Examples Of Risque Foot Stomping Cheers With The Title Or The Words "Tell It"

Edited by Azizi Powell

Latest Revision - December 22, 2023

This is Part III of a three part pancocojams series presents examples of songs or cheers from African American culture that includes the words "Tell it".

This post presents general information about foot stomping cheers and presents all the examples of the foot stomping cheer "Tell It" that I have come across 

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2023/12/four-examples-of-african-american.html for Part I of this pancocojams series. That post presents one YouTube example of an African American Spiritual and three YouTube examples of African American Gospel songs that include the words "tell it".  Partial lyrics for these featured songs are also included in this post.

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2023/12/aaron-neville-tell-it-like-it-is.html for Part II of this pancocojams series. That post showcases Aaron Neville's hit 1966 R&B song "Tell It Like It Is".

The content of this post is presented for cultural and recreational purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

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WARNING: The foot stomping cheer "Tell It" often includes sexually suggestive or sexually explicit references.

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2016/09/foot-stomping-cheers-alphabetical-list.html "Pancocojams Compilation Of Foot Stomping Cheers (Alphabetical List: Numbers - C)"
This is Part I of a five part pancocojams series. The links for the other posts are given in each post.

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INFORMATION 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).

1. Foot stomping cheers are composed using a variant form of call & response that I've termed "group/consecutive soloists". Usually the group voice (often without the first soloist) is heard first. The soloist then responds to the group. This pattern continues, and usually the soloist then has a short solo portion. The group may or may not chant again before the cheer begins again from the beginning with a new soloist. This pattern continues until every member of the group has had one equal (same amount of time) turn as the soloist. My experience is that the order of soloist is determined before the cheer begins, often with girls trying to be the first to call out "first", "second", "third" etc.

2. These cheers are performed by girls who stand in semi-circles, or in lines (usually horizontal lines), or stand in a circle with the soloist in the middle.

Foot stomping cheers can be easily distinguished from hand clap rhymes (jump rope rhymes) because hand clap/jump rope rhymes are chanted in unison while foot stomping cheers have a call & response (group/soloist) pattern. Furthermore, foot stomping cheers are chanted by two or more people who perform choreographed, synchronized, bass sounding foot stomps alternating with (individual*) hand claps or (individual*) body slaps (patting juba).

The following beat patterns were (are?) standard for foot stomping cheers: "stomp clap, stomp stomp clap" or "stomp stomp clap, stomp stomp clap". Either one of these beat patterns is used for a particular cheer and that cheer pattern is continued throughout the entire cheer with any pauses/stops.

The "stomp" portion of this pattern is made by hitting the foot hard on the ground to make a bass sound. The "clap" portion of the cheer was made by girls clapping their own hands (individual hand claps). In some cheers, girls alternated body pats with stomps. Hands could be clapped in front of a girl, between her legs, or less often - in my experience, over her head.

While the words to foot stomping cheers are important, the most important thing in the performance of foot stomping cheers is keeping the beat. Foot stomping is performed in a metronome like manner throughout the entire cheer. Once the beat starts, with very few exceptions, the exact same beat continues without pausing until every one in the group has had one equal length turn as the soloist and the cheer ends.

The idea of a metronome beat can best be demonstrated by the Pop group Queen's 1977 hit song "We Will Rock You" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tJYN-eG1zk. That record is an ideal example of the beat pattern for foot stomping cheers.

The choreographed synchronized group foot stomps that are performed while chanting these cheers are very similar to historically Black Greek letter steppin[g]. However, step chants don't have the same call & response textual structure that foot stomping cheers have. The performance of stomp and shake cheerleading is also different than the performance of foot stomping cheers, and stomp & shake cheers have a different textual structure than foot stomping cheers.

Google search "Black fraternity and sorority stepping pancocojams" and Google search "stomp and shake pancocojams" for pancocojams posts on these subjects.
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*Individual" here means that a person only touches her own hands/body. People performing foot stomping cheers never touch other performers' hands or bodies, which makes this recreational activity better than hand clap games during/post Covid 19.
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Clickhttp://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/05/an-overview-of-foot-stomping-movement.html for more information about foot stomping cheers.

