This pancocojams post provides examples of the foot stomping cheer that is known as "Hump De Danda", "Hump De Dump", and similar titles.
The content of this post is presented for folkloric and recreational purposes.
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Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.
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If you know this cheer or an example that is similar to it, please share it below. Remember to include demographical information (geographical location, decade you chanted this cheer) and any other information about this cheer's performance.) Thanks!
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PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S NOTE
I strongly believe that the foot stomping cheer that is known as "Hump De Danda" and other similar names was inspired by Digital Underground's 1989/1990 hit Hip Hop song "The Humpty Dance". Click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEZyinxSrgE for a 1990 Club MTV television clip of that song with host Downtown Julie Brown. Club MTV was a dance series that was modeled after American Bandstand. The series aired on MTV, a national American television channel.
Read my comment about the connection between the Hip Hop record "The Humpty Dance"
and these children's cheers in the comment section of this post.
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FEATURED EXAMPLES
Example #1: HUMP DE DANDA
Group
Hump De Danda.
Hump Hump De Danda.
Hump De Danda.
Hump Hump De Danda.
Soloist #1:
(Well) My name is Tanisha*
Group:
De Danda. Hump Hump De Danda
Soloist #1:
I'm super cool.
Group:
De Danda Hump, Hump De Danda
Soloist #1:
You mess with me
Group:
De Danda Hump Hump De Danda
Soloist #1:
And you're a fool.
Group:
De Danda. Hump Hump De Danda
Soloist #1:
I'm goin down
Group:
De Danda. Hump Hump De Danda
Soloist #1:
To touch the ground.
Group: De Danda. Hump Hump De Danda
Soloist #1:
I'm comin up
Group:
De Danda. Hump Hump De Danda
Soloist #1:
To mess you up.
Entire Group:
Humpty Dumpty
Sat on ah wall
Humpty Dumpty
Had ah great fall.
Oosh**, ain't that funky*** now.
Oosh, aint that funky now.
Oosh, ain't that, Oosh ain't that,
Oosh, ain't that funky now.
[repeat from beginning with next soloist and continue until every member of the group has had one turn as the soloist; chanted while performing a routine of bass sounding foot stomps, and individual hand claps]
Source: African American girls (ages 6-12 years old; Lillian Taylor camp, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, collected by Tazi Powell, 1991 or 1992 (transcribed from audio tape by Azizi Powell, 1997)
*Substitute each soloist's name or nickname.
**The word "oosh" is an onomatopoeia word that imitates the sound the wind makes as the dancer moves in a fast motion to the side.
*** "funky" here means "very good"
I apologize for this misinformation and how long it took me to correct it. That misinformation on my cocojams.com website may have resulted in a contributor repeating that wrong date and attributing the mid 1980s for when she remembers this cheer being performed in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Read Version #2 immediately after this version.
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UPDATE: March 23, 2021
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I consider "Hump De Danda" to be a pre-dozens cheer.
Click http://www.elijahwald.com/dozens.html for information about Elijah Wald's book The Dozens: A History of Rap's Mama
I shared information and examples with that author about what I refer to as "pre-dozens" foot stomping cheers, meaning "cheers whose words and whose role playing performance of a person with a confrontational "attitude" help prepare their chanters for actual dozens contests.
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Click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Humpty_Dance for information about "The Humpty Dance" record. Here's a brief excerpt from that page:
" 'The Humpty Dance" is a tribute to Humpty's sexual prowess despite his ridiculous appearance.[3] Humpty introduces the appearance theme with the opening line, "I'm about to ruin the image and the style that you're used to," a protest against the uniformity among successful rappers of the time.[4]
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WARNING: Some of the lyrics of this song and some of the scenes of the song's official video are at least mildly sexually suggestive.
The name "Humpty Dance" alludes to the vernacular term "humping" meaning having sex. However, I think that some children chanting the "Humpty Danda" cheer and other cheers included in this post may not have understand that sexual allusion and may have thought that the word "Hump de" in the cheer only referred to "Humpty Dumpty", the nursery rhyme character.
