Hip Hop Phrases

[Jonathon Green]

>
> Have there been any other significant phrases added to the language by
> specific hip-hop songs?
>
> Fred Shapiro

There is a substantial hip-hop/rap lexicon, some of which has crossed over
into general slang and thence, in even smaller quantities, to mainstream
use. To what extent, however, specific songs can be seen as responsible for
the adoption of specific terms is more problematic. I don't believe
'bling-bling' for instance ever relied on a given set of lyrics. Like many
other
slang terms that have made this crossover, its spread is more likely to be
the responsibility of headline writers and media commentators. As for its
alleged Jamaican origins, as Michael Quinion notes, this seems to have been
advanced as a theory in the new Longman's dictionary - and my own immediate
response to that was, why do they believe so? The term certainly isn't to be
found in Allsopp's _Dict. of Caribbean English_ (1996); nor, perhaps more
importantly given that its publication predates 'bling-bling, does that work
offer any similar term(s) from which it might have developed. On the other
hand I quote, fwiw, an African-American writer, who may be correct:

2002 Touré _The Portable Promised Land_ (ms.) 58: Bling-bling. [Verb 'Yo,
you peep all that ice he sportin? He bling-blinging!']. A word that has
bubbled up during the last few years from hiphop generation Blacks in the
south. It means wearing diamond jewelry or generally conspicuous
consumption.

Jonathon Green