"Little" xxxx. From early R&B to Rap.

[George Thompson]

In the early 20th C, one of the power-brokers of Tammany Hall was Tim Sullivan, called Big Tim; there was another fairly prominent Tammany politician also named Tim Sullivan, who was called Little Tim.  Big Tim, I believe, was in fact big, though I'm not sure whether tall or fat or both; Little Tim was a relative of Big Tim's, but not a son, and I don't know whether he was smaller in stature.

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998.

----- Original Message -----
From: David Bergdahl <bergdahl at OAK.CATS.OHIOU.EDU>
Date: Monday, March 10, 2003 8:24 am
Subject: Re: "Little" xxxx.  From early R&B to Rap.

> Not only in AA-communities: my Irish-Swedish-American family
> differentiated"Big Larry" (b. 1909) from "Little Larry" (b. 1936)
> even when "Little
> Larry" was 2" taller than his dad.
>
> --On Monday, March 10, 2003 2:01 AM -0800 Margaret Lee
> <mlee303 at YAHOO.COM>wrote:
>
> >> Why would the appellation "Little or Lil' " be very common in Black
> >> English?
> >> Because the performers started at a very young age and were truly
> > "little?"
> >
> > That, plus in many instances in the African American community,
> > especially for males, "big" and "little" were/are used to
> distinguish> the father from the son with the same name-- Big Joe
> and Little Joe.
> >
> >
> >
> > --- Sam Clements <sclements at NEO.RR.COM> wrote:
> >> While waiting for my son today, I was listening to "the oldies."
> >> And heard
> >> a familiar song by Little Anthony and the Imperials.  And then I
> >> thought of
> >> Little Richard.
> >>
> >> And then I thought about my son's devotion to Rap and Hip Hop, with
> >> more
> >> singers than you can shake your booty at who have the name "Little"
> >> before
> >> their given name.  There's Little Wayne.  Lil' Romeo,  Lil' Kim,
> >> and many
> >> others.
> >>
> >> So I got out my Billboard top 40, and discovered Little
> >> Caesar(1961), Little
> >> Eva(1962), Little Joe(1957), Little Joey(1962), Little
> >> Milton(1965).  Most
> >> are listed as R&B("Black") singers.  I don't know how many were
> >> Afro-American, but that is the question I pose.
> >>
> >
> >
> > =====
> > Margaret G. Lee, Ph.D.
> > Associate Professor - English and Linguistics
> >  & University Editor
> > Department of English
> > Hampton University, Hampton, VA 23668
> > (757)727-5769(voice);(757)727-5084(fax);(757)851-5773(home)
> > e-mail: margaret.lee at hamptonu.edu   or   mlee303 at yahoo.com
> >
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