HUMP DE DUMP (Version #2)
I am a cheerleading coach in Ga, I moved here from Pittsburgh (East Liberty) when I was about 10. We used to do all of the street cheers that you have listed back during the mid 80's, they brought back wonderful memories and that is something that I do not remember the girls from down south doing once we got here. I remember one called "Humpty de Dump"- hump de dump, hump, hump, de dump, - my name is is___, de dump, hump, hump, de dump- and if you watch me, de dup, hump, hump, de dump,-I'll show you I'm cool, de dump, hump, hump, de dump. (Then you do your dance)
-Tia (who remembers it from the East Liberty neighborhood of Pittsburgh (sent in to cocojams.com on 8/25/05)
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Tia wrote that "We used to do all of the street cheers that you have listed back during the mid 80's, they brought back wonderful memories".
Read my comment above in which I corrected the date that my daughter collected the "Hump De Dump" cheer (to the early 1990s and not the mid 1980s as I had attributed it on that cocojams.com website). Given that I misattributed the "Humpty Danda" cheer to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the mid 1980s and not 1991 or 1990, I wonder in what decade Tia and her friends performed that cheer. I think it is most likely that she remembers this from the early 1990s, particularly if the 1990 Hip Hop record "Humpty Dance" inspired this cheer.
That said, read the cheer given as #4 below for a 1979 version of what Jeanne Pitre, the White American author of the 2016 book Yo Mama Mary Mack and Boudreaux and Thibodeaux: Louisiana Children's Folklore and Play" called "the Humpty Dumpty game".
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Example #3
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?
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The asterisks were included in this comment, but no explanation was given for them. " 'tude" is an informal short form of the word "attitude".
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Example #4
[Pancocojams Editor's Note:
July 28, 2023- I've misplaced my copy of this book and therefore can't check the date in which this interaction occurred, but I recall reading a 1990s date for this (mostly girls') game. A 1990s date places this example after the release of Digital Underground's Hip Hop song "The Humpty Dance" which I believe is the inspiration for "Hump De Danda" cheers. Also, that date 1990s date corresponds with the wording that I've come across in examples of these types of group/soloists cheers (such as chanters referring to their astrological signs and including words such as "I'm fine" and "Check me out".)
The following
excerpt from the 2016 award winning book by Jeanne Pitre Soileau entitled Yo Mama Mary Mack and Boudreaux and Thibodeaux:
Louisiana Children's Folklore and Play" , documents a game that is played by children who are being babysat during a church bingo game in New Orleans*, Louisiana. Gregory
is a 14 year old African American boy who is one of the teenagers "babysitting" a group of younger African American girls and boys.
*"New Orleans" isn't specifically mentioned on those pages. There is a "Joan Of Arc church in New Orleans and in certain other Louisiana cities. However, Jean Pitre Soileau is from New Orleans and that city is given as the location of most of her forty years of collecting children's folk material.
Jeanne Pitre Soileau writes that Gregory heard a six year old girl reciting a rhyme that ended with the word "ass" and tried to stop her from saying that word. However, the girl continued reciting and said that word. the author writes that "Gregory then raises his voice and forcefully initiates the game “Humpty Dumpty”, partly to cover up what he perceives to be a gaffe. The older girls, after hesitation and some false starts join with him”.
The following words are quoted from pages 51-52 in that
book:
"Hump---ty dump dump dump
My name is April [Single player steps forward and sings and dances. Other players imitate her moves.]
Hump---ty dump dump dump.
And I’m fine.
Hump---ty dump dump dump.
Just like my sign.
Hump---ty dump dump dump
My sign is Capricorn
Hump---ty dump dump dump
Now check me out.
Oh oh oh Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall
Hump---ty dump dump dump
Now you do it [Points to Gregory]
My name is Gregory [Gregory claps and steps forward. All the players imitate him except for one girl who
vies with him for the floor. She can be heard saying all the words to the chant along with Gregory, and shouts out
the name of her sign, “Leo” louder than he can say his.]
