perpetrator / perpetrate / perpetrative

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Fri, 4 Mar 2005 08:26:06 -0800, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM> wrote:

>Of  slang interest, however, are the rap / hip-hop terms "perpetrator /
>perpetrate" meaning "pretender, poseur" and "to pretend to be what one
>is not."  Pamela Munro's students at UCLA provided the earliest citations
>in 1988-89.

The verb appears earlier than that in rap lyrics.  It might have started
off as "perpetrate a fraud" and gotten clipped from there...

----
Bitin your moves, takin fake awards
Sayin everyone else is perpetratin the frauds.
--Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five, "Step Off" (1984)
----
For all you sucker MCs perpetratin a fraud
Your rhymes are cold wack and keep the crowd cold lost.
--Run-D.M.C., "Rock Box" (1984)
----
You run round talkin bout what you hate
Livin your life just to perpetrate.
--Run-D.M.C., "You're Blind" (1985)
----
We slay all suckers who perpetrate
And lay down law from state to state.
--Run-D.M.C., "My Adidas" (1986)
----
Cheap-skate, perpetrating, money-hungry jerk
Everyday I drink a "O.E." and I don't go to work.
--Beastie Boys, "Hold It Now, Hit It" (1986)
----
That's when I saw this beautiful girlie girl walkin
I picked up my car phone to perpetrate like I was talkin.
--DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince, "Parents Just Don't Understand" (1988)
----

And "perpetrator" is just as old, with the shift to the 'poseur' sense
occurring early on:

----
You forgot the words of your creator
And now he's made you a perpetrator.
--Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five, "Step Off" (1984)
----
The lovers and the taker, faker, lovers of the Lakers
Simulator, rap traitor, perfect perpetrator.
--LL Cool J, "Rock the Bells" (1986)
----
Discriminators, perpetrators, educators, legislators
Dominators, people haters known as segregators.
--The Boogie Boys, "Colorblind World" (1986)
----
Perpetrators in the business claim their hard as hell
Talkin that gangster shit, knowin they're soft as jell - Oh!
--Ice-T, "Rhyme Pays" (1987)
----
I'm a crowd motivator, MC annihilator
Never front the move cause I'm not a perpetrator.
--MC Shan, "Kill That Noise" (1987)
----
To have MCs coming out sounding so similar
It's quite confusing for you to remember
The originator, and boy do I hate a
Perpetrator, but I'm much greater.
--Big Daddy Kane, "Ain't No Half-Steppin'" (1988)
----

Many more examples here:

http://www.google.com/search?q=site:ohhla.com+perpetrate|perpetratin|perpetrating|perpetrated|perpetrator|perpetrators


--Ben Zimmer