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Saturday, November 24, 2018

The African American Source Of "My Momma Don't Wear No Socks"

Edited by Azizi Powell

Latest revision: July 15, 2020

This is Part I of a two part pancocojams series that presents information about and examples of "Yo Mama Don't Wear No Drawers" rhymes and "My Momma Don't Wear No Socks" songs.

"My Momma Don't Wear No Socks" is also found as "Yo [or "Your"] Mama Don't Wear No Socks".

Part I presents information about and video examples of these rhymes and songs.

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2018/11/examples-of-yo-mama-dont-wear-no.html for Part II of this series. Part II presents some text (word only) examples of these rhymes and songs.

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 and thanks to all those who published the YouTube examples which are embedded on this page.
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Some of the content of this post is found in this 2011 pancocojams post: https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2011/10/yo-mama-dont-wear-no-drawers.html Yo Mama Don't Wear No Drawers

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I. INFORMATION AND COMMENTS ABOUT THESE RHYMES AND SONGS
The line "Yo mama don't wear no drawers" is a found in a very dirty (profanity filled and sexually explicit) song "The Dirty Dozen" that was recorded in 1938 by Jazz pianist Jelly Roll Morton for the Library Of Congress. The lyrics for that song can be found online under that title. Here's a small excerpt:

"That's the Dirty Dozen
Oh, the Dirty lovin' Dozen
The Dirty Dozen
Yes yo' mammy don't wear no drawers"

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Jelly Roll  Morton's "The Dirty Dozen" song version of "That song doesn't include the line "I saw them when she took them off" . However, that line is found in another 1938 source (given immediately below) and usually follows the "Yo mama don't wear no drawers" (or "no socks") line  in contemporary versions of "Yo Mama Don't Wear No Drawers" insult chants.

The line "Yo Mama Don't Wear No Drawers" was also published in 1938 as part of the short story "Big Boy Leaves Home" in the Uncle Tom's Children collection of short stories by the African American writer Richard Wright:
"The ol song goes something like this:

Yo mama don wear no drawers,
Ah seena when she pulled em off,
N she washed em in alcohol,
N she hung em out in the hall,
N then she put em back on her QUALL!"
http://www.nbu.bg/webs/amb/american/5/wright/bigboy.htm

In that story, "Your Mama Don't Wear No Drawers" is described as "an old song", and "Big Boy" and three other Black boys are said to be "cracking" meaning "making up insults". Depending on what state you live in "crackin(g) is also known as "dissin", "rippin" (on), or "snapin", or "insulting" each other's mama.

I don't think that anyone has found an example of "My Momma Don't Wear Any Socks" before 1938.

For the folkloric and cultural records, it should be noted that the camp songs or Girl Scout songs or Boy Scout songs entitled "My Momma Don't Wear No Socks" or "Your Mama Don't Wear No Socks" have their source in the African American insult rhyming game entitled "Yo Mama Don't Wear No Drawers".

Notice the purposefully used African American Vernacular English wording and grammar in the title and lyrics "Yo Mama Don't Wear No Drawers": "Yo" means "Your" and "don't wear no" is said instead of "doesn't wear any".

"Purposeful" here means that a lot of people (Black and otherwise) who use this form of African American Vernacular English (AAVE) are code switching on purpose, that is to say that they are knowingly changing from standard English to a form of African American Vernacular English because they can and because they want to.

Also, notice that in "My Momma [or Your Mama] Don't Wear No Socks" rhymes drawers (meaning "panties"- one part of underwear worn by females) has been changed to the more socially acceptable referent socks. We couldn't have Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts or other "innocent" children, pre-teens and teens, singing about females' underwear, could we?

As for proof that "Yo Mama Don't Wear No Drawers" rhymes came before "My Momma [or Your Mama] Don't Wear No Socks" rhymes- this example of "
And specifically with regard to those "My Momma Don't Wear No Socks" songs- why are the people singing those songs rippin on their own mamas??!! In doing so, they seem to be missing the most of the point of the game. It's not just that they are supposed to come up with funny and clever rhymes. Those rhymes are supposed to insult someone's mother while they stay cool, unfazed, and ready for a witty comeback when someone else insults their mother.

