SoulStylistJukeBox, Sep 19, 2017
This is Part II of a four part pancocojams series about the African American term "chocolate city".
This post showcases a sound file of the Parliament's Funk 1975 record "Chocolate City" and presents selected comments from several YouTube discussion threads of that record. Most of those comments refer to United States cities that were considered "chocolate city in the 1970s and/or now.
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/11/the-parliaments-chocolate-city-1975.html for Part I of this pancocojams series. That post showcases a YouTube sound file of the Parliament's 1975 Funk record "Chocolate City". Information about the Parliaments and their "Chocolate City" album & single is included in this post. Lyrics for the parliaments' record "Chocolate City" are also included in this pancocojams post along with some explanations of some of those lyrics.
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/11/united-states-top-chocolate-cities.html for Part III of this pancocojams series. That post presents the percentages of Black people in 67 cities in the United States that have a population of over 100,000 people. (according to the United States Census Bureau, 2020 census). These cities can be considered "chocolate cities" based on an expanded definition of that term which began around the mid 20th century as a nickname for Washington, D.C.
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/11/how-washington-dc-childrens-foot.html for Part IV of this pancocojams post. That post presents an example of a foot stomping cheer called "Chocolate City" which my daughter Tazi Hughes collected at a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania summer camp in 1992 from a Washington D. C. girl who was visiting her cousin in Pittsburgh.
The content of this post is presented for socio-cultural, linguistic, historical, and entertainment purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to the Parliaments for their musical legacy and thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.
**** SELECTED COMMENTS FROM THE DISCUSSION THREADS FOR TWO YOUTUBE SOUND FILES OF THE PARLIAMENT'S FUNK RECORD "CHOCOLATE CITY" The discussion threads for these sound files are quoted in no particular order and numbers are added for referencing purposes only. One of these comments refers to a city outside of the United States (Toronto, Canada) DISCLAIMER These comments about whether a United States city was majority Black when this record was first released or is majority Black now (in 2022) may not be accurate. Read Part III of this pancocojams series for a list of top majority Black United States cities according to the 2020 US Census.
DISCUSSION THREAD #1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZaVA3NS7zE [This is the discussion thread for the video that is showcased in Part I of this pancocojams series.] 2012
1. Tim Russell "lol "Were working on Atlanta"
2. Arlene Rogers Wilhite "prophetic song... they still call it the white house but that's a temporary condition... lol Love it!"
" "We just got New York I'm told."
** 4. ebory1300 "And Toronto Canada is dark Chocolate City !!" **** 2014
5. Harry Lime "We've got Allentown!" ** 6. Spencer Burroughs "Yusef, I don't know what you have been reading, but you should stop reading it. CC is Washington D.C. The breakdown is white 38.5%. Hispanic 9.1% and Black 50.7%. Get yo' facts right. We here to stay." -snip- I couldn't find the comment that Spencer Burroughs was responding to. However, it's obvious that Yusef wrote about the changing demographics for Washington, D. C. when the Parliaments' record "Chocolate City" was first released and when his comment was written. ** Reply
7. D Gordon Franks, 2022 "Gentrification did its job.
When this came out, I was living there with 80% being Black. now it's about 30% if that. smh"
****
20158. Max Voloshin "I'm a fan from the vanilla suburbs." ** Reply 9. Peyton B., 2020 "it's alright my white brother, we from all different hoods" ** Reply 10. Dalton Hix, 2021 "TheGlass50, Haha.. Everything is on the one my brother. We are all connected. Love you👊🏿" ** 11. rawkus812indiana "We got GARY! G.I.C.C. Detroit, Jack-Town, and the city of East St. Louis Illinois almost at 100%." ** Reply 12. dyonomite reacher, 2016 "+rawkus812indiana
What you know bout Easside" ** Reply 13. Capcoor, 2016 "What's G.I.C.C and Jacktown?" ** Reply 14. Azizi Powell, 2022 "@Capcoor I don't know the city that has (had?) the nickname G. I. C.C.
Jacktown - Jackson, Mississippi.
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Jacktown
** Reply 15. Capcoor, 2022 "Azizi Powell Gary, Indiana Chocolate City maybe." ** Reply 17. Azizi Powell, 2022 @Capcoor Oh Okay Thanks. I can see that might be what G.I. C. C. means. But I wonder if people in Gary, Indiana ever used G.I.C.C. as a nickname for their city."
