends on who calls out those numbers first at the beginning of this informal "play" activity}.
[Similar to] handclap rhymes, performers [are] {usually but not always girls as young as 5 years and usually no more than 12 years old}. [The girls basically] stand in [the same] place. The emphasis is on chanting while executing hand clap and hand slap partner routines. These routines can also be done with three people or four {two sets of two partners}. There are also larger group handclaps, but those are often lightly competitive while partner/three and four person handclaps aren't.
In contrast, foot stomping cheers are all about the creation of bass sounding percussive sounds made by the feet and also the hands and body patting. These synchronized, chreographed routines are performed by girls about the same age as those doing handclaps, but usually at the upper end of that age group. While foot stomping routines include handclapping, there are no partners-you clap your own hands and never touch the body of anyone else. The performers {like handclap routines, usually girls} basically stand in place or if they do move, they don't move far from their starting place, and they quickly return back to it.
These foot stomping routines are very much like the African American art of steppin."...
Q, R
****
S, T
San Francisco, California
"Introduce Yourself"
group: Hey (name) individual: yeah group: introduce yourself
individual: no way group: introduce yourself ind.: ok...
my name is (name) group: yeah ind.: and i am proud
group: yeah ind.: thats why i cheer group: yeah
ind.: so very loud, so check me out
-Janice, (San Francisco, California) 10/11/2006, cocojams.com
-snip-
I've found multiple examples of "introduce Yourself" cheers in other USA cities, including in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and surrounding area.)
****
U, V
****
W, X
Washington, D.C
"Cheering Is my Game" -1976 Washington, D. C. school girls, in Band 3 "Cheerleaders" of 1978 vinyl record "Mother Hippletoe"; (multiple examples the same/similar in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area)
and
"Hollywood Now Swingin/Dynomite" -1976 Washington, D. C. school girls, in Band 3 "Cheerleaders" of 1978 vinyl record "Mother Hippletoe" ("Hollywood Swinging"- (multiple examples the same/similar in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area)
-snip-
Band 3 "Cheerleading" of the 1978 vinyl record "Mother Hippletoe" includes four examples of what the author of the record notes calls "cheers". Two of these examples* ("Cheering Is My Game" and "Hollywood Keeps Swingin/Dynomite") have the textual structure that I consider a signature characteristic of "foot stomping cheers". These are the earliest examples of foot stomping cheers that I've found. I've collected multiple examples of both of those cheers among African American in various parts of the United States.
Here are the words to Cheering Is My Game:
Dn Dn Dn Dn Dn (Twice)
CALL: Barbara. Barbara is my name.
RESPONSE: Dn Dn Dn Dn Dn (similarly)
Cheering is my game.
Freddy. Freddy was my man.
But Ken is my main man.
Dn Dn Dn Dn Dn (Twice)
Cheer continues until each girl announces her name and her boyfriend’s name.
-"Old Mother Hippletoe, Rural and Urban Children's Songs"; Barbara Borum and other Washington, D.C., schoolgirls, vocals.
-snip-
"Cheering Is My Game" is an early version of the "Cheerleader" cheer. I collected a rather basic mid 1980s "Cheerleader" from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and a much longer version of "Cheerleader" also in the mid 1980s from from Rankin, Pennsylvania which is about twenty minutes from one part of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
"Cheerleader" is a form of the "introduce yourself" subset of foot stomping cheers. The first Bring It On high school cheerleader movie (in 2000) featured a couple of "introduce yourself/"roll call" cheers. The third movie in that franchise, Bring It On:All Or Nothing (2006), includes "Shabooya Roll Call", a VERY widely known example of an "introduce yourself". In the cafeteria scene ofn that movie, the high school cheerleaders performed an (albeit) exaggerated form of a step routine to the "Shaboya Roll Call" cheer. However, it should be noted that a version of "Shabooya Roll Call" was chanted by African American men and boys in a scene in Spike Lee's fictional 1996 Get On The Bus movie about the Million Man March on Washington, D.C.
For the record, a young Black woman I met in the Washington, D. C. area told me that she and other teenagers "said a cheer" that had a word like "Shabooya" before Spike Lee's movie, but she that was the only thing she remembered about that cheer.
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2016/06/the-right-rhyming-pattern-for-shabooya.html for a pancocojams post about "Shabooya Roll Call".
**
Here are the words to Hollywood Now Swingin / Dynomite
HOLLYWOOD NOW SWINGING/DYNOMITE
Hollywood now swingin'! (4 times)
CALL: Name is Nita.
RESPONSE: Hollywood now swingin'!
Similarly
I know how to swing.
Everytime I swing.
Stevie come around.
CALL: He popped me once!
