Alexander Approved - May 29, 2018
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Edited by Azizi Powell
Latest edition - December 8, 2024
This pancocojams post presents several versions of the foot stomping cheer entitled "Sophisticated Lady" (or similar titles). These informal recreational cheers were based on Natalie Cole's 1976 Rhythm & Blues song "Sophisticated Lady". Click for a pancocojams post about that song.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.
-snip-
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2021/03/natalie-cole-r-song-sophisticated-lady.html for the closely related pancocojams post entitled "Natalie Cole - R&B/Funk Song "Sophisticated Lady" (sound files, video, lyrics, and comments)".
PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S NOTES ABOUT FOOT STOMPING CHEERS
"Foot stomping cheers" is the term that I coined in 2000 for a sub-set of children's cheerleader cheers that have distinctive textual structures and distinctive performance styles.
The term "foot stomping cheers" distinguishes examples of that category from other cheerleader cheers. However, it appears from my direct collection and from my online collection that girls usually referred to these examples as "cheers". Sometimes they were called "chants" or "steps".
"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 examples that I have found of these cheers are from the 1970s (USA). All the examples of foot stomping cheers that I have observed (in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area between 1980s through 2009) were performed by Black girls between the ages of 5-12 years. All the other foot stomping cheers that I have found online or received by email are from African American girls, except one which was performed by a Latina girl from a mixed Latina/o and Black community in New York City. The cheer "Shaboya Roll Call" from the2006 Bring It On All Or Nothing movie is probably the most widely known example of foot stomping cheers.
I stopped directly collecting foot stomping cheers in 2009.
Almost all of the online comments about these types of cheers are from Black women remembering their childhoods in the 1980s and the 1990s. I haven't found any examples of these types of cheers that the commenters indicate that they performed in the 2000s.
In addition, as of March 14, 2021, I haven't found any examples of foot stomping cheers in any country except the United States with the exception of "Shabooya Roll Call" which was popularized by the 2006 cheerleader movie Bring It On All Or Nothing.
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2016/09/foot-stomping-cheers-alphabetical-list.html for Part I of my collection of words for and comments about foot stomping cheers. Links to other posts in that collection are found in each post.
Please add to the folkloric record about these cheers by sharing examples that you know. Please remember to include demographics such as where (city/state or nation if outside of the USA) you learned that cheer; and when (year or decade) you first learned that cheer. Other demographic information such as race, age, and gender would also be appreciated as would information about how you performed that cheer. Thanks in advance!
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EXAMPLES OF "SOPHISTICATED LADY" FOOT STOMPING CHEERS
These examples are given in no particular order. Numbers are added for referencing purposes only.
1.
All- Sophisticated lady
Oh, that's me.
Sophisticated lady
Oh, that's me.
Sophisticated lady,
2 4 6 3
Soloist #1: (woman in video) -Well, my name is Essie
And I'm five foot tall
If you see my man
You betta not give him a call
I got hips to party
And I love my man (Crosses her arms over her chest in the American Sign Language sign for Love and the Wakanda Forever gesture)
If ya try to hurt him
[This part is faster]
I would tip ya for your body [These words are recited while the woman leans forward in an aggressive stance and hits her hands on top of each other in imitation of hitting someone else. Her daughter (?) also imitates these motions.
???
and don't forget I'll break your hiney ["Hiney" means =butt.]
Heeey.
All -Sophisticated lady
Oh, that's me.
Sophisticated lady
Oh, that's me.
2 4 6 3
Soloist #2 [young girl in video] -Well, my name is KK
And I'm four feet tall
If you see my man
Don't you give him a call
I got hips to party (She swivels her hips while chanting this.)
And I love my man (Crosses her arms over her chest in the American Sign Language sign for Love and the Wakanda Forever gesture)
If you try to hurt him
[This part is chanted faster]
I would tip ya for your body
???
and don't forget I'll break your hiney [These words are recited while the girl leans forward in an aggressive stance and hits her hands on top of each other in imitation of hitting someone else. Her mother (?) also does these motions at the same time as her daughter.]
Heeey
-Alexander approved, May 28, 2018; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdY3ekZxkOw&ab_channel=AlexanderApproved
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This is my transcription of a YouTube video of a cheer that a Black woman and a young girl (her daughter (?) chanted. Additions and corrections are welcome.
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2.
SOPHISTICATED LADY (Reconstituted version*)
who rocks?
Sophisticated lady,
who rocks?
Soloist #1:
Well my name is Aliyah
and I rock.
I got hips upon me
And I'm cute and fine.
If you mess with me
I'll blow your mind.
You may kiss your mother.
You may kiss your father.
But if you kiss my man
You will kiss no other.
All -Sophisticated lady,
who rocks?
Sophisticated lady,
who rocks?
Soloist #2
My name is Tisha
and I rock.
I love my man.
If you try to take him
I'll do all I can.
You may rock the ocean
You may rock the sea
But if you rock my man
You'll be rockin with me.
-collected by Tazi Powell, 1989 or early 1990s, reconstituted by Azizi Powell
-snip-
*My daughter said that the girls might have said the word "suffocated" instead of the word "sophisticated".
I've reconstituted that introduction and soloists verses into a cheer. Disclaimer: This may not be how the actual cheer was chanted.
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3.
SUFFOCATED LADY
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 word] 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)
-cbwells26; (African American female, FT. Worth, TX , Tarrant), http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/showthread.php?t=4123&page=4, remember when”, 01-02-2001
-snip-
This example has "the n word" given as an n and randomly typed symbols
-snip-
"Suffocated" is a folk processed for of "sophisticated"
The words "I'm after your lover and he is after me" is found in some historically Black Greek letter sorority chants as "you better watch your man/ cause your man is watching me".
The commenters on this particular Greekchat.com discussion thread were members of historically Black Greek letter sororities. Based on comments that were made in that discussion thread, these "remember when" rhymes and cheers were from the 1980s.
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4.
Sophisticated Lady
Sophisticated Lady, that me
Sophisticated Mama, that's you
Well, my name is _________ and I'm foxy fine
If you tip me over I will blow your mind
and that's all I remember from that one
- IHEARTWRITING, http://nothingliketheninetys.blogspot.com/2008/08/etet.html, August 3, 2008 “I Heart The 90s”
-snip-
This example was categorized as a hand game, but the "Well my name is" line suggests that it's actually a foot stomping cheer.
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