Here's a great explanation about "Yo Mama Don't Wear No Drawers" from a July 15, 2008 post by Kymberli on a site that seems to be no longer accessible:
"Oh, but the best of all, I mean the absolute best and the one that we still play today is Yo' Mama Don't Wear No Drawers.

Now, before I say another word, let's get one thing straight. You have to put a ghetto lilt on the word "drawers." In this song, it's pronounced draaaws. Got it? Good. Now, the game is a song and the challenge is to take turns adding improv additional verses. It's an elimination game; you're out when you can't figure out a verse before your time is up. The first few verses are always the same, and after those have been sung, the improv verses begin."
-end of quote-
Furthermore, the beginning words "Yo mama" in "Yo mama don't wear no drawers" was and still is the signature beginning of the African Amerian verbal sparring game called "the dozens".

Here's an urban dictionary entry for "the dozens":
"Playing the dozens is an African-American custom in which two competitors -- usually males -- go head to head in a competition of comedic trash talk. They take turns "cracking on," or insulting, one another, their adversary's mother or other family member until one of them has no comeback. In the U.S., the practice can be traced back to chattel slavery, when violence among slaves was a property crime with potentially draconian consequences. Verbal sparring became a substitute for physical contention. While the competition on its face is usually light-hearted, smiles sometimes mask real tensions.

The dozens can be a harmless game, or, if tempers flare, a prelude to physical violence. But in its purest form, the dozens is part of an African-American custom of verbal sparring, of "woofin'" (see wolf ticket) and "signifyin'," intended to defuse conflict amicably, descended from an oral tradition rooted in traditional West African cultures. The dozens is a contest of personal power -- of wit, self-control, verbal ability, mental agility and mental toughness. Defeat can be humiliating; but a skilled contender, win or lose, may gain respect.

"Yo' mama," a common, widely recognized argumentative rejoinder in African-Amercan vernacular speech, is a cryptic reference to the dozens.

The term "the dozens" refers to the devaluing on the auctionblock of slaves who were past their prime, who were aged or who, after years of back-breaking toil, no longer were capable of hard labor. These enslaved human beings often were sold by the dozen.

(My wording from Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia.)
Yo' mama's so fat, when she hauls ass she gotta take two trips.
by deeceevoice September 25, 2004; https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=dozens
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It may not matter to you that "My momma don't wear no socks" is a pale imitation of, if not an affront of the purpose of the old, naughty, creative, pre-dozens Black street game "Yo mama don't wear no drawers" which is also chanted as military cadences. However, I think that folks should know this game's provenance just because it's part of our history, folklore, and culture.

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II. SHOWCASE VIDEOS
Video #1: Yo Momma Dont Wear No Socks



-Brittney Weaver, Published on December 08, 2007

a sing along we use to sing back n da day so we thought we would make a video out of it. me and my lil sistas
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My transcription of this video is given below as Example #1 of Part IV.

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Video #2: Yo Mama don't wear no drawers..... A ding dong



Mitch Aschinger, Published on Jul 31, 2008

My son (USMC BRAT) singing a jodi about Yo Mama

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Video #3: Your Mama Don't Wear No Drawers



Drake DeVille - Topic, Published on Jul 24, 2015

Provided to YouTube by CDBaby

Your Mama Don't Wear No Drawers · Drake DeVille

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Video #4: My Momma Don't Wear No Socks - Girl Scout Song with Lyrics



GirlScoutSongs, Published on Apr 3, 2013

A song about socks
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The lyrics to this song were given below this video, but are found in Part II of this pancocojams post.

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Video #5: My Momma Don't Wear No Socks- Originateve



Ron Green, Published on Mar 1, 2016

Originateve Early Childhood Literacy Development (Music & Story)

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This concludes Part I of this two part pancocojams series.

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