H&B Blowin' Up, Baseball and Type-Herb
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
Got Elk’s Run 2 off to the printer, WTOT 4 is basically ready, waiting on some ads from our dear friends. Keep your eyes open for Hoarse & Buggy; we have some exciting shit going down in the next couple of months. I’m telling you though; aside from our two books we’re planning on putting out soon we have even bigger news on the horizon. I hate getting all cryptic and I wish I could say more but just stay tuned.
As far as my shit goes, I finished the baseball story and the first (of five) scripts. Still interviewing artists, went through a few people. The problem is, the artist has to know baseball and his shit has to be hot. I originally though the baseball thing wasn’t crucial but, if you can get around the language barrier, there are still a bunch of things that just get missed. The little things a fan notices. How to grip a bat, pitcher’s delivery, runner standing at the ready, batter digging in at the plate, a catcher’s hand signals…there’s just a lot of shit that makes the whole process easier with an artist that knows baseball. So, seriously, if any of you guys know someone available that can do the chores on a book like this and might be interested, hook a brother up. I know there are plenty of you out there, time to help my ass out. I’ll keep looking but leads would be super-sweet – even if you know somebody that might know somebody.
________
My friend called me a “herb” yesterday.
A herb.
I haven’t been called a herb in at least a decade nor have I heard anyone call anybody else a herb. For the record, it’s herb as in the name “Herb”, not as in “herbs and spices.” That type of herb is and always will be slang for weed. The kind of herb I’m talking about is slang for dork. And it got me thinking, what other ghetto slang terms where popular in the late-80s, early 90s but just didn’t make it beyond that? With Jorge Vega’s help, we compiled a list. Now, some of these words might have first come on the scene before my time or might still be in use today. I just know that I’ve never (or rarely) heard them outside of the time period I’m talking about. This isn’t really a story, per-se, but it’s relevant to the theme of this blog. And plus, there’s a couple of stories mixed in.
Skins (n.) – Pussy. “Julio hoped to hit the skins on his date with Mita”
Jimmy hat (n.) – Condom. “Julio grabbed his jimmy hats, since Mita is a prime candidate for the H.I.V.”
I’m reminded of when Tony, Dave and I used to sit on Dave’s stoop, blasting KRS-1 on his boom box. “Jimmy” would be playing and we’d scream out “The J, the I, the M, the M, the Y, the J, the I, the M…it’s Jimmmmyyyyy! It’s Jimmmmmyyyyy!” Our neighbors would poke their heads out of the window and yell at us to turn the boom box off. They didn’t realize that:
When Jimmy releases boy it pleases
But what do you do about all these diseases?
Jimmy is Jimmy no matter what
So take care of Jimmy ‘cause you know what's up
’Cause now in winter, AIDS attacks
So run out and get your Jimmy Hats
It costs so little for a pack of three
They're Jimmy Hats for the winter attack
Knockin’ Boots (v.) – Having sex. “Once at Mita’s house, Julio began knockin’ the boots.”
Fly (adj.) – Good looking. “Mita was fly, but not as fly as Mariah Carey.”
Word life (adj.) – Correct. “Word life, you know I hit them skins.”
Gimme some dap – Slap my hand five; give me some props. “Oh shit! My man hit them skins! Gimme some dap, son!”
Mom-dukes (n.) – Mother. “Word son, them skins was tight. I gotta roll, mom-dukes is gonna be pissed.”
Mom-dukes is actually short for Mom-a-dukes, which is what I called my mom. I still do, sometimes. My boy G, on the other hand, uses Mom-dukes.
Heads (n.) – People. “But yo, Julio, you wore your jimmy hat, right? Cause at least thirty heads got up in those skins.”
Yeah Mike – A sarcastic expression of disbelief. “Thirty heads? Yeah Mike!”
Yeah Mike was a term used mainly by Beastie Boys fans, I think. It was more of a white thug thing than black/latino thug thing. Along the same lines was “Sike your mind.” Siking somebody’s mind was like the worst thing in the world. Someone would trick you and say, “Sike your mind!” and you would get so fucking upset. “Yeah, Mike! You didn’t sike my mind!”
Smells (n.) – Cologne. “I’m serious, doo. She fucked Jay-Jay cause she liked his smells.”
In Junior High I heard someone use a word that I’ve never heard used before or ever again and I think he might have been trying it out. A thug walked over to my friend, while in the locker-room, and said, “Yo, son, I’m snorkeling your smells.” My friend had no idea what the fuck the guy was talking about. The thug just sort of stared at him for a second and then said, “Your cologne, nigga! Run your fucking cologne!”
My friend gave up the cologne and the word “snorkel” was retired, I think. Even funnier was the fact that my friends’ “smells” was a bottle of fucking Old Spice. Either the kid didn’t know or he just assumed we were stupid enough to pack Polo or Drakar. Or Cool Water, that was big then too. When did that Michael Jordon cologne come out? That shit was nasty.
Fuck, man, I gotta do a comic about Junior High.
Audi-5 (adj.) – Gone; Leaving. “For real, son, I’m audi-5.”
My father bought an Audi once. I shit you not; we had this beat up ‘ole red monster of a car for a long time. When it died, my pops bought an Audi. It was used, but still, we were po’ folk. Po’ folk don’t get Audis. But he was so proud of it. It was stolen about two weeks later. I believe he followed it up with another used car and then a new Camry, when he started making some good money.
Type – This is my all time favorite fucking slang. I still use it whenever I can and people rarely believe that this was actually used back in the day. You use it before an adjective…I can only explain it with examples. “Yo, that girl is type-nasty.” “That dude was type-crazy.” You get it? “That car is type-fast.” It is by far the biggest waste of a syllable ever in the history of wasted syllables. And that’s why it’s genius. It’s the way a 1950s robot would talk. It’s just fucking perfect.
