How The Newly Created "Kick 'Em Out The Classroom" Game Reminds Me Of "Playing The Dozens", "Battle Rapping", And Some Black Children's Rhymes Such As "Yo Mama Don't Wear No Drawers"

ReliqueYeh, August 15, 2012

Let It Shine (2012) - Moment of Truth (Movie Version)  (HD) 

Disney channel !!

****
Edited by Azizi Powell

This is Part III of a three part pancocojams series about the rhyming game "Kick 'em Out The Classroom" (also known as "In The Classroom").

This post presents an example of the game "Kick 'em out of the classroom" that made up by commenters in a YouTube discussion thread about that game.

This post also presents showcases several Black performance arts/recreational activities that I believe significantly influenced the creation and the performances of the "Kick 'em out the classroom" freestyle rhyming game.

All of the performance arts and/or recreational activities that are mentioned in this post place a high value group participation, creative composition, fast thinking, and staying on beat. Sometimes these performance arts/recreational activities also place a high value on rhyming. In addition, many of these performing arts/recreational activities place a high value on insulting (dissing/roasting) another person who is participating in game, or other people present or not present during the game.

The Addendum to this post presents some comments from the discussion thread of the YouTuube video that is embedded in this post.

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2023/03/wild-n-out-hip-hop-television-series.html for Part I of this three part series. That post presents information about the American television series Wild 'N Out and the "Kick em out of the classroom" game are included in this post along with a transcript of that first performance of that game (in October 2014). That transcript is based on the captions for the YouTube video of that first performance. That skit performance occurred in in 2014 on the television series Wild 'N Out.  

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2023/03/selected-comments-from-discussion.html  for Part II of this pancocojams series. That post showcases the same video as Part I. That post also includes some comments from the discussion for that video and some comments from the discussion thread of another video of a 2014 "Kick 'em out the classroom game".

The content of this post is presented for folkloric, entertainment. and socio-cultural purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those who were associated with Disney's 2012 "Let It Shine" freestyle Rap battle movie.

Thanks to all of those who are associated with Wild 'N Out's game "Kick em out of the classroom".
. 
Thanks to all of those who were associated with the 2012 movie that is showcased in this post and thanks to all of those who contributed to the Black cultural arts that are discussed in this post. Thanks also to all  those who are quoted in this post. 

****
AN EXAMPLE OF "KICK 'EM OUT THE CLASSROOM" THAT YOUTUBE COMMENTERS MADE UP
From From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDoL77N8Oqs Every Single Kick ‘Em Out The Classroom (Season 14) 👟 Wild 'N Out

Wild 'N Out, May 19, 2020  #WildNOut #MTV #AloneTogether

2020

T'challa Ware
"Wild'n out  be lit in the classroom"

**
Reply
7. david frempong
"i dont really wanna sit in the classroom"

**
Reply
8. n2smoove
"it’s the only game that still hit in the classroom"

**
Reply
9. david frempong
"DJ-D-Wreck needs to quit in the classrom"

**
Reply
10. T'challa Ware
"I'm be so legit in the classroom  @BigJoe707"

**
Reply
11. T'challa Ware
"I'm  bringing the Heat in the classroom  @Yeimy Rodriguez"

**
Reply
12. Starzella
"@T'challa Ware  I be eating some meat in the classroom"

**
Reply
13. T'challa Ware
"Throw it out like  yeet in the classroom  @Starzella"

**
Reply
14. Yeimy Rodriguez
"@T'challa Ware  hitman got big teeth in the classroom"

 **
Reply
15. T'challa Ware
"I be underneath in the classroom  @Yeimy Rodriguez"

**
16. 9rimace
"Let’s start our own “In the Classroom”:

When the homework due in the classroom?

