FunkyVinylJunkie, Dec. 17, 2007
This pancocojams post provides a partial timeline for positive meanings of the word "fly" in African American culture. The content of this post is presented for linguistic, cultural, and entertainment purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners. Thanks to the Boogie Boys for their musical legacies and thanks to all others who are mentioned in this post. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publisher of this video on YouTube, -snip- Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2020/10/the-history-of-word-fly-meaning.html for a closely related pancocojams post about the history and current use of the word "fly" in the United States. Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/01/what-fly-fly-girl-fly-guy-mean-in.html for a 2013 pancocojams post entitled "What "Fly", "Fly Girl" & "Fly Guy" Mean In African American Slang". Much of the content of that post is reformatted in this 2020 post.
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A PARTIAL TIME LINE FOR THE USE OF "FLY" WITH THE MEANING HIP, COOL AND/OR ATTRACTIVE
1972 - Super Fly movie and the title of a Curtis Mayfield Soul music album based on music from that movie
**
1973 -Super Fly T. N.T movie
Here's some information about those 1970s movies and a 1990 Super Fly sequel and a 2018 remake of that Super Fly movie.
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Fly_(1972_film)
"Super Fly is a 1972 American blaxploitation crime drama film
directed by Gordon Parks Jr. and starring Ron O'Neal as Youngblood Priest, an
African American pimp and cocaine dealer who is trying to quit the underworld
drug business. The film is well known for its soundtrack, written and produced
by soul musician Curtis Mayfield. It was released on August 4, 1972.
O'Neal reprised his role as Youngblood Priest in the 1973
film Super Fly T.N.T., which he also directed. Producer Sig Shore directed a
second sequel, The Return of Superfly, released in 1990, with Nathan Purdee as
Priest. A remake was released in 2018."...
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January 5, 1980 - Sugarhill Gang's Hip Hop record "Rappers Delight" was released.
"Check it out, I'm the C-A-S-A, the N-O-V-A,
And the rest is F-L-Y,"...
** Feb 18, 1985 - Boogie Boys - "A Fly Girl" From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_Life_(Boogie_Boys_album)
As one of the first rap groups to sign with a major label, the Boogie Boys were under pressure to create a fresh, new sound. Capitol wanted to release "City Life" as their first single as they felt it would have broader appeal, especially since the song combined rapping and singing. But the Boogie Boys felt "A Fly Girl" would have more impact.
Boogie Boys member Joe "Romeo J.D." Malloy:
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-1985-Plebblee Poo (female singer) - A Fly Guy (Part 1and Part II)
-snip-
"A Fly Guy" records were responses (answer) to the Boogie Boy's hit record "Fly Girl"
**
mid 1980s - 1990s
A number of foot stomping cheers* were composed and performed by (mostly) African American pre-teen/teenager girls, based on the Boogie Boys' hit track "A Fly Girl".
A "fly girl" means an attractive, sexy female who is up to date with the latest urban culture fashions, lingo, dances etc.)
-snip-
"Foot stomping cheers" is my term for cheers that were had a distinctive textual structure and were chanted while two or more girls did synchronized foot stomping routines.
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2016/09/foot-stomping-cheers-alphabetical-list_40.html for six examples that I've collected or come across online of the "Fly Girl" foot stomping cheer. Please add to the folkloric record by sharing examples and demographic information about this cheer in the comment section below. Thanks!
**
1990s- Fly Girls (name for the dance troupe on the ground breaking comedy sketch television show In Living Color. Actress Jennifer Lopez got her start as a member of the Fly Girls' dance troupe. https://nypost.com/2018/08/20/remember-when-j-lo-was-a-fly-girl/
1991- Queen Latifah - "Fly Girl" [Hip Hop track from her album Nature of a Sista' ]
**
1993- Tupac's Hip Hop record "I Get Around" includes the word "fly".
-snip-
In that record, Tupac brags about how he easily scores with the ladies & then leaves them:
Just another hazard of a fly guy"
http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/I-Get-Around-lyrics-2Pac/BF82D7758D3AF2DA4825686A000CF3B0
-snip-
My interpretation of those lyrics is that Tupac is saying that females who have a problem with him [or any fly guy] saying goodbye should realize that that's what they should expect when they become involved with a man who's deep into the urban lifestyle. To be clear, according to the use in African American culture of the term "fly girl", while that term meant that a female was "street wise" (able to handle herself in Black urban street life), the emphasis seems to have been placed on how females looked (their face, their body, their clothing).
