throwing it down

[Benjamin Zimmer]

Orin Hargraves <orinkh at CARR.ORG> wrote:
>
>Can anyone shed any light on the origins and vintage of this idiom to mean
>"perform admirably," or something along those lines?
>
>I find
>
>"Trojans throw it down" as the headline of a basketball story in which one
>team (the Trojans) routed another.
>
>Also
>
>"Busting rhymes and throwing it down" as a headline in a Jerusalem Post
>story about a freestyle rap forum.

Margaret Lee <mlee303 at YAHOO.COM> wrote:
>
>Actually, the "correct" phrase is "throw down," rather than "throw _it_
>down."

In the basketball context of the first example, "throw it down" is quite
common (e.g., player-turned-commentator Bill Walton's catchphrase, usually
applied to Shaquille O'Neal: "Throw it down, big man!").  The reference is
to slam-dunking, extended to the general sense of soundly defeating the
competition.

In the hiphop context of the second example, "throw down" is indeed more
common than "throw it down", though the Original Hip-Hop Lyrics Archive
(www.ohhla.com) has 22 examples of the latter (many of these may be
influenced by basketball usage).  Plain "throw down" has early roots in
rap -- the full version of the Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight" (1979)
uses the phrase three times:

-----
http://www.ohhla.com/anonymous/rap_comp/sugrhill/rdelight.sug.txt

Now I got a man comin' on right now
He's guaranteed to throw down
He goes by the name of Wonder Mike
Come on, Wonder Mike, do what you like!
...
Well like the Barkays singin' "Holy Ghost"
The sounds to throw down, they're played the most.
...
Like movin' your body so you don't know how
Right to the rhythm and throw down
-----


--Ben Zimmer