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POSSIBLE SOURCES FOR THE "TELL IT" FOOT STOMPING CHEERS
The phrase "Tell it" is part of contemporary (1960s on) African American vernacular and, depending on its context, means that the person agrees with what has been said, and supports the person saying it to others.

A number of African American songs include the words "tell it" in their titles and/or lyrics. Among those songs are the African American Spiritual "Go Tell It On The Mountain" and the Gospel song "Tell Them I'm A Child Of God". Another example of the phrase "tell it" in African American songs is the R&B song "Tell It Like It Is".

All of these usages could be sources for the "Tell It" foot stomping cheer, but based on the words of some of these examples, I believe their primary source is the R&B song "Tell It Like It Is". 

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EXAMPLES OF THE CHEER/RHYME "TELL IT"

These examples are given in chronological order based on their publishing date.

Foot stomping cheers forms of call & response compositions that are supposed to start with the group voice, followed by the soloist. Since most of these examples only feature one soloist's verse, it can be extrapolated that those examples are clips of the complete cheer.  

The  words in parenthesis are the group response to the soloist's words.

TELL IT TELL IT (Version #1)
"My name is ______________ (Tell it Tell it)
Zodiac sign my sign (Tell it Tell it)
And if you don't like it (Tell it Tell it)
You can kiss my behind (Tell it Tell it)
You know what? (What?)
You know what? (What?)
My name ________and I can do it like this! (do a dance)"
-Honeykiss1974, http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/archive/index.php/t-31403.html, 03-26-2003
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The "1974" in HoneyKisses' screen name is probably her date of birth. That suggests that this version of "Tell It" is probably from the mid 1980s.

Sun sign astrology (the zodiac) is mentioned in a lot of foot stomping cheers, attesting to the popularity of astrology in the United States in the 1980s and 1990s.

Based on their screen names, their comments, and/or signage in their comments, the participants in is www.greekchat.com discussion thread were members of historically Black Greek letter sororities who were young adults when these comments were published.   

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TELL IT (Version #2)
"One of my line sisters remembered this "mannish" version of "Tell It":

My name is ___________ (Tell it, tell it)
I'm on the line (Tell it, tell it)
smoking reefer and drinking wine
And you know what (What?)
And you know what (What?)
I have a man (Tell it, tell it)
He looks alright (Tell it, tell it)
But he can do it do it do it do it allllll night (Say what!)

 

She swears they used to say this in elementary school (We're both 23/24). I wonder what those little girls are chanting now."
-Symphony08, http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/archive/index.php/t-31403.html, 03-26-2003
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"Line sisters" - women who "pledged" and joined a particular chapter of a historically Black Greek letter sorority at the same time. Although "pledging" is illegal, that term is still used for people seeking membership in historically Black Greek letter fraternities and sororities. People seeking membership often stand in vertical or horizontal lines. These "pledgees" are given numbers that correspond to their place in those lines,  often depending on their height with the shortest person (the #1 or "the ace" and the second person being #2 or "deuce" etc. 

Given this information about when her line sister remembers this rhyme, this would mean that they were in elementary school in 1979 or 1980

However, I believe that the words "I'm on the line" in the context of these cheers mean "I'm part of this group and, in an expanded sense, I'm here representing myself in this community of girls. (Note that . foot stomping cheers are (were) often performed with girls standing (doing foot stomping/hand clapping routines) in horizontal lines.) 

"Mannish" is an at least mildly negative African American Vernacular English term that means "a child or a teenager who is trying to act like a man, for example a child or teen who is interested in things -like sex- when he or she is still young. As demonstrated by the above comment, a female may also be considered "mannish". In the context of this vernacular definition, that doesn't mean that she is acting masculine. There's  also a vernacular term "womanish" for females with the same meaning, but that term doesn't appear to be used as often as "mannish". Two comparable non-gender terms that mean the same thing as "mannish"/womanish" are "acting grown" and "[being] "fast".

"Do it" refers to "making love".