**
Reply
17. Frederick Williams
"Friday at 2 in the classroom"

**
Reply
18. Tenia
"Frederick Williams might tie my shoe in the classroom"

**
Reply
19. toniton seconde
"I'm sipping on a smoothie in the classroom"

**
Reply
20. mynamegoeshere
"@toniton seconde  kick u out the classroom!!!!!!"
-snip-
Toniton seconde was kicked out of the classroom because that commenter wrote the word "smoothie" ,and that word doesn't rhyme with "due", "2", and "shoe". 

****
THE INFLUENCE OF "PLAYING THE DOZENS" ON THE GAME "KICK EM OUT THE CLASSROOM

Excerpt #1
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dozens_(game)
"The Dozens is a game played between two contestants in which the participants insult each other until one of them gives up. Common in African-American communities, the Dozens is almost exclusively played in front of an audience, who encourage the participants to reply with increasingly severe insults in order to heighten the tension and consequently make the contest more interesting to watch.

Comments in the game may focus on the opposite player's intelligence, appearance, competency, social status, and financial situation. Disparaging remarks about the other player's family members are common, especially regarding their mother.[1] Commentary is often related to sexual issues, and this version of the game is referred to as the "Dirty Dozens".[2]

According to sociologist Harry Lefever and journalist John Leland, the game is played almost entirely by African-Americans; other ethnic groups often fail to understand how to play the game and can take remarks in the Dozens seriously.[note 1] Its popularity is higher among low-income and urban communities, but it is also found in middle-class and rural settings. Both men and women participate, but the game is more commonly played among men.[3]

Origins

The first academic treatment of the Dozens was made in 1939 by Yale-based psychologist and social theorist John Dollard, who described the importance of the game among African-American men, and how it is generally played. Dollard's description is considered pioneering and accurate.[4]

The Dozens is a "pattern of interactive insult" evident among all classes of African Americans, among men and women, children and adults.[5]

Usually two participants engage in banter, but always in front of others, who incite the participants to continue the game by making the insults worse."...

****
Excerpt #2
From https://www.kcur.org/show/central-standard/2012-06-05/playing-the-dozens-a-history-of-raps-mama Playing The Dozens: A History Of Rap's Mama, Published June 5, 2012 
"'YO MAMA JOKES HEARD ON THIS PROGRAM:

- Your mama's so old she knew Basie before he could Count (our guest Elijah Wald, The Dozens)

 [...]

- Yo mama's so poor, someone threw a cigarette in her yard & she said, “Clap yr hands, stomp your feet, thank the lord, we got heat!" (Listener April)

 [...]

- 'Yo Mama's so stupid, 'yo mama's a mess, she got locked in a grocery store and starved to death! (Caller Rick in Wyandotte)"...

 ****
THE INFLUENCE OF "RAP BATTLES" ON THE GAME "KICK EM OUT THE CLASSROOM 
Pancocojams Editor's Note: 
Nick Cannon, the host of the American television series Wild 'N Out, introduced the world to that series' newly created word game "Kick 'em out the classroom", During the 2014 season of that show, Nick Cannon repeatedly mentioned that this game is "takin it back to old school". In some later seasons, the groups that competed in  that game were named "the old school" and "the new school".  The "old school" that Nick Cannon was referring to is "freestyle rap battles".

Here's some information about freestyle rap battles  

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_rap
"Battle rap (also known as rap battling)[1] is a type of rapping performed between two or more performers that incorporates boasts, insults and wordplay.[1] Battle rap is often performed or freestyled spontaneously in live battles, "where MCs will perform on the same stage to see who has the better verses", although it can also appear on studio albums.[2]

Although never a battler himself, battle rap was loosely described by 40 Cal, previously a member of American hip hop collective The Diplomats, in the book How to Rap (2009) as an "extracurricular" display of skill, comparing it to the dunk contest in the NBA. Battle rap has been developed into highly organized league events drawing in significant revenue and attention, with events for battles usually being "sold out." Mainstream artists such as Diddy, Busta Rhymes, Drake, Joe Budden and Cassidy have attended or participated in battles to help increase their popularity.[2] Rap battles are often written and performed to impress crowds with technically inventive rapping,[3] and knowing a wide variety of rapping styles and a wide range of MCs as personal inspirations is recommended.[4] Various MCs have started out writing mostly battle raps and battling other MCs before releasing commercial records.[5]