**
Reply
18. Capcoor , 2022
"Azizi Powell Also, if I’m wrong, remember I said maybe."
-snip-
I responded to this comment by giving it a thumbs up.
****
201619. Terrence Dorsey "Atlanta is 100% Chocolate City now a days lol."
** 20. Vincent Thomas "George Clinton said there would be a chocolate city in the White House"
** 21. rodneywashington51 "Well, Los Angeles is NO longer a Chocolate City. However Atlanta is definitely now Chocolate City. Lol" ** Reply 22. Mike Boykins "rodneywashington51 Atlanta have always been a chocolate city".** Reply 23. Chris Foster "I'm a D.C. native and I always associate this song with Washington, D.C. and the DMV. God Bless the original Chocolate City & it's Neapolitan suburbs" -snip- DMV= an abbreviation for the Washington D. C, Maryland, and Virginia area which started to be used by "hiphoppers" in the early 2000s https://www.washingtonian.com/2015/07/06/whos-responsible-for-naming-greater-washington-the-dmv/
** Reply 25. Yo O, 2018 "This song was always referring to dc lol"
** Reply 26. robinsss, 2019 "Detroit suburbs look pretty white"
** Reply
27, robinsss, 2019 "I think LA is more like a Caramel city today"
****
201828. Jim Saunders " No mention of Detroit?" " Get real, Victor my cat slaps me verbally, "that's a given"!" ** Reply 29. DeeNice681 "That's the one negative of this song!"
** 30. Carla Huckaby "Genuis of Bernie RIP! Listen to his piano riffs and keyboard funky chords! Yess Atlanta Chocolate City today!!" **31. Arnold Ramson "we had miami at one time but now the cubans got it now"
35. Kim Whitmore "Heeeeey.......... C.C........cleveland on the east side....."
****
2019
36. Christopher Miller "Lol working on Atlanta... time tells the story!"
** 37, A. Taylor "Listening to this in 2020, it's interesting to hear him say back then "We're working on Atlanta!" "
"Mission Accomplished."
** 39. Jerry Flynn Dale
"This entire album was recorded in Detroit, Michigan, #fact
**
Reply
40. Johnny Israel, 2022
"D.C. the real chocolate city"
Reply
41. Jerry Flynn Dale, 2022
"
Reply
42. Jerry Flynn Dale, 2022
"
-snip-
"Prince George county" is the county where Washington D. C. is located.
Reply
43. Jerry Flynn Dale, 2022
"
**
Reply
44. Juan Chavez, 2022
"@Jerry Flynn
Dale george from jersey"
**
Reply
45. Jerry Flynn Dale, 2022
"@Juan Chavez , that’s
very true, however, all George’s records were recorded in Detroit, Michigan.
**
46. Thom Ford
"Forgot, I think DC's Population was about 80% African
American at the time...Now about 45%.
That Vanilla Suburbs is now 60% or more, well PG County is........."
****
2021
47. Clemmie Bell
"L.A.?
Only south central
Whites have the West side and the valley"
****48. Ernie Carey "Pittsburgh is now a CC" ** Reply 49. Azizi Powell "@Ernie Carey, here's some explanation for your comment for folks who aren't from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania:
Ed Gainey was elected the mayor of Pittsburgh in 2021. Ed Gainey is a Democrat and he's the first Black person to ever be elected mayor of that city.
But only 23% of residents of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania are Black (and Pittsburgh's suburbs are mostly White. Only around 13% of the people living in Allegheny County where Pittsburgh is located are Black.
So Pittsburgh isn't a chocolate city using the definition that I believe Parliament used (a city with majority Black population.
That said, as a Pittsburgher I can dig where you're coming from."
1. Keith Dixon, 2018 "We still got OaklLand..." ** Reply 2. Lioness Of Judah, 2018 "Keith Dixon we already got ATLANTA" ** Reply 3. Ritchie Smith, 2019 "We got Richmond VA, Jackson Mississippi, and we're working on Greensboro NC" ** Reply 4. john thebastard, 2020
"They definitely got Atlanta"
** 5. Jerry Flynn Dale, 2020 "And we got Detroit, where this music was recorded at!!!!
**** This concludes Part II of this pancocojams series.
Thanks for visiting pancocojams. Visitor comments are welcome.
No comments:
Post a Comment