He popped me twice!
All I felt was -dynomite!
RESPONSE: Dynomite, dynomite! (Twice)
Dynomite!
CALL: Here she is.
RESPONSE: Dynomite!
Similarly
Foxy Brown!
You mess with me,
I'll shoot you down!
Down, down,
To the ground,
Up, up,
CALL: Just out of luck!
RESPONSE: Dynomite, dynomite! (Twice)
-Barbara Borum and other Washington, D.C. schoolgirls, recorded in 1976 in Washington, D. C.; record notes by Kate Rinzler, "Old Mother Hippletoe, Rural and Urban Children's Songs"
-snip-
This versions combines two stand alone cheers. The "Hollywood Keeps Swingin" cheer is the one that is very widely found throughout the USA.
**
Other Washington D.C. examples:
"J. J. Cool Aid"*, from a White American woman living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania who indicated that she grew up in predominately Black neighborhood of Washington, DC; She performed this cheer for me in the 1980s in response to a relatively informal, voluntary written survey of rhymes that people remember from their childhood (Game song/Cheer survey of co-workers, Family Health Council, Pittsburgh, PA, 1999 by Azizi Powell.) (one exampleof J. J. Cool Aid is "Jay Jay Kukalay" that I collected in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.)
-snip-
*This was that women's spelling of that title. I've no doubt that the source of "J.J. Cool Aid" and "Jay Jay Kukalay" is the Ghanaian children's song "Kye Kye Kule" often given as Che Che Kulay" or similar spellings.
**
"Chocolate City", collected in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Lillian Taylor camp from a girl who lives in Washington D>C and attended Lillian Taylor camp (Pittsburgh area) with her Pittsburgh cousin; in 1990. [Lillian Taylor Camp was attended by mostly Black girls & boys ages 5-12 years from various neighborhoods throughout Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. My daughter (TMP) was a camp counselor who audio-taped a number of cheers that the girls knew (She didn't teach these cheers to them).
**
"A Boom Boom Tick"
Hey Posse, YEAH break it down with the carwarsh
Hey Posse, YEAH break it down with the Unabomber
yeah I said, A BOOM BOOM TICK, TICK A BOOM TICK (x2)
I actually think this one was strictly a DC thing.
-_ConcreteRose, Aug 09 2012, http://forum.blackhairmedia.com/i-went-downtown-to-get-a-stick-of-butter_topic345408_page4.html
-snip-
****
Y, Z
Ypsilanti, Michigan
"Jigalow"
In The Games Black Girls Play by Kyra D. Gaunt, (pages 80- 82) contributors: Jasmine and Stephanie, mid 1990s [?]
-snip-
This version of "Jigalow" combines "Jigalow" with "Introduce Yourself". The examples of "Jigalow" ("Gigalo") that I collected from the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania were/are? performed as handclap/imitative rhymes. "Jigalow" rhyme/cheer appears to have been widely known in the USA. Versions of "Introduce Yourself" cheer were also widely known throughout the USA.
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OTHER DEMOGRAPHICS (STATES)
Connecticut: cheer title "Hula Hula"
"Hula Hula"
Hula Hula
Who thinks she's bad now
Hula Hula
Who thinks she's bad)
I think I'm bad
'Cause Shelly's my name
Black is my color
And love is my game
(Ooh, She think she bad)
[posturing] Ooh, I know I'm bad.
(Ooh, she think she bad)
Ooh, I know I'm bad
(Ooh, she think she bad)
Chile, go kiss my ass (or “Chile, your breath is bad” or “Chile go take a bath”)
repeat rhyme from the beginning.
-bublackberry (African American woman); Connecticut; emailed to Azizi Powell, 11/11/05 .
****
Eastern North Carolina. cheer title "L-O-V-E"
I am a 25 year old African American woman from Eastern North Carolina.
The section on the chant L-O-V-E caught my attention we used to do this
when I was younger. We would stand in a circle and we would clap our hands and stomp our feet sort of tapping out the words L- O-V-E.
Group: L-O-V-E, L-O-V-E, L-O-V, L-O-V, L-O-V-E
First Person: Erica's my name love is my game I got this boy on my mind
he's looking real fine he calls me his girl his number one pearl
Then you move on to the next person and they repeat the same thing
only with their name in place.
-no name or date recorded, cocojams.com
-snip-
This example was posted on my cocojams.com website but I neglected to save the contributor's name and the date that it was aadded to that site.
Louisiana (state): cheer title: "Chili Chili Bang Bang"
We used to do a chant where we all made a circle and somebody stood in the middle. The words in parenthesis are what the person in the middle would say:
Chili chili bang bang
Let me see you do yo' thang,
(I cant!), Why not?,
(I just can't), Why not?,
(My back hurt, my bra too tight,
my hips shake to the left, to the right,
to the left and to the right! Hey!)