There are so many more. Maybe I’ll do a part II of this sometime. For now, feel free to add you own “words/phrases that never made it”.
As far as my shit goes, I finished the baseball story and the first (of five) scripts. Still interviewing artists, went through a few people. The problem is, the artist has to know baseball and his shit has to be hot. I originally though the baseball thing wasn’t crucial but, if you can get around the language barrier, there are still a bunch of things that just get missed. The little things a fan notices. How to grip a bat, pitcher’s delivery, runner standing at the ready, batter digging in at the plate, a catcher’s hand signals…there’s just a lot of shit that makes the whole process easier with an artist that knows baseball. So, seriously, if any of you guys know someone available that can do the chores on a book like this and might be interested, hook a brother up. I know there are plenty of you out there, time to help my ass out. I’ll keep looking but leads would be super-sweet – even if you know somebody that might know somebody.
________
My friend called me a “herb” yesterday.
A herb.
I haven’t been called a herb in at least a decade nor have I heard anyone call anybody else a herb. For the record, it’s herb as in the name “Herb”, not as in “herbs and spices.” That type of herb is and always will be slang for weed. The kind of herb I’m talking about is slang for dork. And it got me thinking, what other ghetto slang terms where popular in the late-80s, early 90s but just didn’t make it beyond that? With Jorge Vega’s help, we compiled a list. Now, some of these words might have first come on the scene before my time or might still be in use today. I just know that I’ve never (or rarely) heard them outside of the time period I’m talking about. This isn’t really a story, per-se, but it’s relevant to the theme of this blog. And plus, there’s a couple of stories mixed in.
Skins (n.) – Pussy. “Julio hoped to hit the skins on his date with Mita”
Jimmy hat (n.) – Condom. “Julio grabbed his jimmy hats, since Mita is a prime candidate for the H.I.V.”
I’m reminded of when Tony, Dave and I used to sit on Dave’s stoop, blasting KRS-1 on his boom box. “Jimmy” would be playing and we’d scream out “The J, the I, the M, the M, the Y, the J, the I, the M…it’s Jimmmmyyyyy! It’s Jimmmmmyyyyy!” Our neighbors would poke their heads out of the window and yell at us to turn the boom box off. They didn’t realize that:
When Jimmy releases boy it pleases
But what do you do about all these diseases?
Jimmy is Jimmy no matter what
So take care of Jimmy ‘cause you know what's up
’Cause now in winter, AIDS attacks
So run out and get your Jimmy Hats
It costs so little for a pack of three
They're Jimmy Hats for the winter attack
Knockin’ Boots (v.) – Having sex. “Once at Mita’s house, Julio began knockin’ the boots.”
Fly (adj.) – Good looking. “Mita was fly, but not as fly as Mariah Carey.”
Word life (adj.) – Correct. “Word life, you know I hit them skins.”
Gimme some dap – Slap my hand five; give me some props. “Oh shit! My man hit them skins! Gimme some dap, son!”
Mom-dukes (n.) – Mother. “Word son, them skins was tight. I gotta roll, mom-dukes is gonna be pissed.”
Mom-dukes is actually short for Mom-a-dukes, which is what I called my mom. I still do, sometimes. My boy G, on the other hand, uses Mom-dukes.
Heads (n.) – People. “But yo, Julio, you wore your jimmy hat, right? Cause at least thirty heads got up in those skins.”
Yeah Mike – A sarcastic expression of disbelief. “Thirty heads? Yeah Mike!”
Yeah Mike was a term used mainly by Beastie Boys fans, I think. It was more of a white thug thing than black/latino thug thing. Along the same lines was “Sike your mind.” Siking somebody’s mind was like the worst thing in the world. Someone would trick you and say, “Sike your mind!” and you would get so fucking upset. “Yeah, Mike! You didn’t sike my mind!”
Smells (n.) – Cologne. “I’m serious, doo. She fucked Jay-Jay cause she liked his smells.”
In Junior High I heard someone use a word that I’ve never heard used before or ever again and I think he might have been trying it out. A thug walked over to my friend, while in the locker-room, and said, “Yo, son, I’m snorkeling your smells.” My friend had no idea what the fuck the guy was talking about. The thug just sort of stared at him for a second and then said, “Your cologne, nigga! Run your fucking cologne!”
My friend gave up the cologne and the word “snorkel” was retired, I think. Even funnier was the fact that my friends’ “smells” was a bottle of fucking Old Spice. Either the kid didn’t know or he just assumed we were stupid enough to pack Polo or Drakar. Or Cool Water, that was big then too. When did that Michael Jordon cologne come out? That shit was nasty.
Fuck, man, I gotta do a comic about Junior High.
Audi-5 (adj.) – Gone; Leaving. “For real, son, I’m audi-5.”
My father bought an Audi once. I shit you not; we had this beat up ‘ole red monster of a car for a long time. When it died, my pops bought an Audi. It was used, but still, we were po’ folk. Po’ folk don’t get Audis. But he was so proud of it. It was stolen about two weeks later. I believe he followed it up with another used car and then a new Camry, when he started making some good money.
Type – This is my all time favorite fucking slang. I still use it whenever I can and people rarely believe that this was actually used back in the day. You use it before an adjective…I can only explain it with examples. “Yo, that girl is type-nasty.” “That dude was type-crazy.” You get it? “That car is type-fast.” It is by far the biggest waste of a syllable ever in the history of wasted syllables. And that’s why it’s genius. It’s the way a 1950s robot would talk. It’s just fucking perfect.
There are so many more. Maybe I’ll do a part II of this sometime. For now, feel free to add you own “words/phrases that never made it”.
Labels: mitc
posted by Jason at
11:18 PM
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