[Ads-l] More on "Your Mama" (Not in OED)
Bill Mullins
amcombill at HOTMAIL.COM
Thu Mar 19 02:20:29 UTC 2026
> According to Elijah Wald's book The Dozens: A History of Rap's Mama, the line "Your mama's out on the street
> doin' I don't know which" occurs in a song by Speckled Red titled "The Dirty Dozen No. 2." Wald cites this to
> Brunswick 7151, 1930.
Speckled Red was a stage name for Rufus Perryman. His "The Dirty Dozen No. 1" appeared in Dec. 1929, and has the line "And yo mama do the lawdylawd".
The Wikipedia article on Speckled Red seems to be pretty good, and "The Dirty Dozen No. 1" is on youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqcSP83nS7s
Transcription here:
https://genius.com/Speckled-red-the-dirty-dozen-lyrics
These early recordings are bowdlerized versions of a much bawdier song he would perform in whorehouses and juke joints. The uncensored version was recorded in 1956 and released in 1996:
Version 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iw6kLYeIGSc
Transcription: https://genius.com/Speckled-red-the-dirtier-dozens-lyrics
Version 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNoAouAXh9A
https://genius.com/Speckled-red-the-dirtiest-dozens-lyrics
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