And the girl in the middle had to move her hips as she sang. It was sooooo funny then because we all thought we were FINE anyway! ROTFL!!
-MsAnn (African American female; Louisiana) http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/showthread.php?t=4123&page=3 Childhood chants and games......; December 30, 2000
-snip-
Versions of "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" are also performed as a hand clap rhyme.
Virginia (state): cheer title: "Fly Girl"
FLY GIRL
Fly girl!
Fly girl
Fly girl
Flyyyyyyyyyyyyyy girl
Fly girl
Fly girl
Flyyyyyyyyyyyyyy girl
Well my name is VACHICK and I'm and fly girl
It takes 100 boys to rock my world ( I should not have been cheering about this!)
I fly like butterfly, sting like a Bee
And that's why they call me SE-XY!!
-Virginia chick, http://www.lipstickalley.com/showthread.php/43158-Hood-Cheers, 8/18/2016
-snip-
Based on the number of examples I have come across with and without geographic locations*, the "Fly Girl" appears to have been a popular foot stomping cheer.
"I can faintly remember but one of them went something like
1) my name is strawflower (friends: yea)
im really fine (yea)
I'm from the south (yea)
And Ill blow your mind (yea)
It was done with a LOT of sass
-
The Midwest: cheer titles:
"Roll Call"
"Hump-dee-dump"
Here's that comment (without an example of "Down Down Baby" that was also shared.)
"Is the Midwest up in hea? I see some of y'all!
1) Roll call check me out, roll call check me out
My name is ____, check
I go to school, check
I know I'm cool, check
Cause I can turn around, touch the ground, get back up and party down. *We said this as we were doing it. My party down was usually a variation of the cabbage patch with lots of 'tude.*
Hump-dee-dump (2x)
My name is _____. Dee-dump
I go to school. Dee-dump
I know I'm cool. Dee-dump
Cause I'm as fast as a dollar and nobody can make me holla but my man.*Said with 'tude and a body roll when we say man.*
-Double Platinum, June 25, 2017, https://www.lipstickalley.com/threads/black-girl-rhymes-what-was-yours-growing-up.1196979/page-3 Black girl rhymes what was yours growing up?
-snip-
The asterisks were included in this comment, but no explanation was given for them. " 'tude" is an informal short form of the word "attitude".
The inclusion of the "Hump-dee-dump" cheer means that it's likely that both of these cheers are from the 1990s (since the Hump-dee-dump" cheer almost certainly was inspired by the 1990 Hip Hop tune "The Humpty Dance" by Digital Underground.
****
ADDENDUM #1: Comments About Sharing Demographics On My Cocojams Website
Cocojams.com was a multi-page cultural website that I founded and hosted from December 2001 to October 2014.
it appears that many children and pre-teens submitted rhymes, cheers, and other children's recreational material on that cocojams site. In part that was because that website included an easy to fill out content submission form that needed no email address,
ADDENDUM #2- Pancocojams Editor's Note About Kyra D. Gaunt Made About Black Girls' Cheers
[This is a comment that I wrote in the discussion thread for the now deleted 2021 pancocojams post about Demographic Information Of Foot Stmpin Cheers
In her 2006 book "The Games Black Girls Play..." Kyra D. Gaunt wrote:
[page 183]
"What was fascinating, which I was unable to research and include in this book, was how many of LaShonda's versions of cheers [she remembered cheers and not handclapping games or double-dutch rhymes] involved a great deal of individual improvisation within the collective expression of many chants. it was the first time that I had observed this phenomenon, the invention of vocal expression in the context of social performance of a girls' game. Does that suggest a change in the transmission or performance practice of girls games?....Was Chicago in the early 1980s somewhat a different locale of expression than outside Detroit, where I collected games in 1994-95? This can only be left for further study."
-snip-
I believe that Kyra D. Gaunt is correct in her speculation that what I refer to as "foot stomping cheers" and what she refers to as "cheers" or "scolds" mark a change in the transmission and performance of girls games in that these examples are a relatively new style of children's (mostly girls)' recreational activity.
I also believe that Kyra D. Gaunt was probably correct that, for some reason, examples of these cheers were performed early on - i.e in the late 1970s and early 1980s- in certain African American communities throughout the United States and not in others. I'm sure that one way these cheers traveled throughout the nation before the internet, was by people (family members/friends) sharing them with others. For example, in the 1990s, a version of the Washington D. C. cheer "Chocolate City, came to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania via a girl who attended a Pittsburgh area summer camp while she was visiting her Pittsburgh cousins.
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