1993/1996 - Omar Tyree's book "Flyy Girl" and sequels
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flyy_Girl
"Flyy Girl" is young adult/new adult literature and an urban fiction book written by Omar Tyree. The book was originally published by Mars Productions in 1993 and republished by Simon & Schuster for adults in 1996.[1] The novel is regarded to be the genesis of the modern urban-fiction/street-lit movement that would later gain momentum in 1999 with the publication of Sister Souljah's The Coldest Winter Ever.
Summary
Flyy Girl is African-American coming-of-age story that
follows Tracy Ellison from her sixth-birthday party in 1977 to her 17th
birthday. Tracy grows up in the middle-class Philadelphia suburb of Germantown.
The daughter of a dietitian and pharmacist, Tracy is beautiful, intelligent,
and armed with self-esteem and a sassy mouth. Tracy is also boy crazy, which
leads to sex in the indulgent, hip-hop 1980s and the effects of the cocaine
economy flourishing in black communities.
Tyree wrote two sequels to Flyy Girl: For the Love of Money
(2001) and Boss Lady (2006). Both were published by Simon & Schuster"
2005 - Three 6 Mafia's Hip Hop track "Stay Fly"
-snip-
Here's an excerpt of notes about this track from its genuis.com lyric page https://genius.com/Three-6-mafia-stay-fly-lyrics
"Widely considered a southern hip-hop classic, “Stay Fly” is a triumphant and unforgiving trunk-rattler anthem straight out of Memphis, Tennessee. Released as the first single from dirty south pioneers Three 6 Mafia’s 2006 hit album Most Known Unknown, the song features fellow Memphis natives 8Ball & MJG and Young Buck. “Stay Fly” became Three 6 Mafia’s biggest song ever, peaking at #13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and becoming certified 2x platinum by the RIAA on December 11, 2006."...
Please add to this partial timeline for positive meanings of the word "fly" in African American culture by sharing information about this topic in the comment section below. Thanks!
Visitor comments are welcome.
Here's information about the 1998 Punk/Rock song song "Pretty Fly (For A White Guy) which was composed and performed by the White American music group, The Offspring.
ReplyDeleteThat song clearly was inspired by the African American positive meaning of the word "fly".
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretty_Fly_(For_a_White_Guy)
""Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)" is a song by American punk-rock band The Offspring. It is the fourth track from their fifth studio album, Americana (1998), and was released as the first single from the album. It achieved significant pop and rock and alternative radio play and popularity, peaking at number 53 on the US Billboard Hot 100, number 5 on the Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart and number 3 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. It was a major success internationally, reaching number one in 10 countries, including Australia, where it stayed at number one for six weeks and was certified quadruple platinum. The song is a mocking portrayal of a white man who likes to act like an African-American stereotype. It was parodied by Weird Al Yankovic in Pretty Fly for a Rabbi.
The song appears as the seventh track on their Greatest Hits (2005).
…the song ridicules a "wannabe gangsta" who is immersed in hip-hop culture not because he truly loves or understands it, but because it is trendy, makes him feel tough ("Friends say he's tryin' too hard, and he's not quite hip/But in his own mind, he's the, he's the dopest trip"), and because he believes it attracts women ("and all the girlies say I'm pretty fly, for a white guy"). The “Give it to me baby” verse was done by voice actress Nika Futterman.[4]
As summed up by Dexter Holland, the people described in the lyrics "are from, like, Omaha, Nebraska, regular white-bread boys, but who act like they're from Compton. It's so fake and obvious that they're trying to have an identity."[5] Holland detailed that he meets many teenagers like those in his native Orange County, "going to the mall, where they buy FUBU, Tommy Hilfiger, and Ice Cube's latest record."[6] Given rap culture is the starting point, Holland clarified that it was not an attack on African-Americans, but "poseurs of any kind",[7] but without wanting "to be preachy about it... We're getting amusement out of it more than anything else."[8]"...
I found out about the song "Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)" after reading tweets and online articles about the fly that sat on Vice President Pence's head for two minutes during the October 7, 2020 vice presidential debate with Democratic candidate Senator Kamala Harris.
DeleteA number of tweets about that black fly sitting on Pence's hair simply contained the words "Pretty fly for a White Guy".
Since I didn't know about that 1998 song, I didn't get that the commenters were talking about more than an insect until I read an online article about that incident entitled "Pretty Fly On A White Guy".
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2020/10/mike-pence-fly-remix-video-lyrics-for.html for my pancocojams post on this topic that is entitled "Mike Pence Fly Remix (video & lyrics for a song about the fly on Mike Pence's head during the Oct 2020 Vice Presidential debate)".