"throw down" redux

[Benjamin Zimmer]

Here's a belated follow-up to a thread from two years ago, where Orin
Hargraves asked about the expression "throw (it) down" meaning
'perform admirably':

http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0504A&L=ADS-L&P=33117

In the thread I mentioned that intransitive "throw down" has been used
in rap circles since Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight" (1979), the
full version of which uses the expression three times (e.g., "Now I
got a man comin' on right now, He's guaranteed to throw down").

Below are cites from the '80s for intransitive and transitive "throw
down" in the performance sense. The 1980 cite refers to "Rapper's
Delight" and quotes Henry Jackson, aka Big Bank Hank.

* throw down, v. intr. (to/on/over a backing track or beat)

1980 _Washington Post_ 31 Aug. G2/5 The group took the musical track
from a top-10 hit by Chic called "Good Times" and "We threw down most
violently on it," Jackson says, meaning that they rapped over the
music.

1984 _Washington Post_ 30 Aug. C4/2 Whether bouncing happily through
"Junku," which was brightened by Foday Nusa Suso's shimmering kora, or
throwing down to the surging electrofunk pulse of "Rockit," which was
introduced by a rap from scratch master D. St., Hancock and the band
were stimulating.

* throw down, v. trans.

1986 _Globe and Mail_ 10 Apr. D1 (Factiva) The first few minutes were
brash and exciting, as the three deejays leapt about throwing down
streams of rhymes and imprecations to the crowd to get involved.

1988 _Los Angeles Times_ 7 Aug. 37 (ProQuest) "A Glossary of, Like,
Contemporary Terms" Throw down a rap - begin rapping.


-- Ben Zimmer

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