Hump---ty dump dump dump.
And I’m fine.
Hump---ty dump dump dump.
Just like my sign.
Hump---ty dump dump dump
My sign is Leo [The girl, her eyes gleaming, outshouts Gregory here. Everybody laughs. Gregory yields center place, steps back and claps his hands along with the girls in the group. The girl takes his place.
Hump---ty dump dump dump.
Bad BAD Leo [Girl looks at Gregory.]
Hump---ty dump dump dump.
Now check me out [Girl does a little wiggly walk, head held high.]
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall
Hump---ty dump dump dump
Gregory feels part of the play now. He struts forward, and the noisy crowd he formerly vied with is now rhythmically clapping hands, listening. So he offers “I know another one…”And the girls, rolling their eyes at each other, defer to him.
“My name is Gregory
Hump---ty dump dump dump
My sign is Pisces
Hump---ty dump dump dump
My my Pisces [Does an intricate step. All laugh and repeat the step.]
Hump---ty dump dump dump
And I know it [Gives the girls a leer. Girls laugh, leer back, and follow his steps.]
Hump---ty dump dump dump
And I’m FINE [Gregory struts in a circle, girls follow.]
Hump---ty dump dump dump
And I ain’t lyin’ [Girls clap and laugh and eye-tease the girl who challenged Gregory earlier].
One small girl, about six, says breathlessly. “An’ we know you the man!.”
Hump---ty dump dump dump [Gregory and the other players break up laughing and clapping.]"
After sharing the words and her observations of that game, Jean Pitre Soileau wrote that “Humpty Dumpty” as a girl’s game”.
Although Jean Soileau doesn't refer to this game that way, I believe it is an example of what I call a foot stomping cheer because
1. She wrote that "Humpty Dump" is a girl's game (and foot stomping cheers were mostly a girls' activity).
2. She mentions girls clapping while they say the words to "Humpty Dump" and also mentions Gregory strutting around a circle.
3. She mentions other people taking the place of the person singing.
4. The words for that example are very similar to the words for other examples of "Humpty Dump"/"Humpty Danda" that I've collected, including references to a person's astrological sign.
5. The line "Check me out" and other confrontational words in this example are found in a number of foot stomping cheers, including this 1976 cheer that is part of "Hollywood Now Swingin'/Dynomite" (included in the 1978 vinyl record Old Mother Hippletoe, Rural and Urban Children's Songs http://www.newworldrecords.org/linernotes/80291.pdf )
"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. by Kate Rinzler, album notes Kate Rinzler
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Visitor comments are welcome.
As I noted in this pancocojams post, I believe that the foot stomping cheers "Hump De Danda" were inspired by the Hip Hop record "The Humpty Dance".
ReplyDeleteHowever, even if they knew about "The Humpty Dance" record, I doubt that many children and youth in the 1990s when that cheer was chanted really focused on the connection between that Hip Hop record and that cheer. Instead, my guess is that that foot stomping cheer was associated with the "Humpty Dumpty" nursery rhyme.
That probably was for the best since "The Humpty Dance" (whose title was a witty play on the title of that nursery rhyme) includes sexually suggestive lyrics, in large part because the verb form of the word "hump" is sexually explicit.
My guess is that even in the 1990s when "The Humpty Dance" record and the dance that it birthed were very popular, the (mostly Black) girls between the ages of six years and twelve years who chanted those "Hump De Danda" cheers focused on the dance aspects of that record and not its words. The fact of the matter was that even "Humpty"/"Shock G", the lead rapper for Digital Underground" said that there were no set movements for that dance. (Read the partial lyrics for that record in my comment after this one.)
Even if they were familiar with that Hip Hop record, it was highly unlikely that girls performing that cheer were attempting to do any actual "Humpty Dance". Instead, the girls who chanted those cheers focused on moving to the beat that they created with their hand claps and foot stomps while they said the words to that cheer with attitude and flair.