Slang as something other than language

[Grant Barrett]

I've just run across an interesting use of "slang" from prominent pop
music personality Britney Spears:

2008 MSNBC (Dec. 4) Andy Dehnart "'For the Record,' Britney reveals
very little" <http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27931958/>: Britney insists
she is "a very private person" and later says, "I used to be a cool
chick, you know? And I feel like the paparazzi has taken my whole cool
slang away from me. Like, going out, and doing stuff, and like seeing
a guy and hanging out."

It's pretty clear she's not talking about language. It's more like
slang = personal space or ability to be one's self. Does anyone have
any other similar uses?

There's a 2004 song by Dem Franchize Boyz called "White Tee" that uses
slang as a verb in a way that might be similar, but since it's
followed in the lyrics by "spitting game" 'making verbal romantic
advances towards women,' and because it's a verb, I wouldn't count it:

I slang in my white tee, I bang in my white tee
All in the club spitting game in my white tee
I bling in my white tee, serve fiends in my white tee
Fuck a throwback I look clean in my white tee.

("Fiends" is another matter. Some fan lyric sites transcribe it as
"feigns," others as "things," others as "fends." It sounds like
"fiends" to me and "fiends" makes the most sense, since "serve fiends"
would mean to "sell drugs to addicts" which gibes with the ballers'-
and-bangers' lifestyle being described in the song.)

(One more note: "white tee" refers to the custom of young black men
wearing plain white T-shirts as a mode of passive defense. For one
thing, if they're wearing white, then they're likely not wearing gang
colors and won't offend anyone accidentally. For two, if most young
black men wear white tees, then it's hard for the police or witness to
pick a single figure out as a suspect. The "white tee" idea makes a
small appearance in HBO's series "The Wire" but definitely predates
the show and the song above.)

Grant Barrett
gbarrett at worldnewyork.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org