History

Rap battle is generally believed to have started in the East Coast hip hop scene in the late 1980s.[6] One of the earliest and most infamous battles occurred in December 1981 when Kool Moe Dee challenged Busy Bee Starski – Busy Bee Starski's defeat by the more complex raps of Kool Moe Dee meant that "no longer was an MC just a crowd-pleasing comedian with a slick tongue; he was a commentator and a storyteller" thus, rendering Busy's archaic format of rap obsolete, in favor of a newer style] which KRS-One also credits as creating a shift in rapping in the documentary Beef.]

In the 1980s, battle raps were a popular form of rapping – Big Daddy Kane in the book How to Rap says, "as an MC from the '80s, really your mentality is battle format... your focus was to have a hot rhyme in case you gotta battle someone... not really making a rhyme for a song".[1] Battle rapping is still sometimes closely associated with old school hip-hop – talking about battle rapping, Esoteric says, "a lot of my stuff stems from old school hip-hop, braggadocio ethic".[9]

Starting in the early 2000s, Freestyle Friday is a watered-down battle segment on BET's popular show 106 & Park. Two rappers compete in a freestyle battle before the studio audience and three celebrity judges (the DJ sometimes acts as the 3rd judge). Each competitor alternates freestyling for 30 seconds in each of the two rounds (originally only 1 round when the segment first began). The rappers are not allowed to use profanities or sexually suggestive lyrics, punishable by disqualification. After the battle, the judges decide the winner, per majority vote.

 Eventually, battle rap moved to a format which is now the predominant form of battle rap, where two emcees battle against each other without a beat, trading prewritten verses in three-round battles. The impromptu aspect of battling still exists in the form of rebuttals, which are short rhymes (usually in the beginning of a verse) where an emcee either comments on something about their opponent that was thought up on the spot (for instance, making fun of the shirt they're wearing), or responds to something their opponent said during their previous round. While not as prominent as it once was, the art of rebutting is still respected by many as difficult to do correctly, and a sign of a well-rounded emcee.

 While many creative minds were battling and organizing battles in the early 2000s, Troy “Smack” Mitchell of Queens New York gathered battle rappers of hood renown including Serius Jones of New Jersey and Loaded Lux, Murda Mook and Jae Millz of Harlem, Smack began recording battles, printing and hand-selling the DVDs—a cutting edge technological and artistic hustle at the time."...
-snip-
Here are four comments about that freestyle rapping in that video from that video's discussion thread https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKsw4b3XZ7s  (Numbers added for referencing purposes only) :

1. Breyer, 2019
" “you’re the snake without the rattle, you’re the boat without the paddle, you’re the duck without waddle, you’re the horse without the saddle, the ranch without the cattle, the day without the shadow, son i think you should skedaddle” if someone actually freestyles this it would be so hard"

**
Reply
2. Gerard Garcia, 2020
..."yeah the wordplay is awesome even though the diss lacks"

**
Reply
3.  heisenburger, 2020
"That would be trash in an actual freestyle lmao"

**
4. local oppboy, 2020
..."he's  right lol that verse  would be trash in an actual rap battle cos it's not direct u could say that about anybody."

****
THE SIMILARITIES THAT AFRICAN AMERICAN CHILDREN'S RHYMES AND CHEERS HAVE TO THE GAME "KICK EM OUT THE CLASSROOM
Many African American originated recreational children's rhymes and cheers were influenced by "Playing The Dozens" rhymes. As such, these rhymes and cheers have similar text (word) patterns and performance elements as the newly (2019) introduced word game "Kick 'em out the classroom",  As I wrote above "All of the performance arts and/or recreational activities that are mentioned in this post place a high value group participation, creative composition, fast thinking, and staying on beat. Sometimes these performance arts/recreational activities also place a high value on rhyming. In addition, many of these performing arts/recreational activities place a high value on insulting (dissing/roasting) another person who is participating in game, or other people present or not present during the game."