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TELL IT (Version #3)
"My name is Mocha (Tell it, tell it)
I'm on the line (Tell it, tell it)
I wanna do it (tell it, tell it)
with Nas' sign (Tell it, tell it)
And you know what? (what?)
My man will rough you up
Hey!!!

The alternate version said, "and you know what? My man don't do enough".
-Miss Mocha, http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/showthread.php?t=31403&page=5 ,03-28-2003
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In this cheer, "Nas" is the stage name for an American rapper. His Wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nas indicates that Nas started his recording career in 1991, but his highly regarded album Illmatic wasn't released until 1994. That information suggests that version of "Tell It" was probably not chanted until 1994. The word "sign" here means Nas' astrological sun sign, or by inference, with Nas or with a male who has Nas' sun sign.

Note that the performer named "Nas" in this cheer doesn't refer to Lil Nas X who recorded the 2019 country rap song "Old Town Road".

This is an example of a soloist's verse. Ideally, when these cheers are performed, each soloist is expected to make up her own four line rhyming verse that fits the same formulaic pattern as those that preceded her. However, as this comment suggests, certain alternative rhymes are (were) part of the group's repertoire and are used again and again.

I'm referring to these cheer performances in past tense in the parenthesis because it appears that since around 2014 or so foot stomping cheers were no longer performed, having been replaced by school or community cheerleading squads (stomp & shake cheerleading or "standard" cheerleading), step teams, and/or informal performances of Tik Tok dances.

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TELL IT LIKE IT IS (Version #4)
"tell it, tell it, tell it like it is
uh oh!
tell it, tell it, tell it like it is

me: my name is Goddess
homegirls: tell it, tell it

me: I'm on the line
homegirls: tell it, tell it

me: and I'm gon' do it
homegirls: tell it, tell it

me: with a Scorpio sign
homegirls: tell it, tell it

me: and you know what?
homegirls: what?

me: and you know what?
homegirls: what?

(alternate replies)

 

me: my man was rollin on the ocean, he was rollin on the sea, and the best part about it, he was rolling on me (insert fast azz 8 year old sexy move here)

 

OR

 

me: I'm just gon' kick yo butt" 
-GODDESS!, https://www.lipstickalley.com/threads/hood-cheers.43158/, August 18, 2006

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TELL IT LIKE IT IS (Version #5)
"Tell it tell it tell it like it is (uh hun)
tell it tell it tell it like it is
My name Nicole (tell it tell it)
I’m on the line (tell it tell it)
And I can do it (tell it tell it)
To the Capricorn sign (tell it tell it)
And you know what? (what?)
And you know what (what?)
Your man was in my body and he did some karate and he
knocked on my door, but he didn’t get no more.
-Black Girlhood Celebration: Toward a Hip-hop Feminist Pedagogy
by  Ruth Nicole Brown, published in 2008; Page 43, Google books.

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TELL IT TELL IT (Version #6)
"tell it, tell it
tell it like it is.
I go to school
(tell it tell it)
Smoking kools
(tell it tell it)
I walk the streets
(tell it tell it)
10 times a week
(tell it tell it)
I'm number third
(tell it tell it)
Smoking herb (tell it tell it)....

 

 

& the nonsense continues. Smh... my grandmother wouldn't let us sing that one.
-Chrystal Smith (Chicago, Illinois), July 14, 2017
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This is a comment in discussion thread for the vlog "Let's Discuss: Black Girl Childhood Hand Games and Sing Songs" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfzHL_1PdbY. I reformatted this example from sentence form to line form.
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Regarding the words "smoking Kools" = "Kools" used to be a popular brand of cigarettes and is now a brand of menthol cigarettes.
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kool_(cigarette) 

"Smoking herb" = smoking marijuana ("reefers")

The words "I walk the streets/ 10 times a week" are from the recreational rhyme "Shimmy Shimmy Co Co Pa", a rhyme that was popularized by its inclusion in Tom Hank's movie Big.

"I'm number third" = I'm number three (In the context of this cheer, meaning "I'm the third soloist". The order of soloist is (was?) usually determined before a cheer session by how fast girls would holler out "first", "second", "third" etc. 

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This concludes Part III of this three part pancocojams series.
 
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