Here are three examples of African American original recreational games or (foot stomping) cheers that have some elements that remind me of "Kick'em out the classroom":

1. Yo'  (Your) Mama Don't Wear No Drawers
http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2011/10/yo-mama-dont-wear-no-drawers
Here's an excerpt from that pancocojams post:
"I thought that the first time I read an example of "Yo Mama Don't Wear No Drawers" was a discussion thread of "Childhood Games & Rhymes" from the 1980s on an internet forum for members of various Black Greek lettered sororites. One of those women with the tag name Optimistic1 added this example to the mix:
"Yo mama don't wear no drawers. I saw her when she took em off. She threw them in the air...Superman said "I declare!" (We had a whole lot of sayings that came after the second line like...She threw them on the track and the train jumped 50 miles back)"
-Optimistic1, http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/showthread.php?t=4123&page, Illinois, 2000

-end of quote-
The words to that rhyme sounded familiar to me, but I couldn't remember where I had first heard them. Eventually, I remembered that I read a rhyme that was very much like a "Yo Mama Don't Wear No Drawers" in the 1938 short story "Big Boy Leaves Home" that is part of the Uncle Tom's Children collection of short stories by the African American writer Richard Wright. In that story, "Your Mama Don't Wear No Drawers" is described as "an old song", and the 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". Here's an excerpt of that story as sung by Big Boy and three other boys:
"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

-end of quote-
[UPDATE: January 30, 2019]
Hat tip to Anonymous (Sheila), January 30, 2019 at 10:24 AM for sharing the information that this rhyme is found in Zora Neil Hurston's 1937 book Their Eyes Were Watching God, page 157 (the paperback version with an afterwords by Henry Louis Gates). Thanks, Shiela!"

**
2. Concentration 64 [and similar titles]
http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2011/11/concentration-64-handclap-game.html

"CONCENTRATION 64 (Example #1)
I used to play a game called concentration
all the girls played it
it was like this

concentration(clap clap clap)
64(clap clap clap)
no repeat(clap clap clap)
or hesitation(clap clap clap)
I'll go first(clap clap clap)
you go last(clap clap clap)
the category is(clap clap clap)
______________ (fill it in your self.)

you slapped each others hands while you were saying the words and after the category name the person had to say something in that category without repeating what someone had already said or hesitating or they were out.
-Guest, just visiting ,Origins: Concentration (kids' game); http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=85915 ; 11/11/2011 (hereafter given as "Mudcat: Concentration game")"

***
3. Hula Hula
http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2018/11/examples-of-hula-hula-razzle-dazzle.html

" "Hula Hula" is an introduction, bragging, and taunting/confrontational foot stomping cheer. The earliest example of this cheer that I've found is from 1983 (Example #1 given below)....

 HULA HULA
Hula hula
Now who thinks they bad
Hula hula
Now who thinks they bad
I think I’m bad
‘Cause Acie my name
And toys is my game
Take a sip of my potion
And dance in slow motion
Uh-huh
She thinks she bad
Baby baby don’t make me mad
Un-huh
She thinks she cool
Baby baby don’t act a fool
Uh-huh
She think she sweet
Sweetest person you ever meet
Uh-huh
She thinks she fine
Baby baby I’ll blow your mind
-Barbara Michels and Bettye White, Editors: Apple On A Stick, The Folklore of Black Children (Putnam Juvenile; First Edition November 11, 1983) [Houston, Texas]

****
This concludes Part III of this three part pancocojams series.

Thanks for visiting pancocojams.

Visitor comments are welcome.