The Dozens

From Two Live Crew s controversial comedy to Ice Cube s gangsta styling and the battle rhymes of a streetcorner cypher, rap has always drawn on deep traditions of African American poetic word play, In Talking Bout Your Mama, author Elijah Wald explores one of the most potent sources of rap the viciously funny, outrageously inventive insult game known as the dozens So what is the dozens At its simplest, it s a comic chain of yo mama jokes At its most complex, it s an intricate form of social interaction that reaches back to African ceremonial rituals Wald traces the tradition of African American street rhyming and verbal combat that has ruled urban neighborhoods since the early 1900s Whether considered vernacular poetry, aggressive dueling, a test of street cool, or just a mess of dirty insults, the dozens is a basic building block of African American culture A game which could inspire raucous laughter or escalate to violence, it provided a wellspring of rhymes, attitude, and raw humor that has influenced pop musicians from Jelly Roll Morton and Robert Johnson to Tupac Shakur and Jay Z Wald goes back to the dozens roots, looking at mother insulting and verbal combat from Greenland to the sources of the Niger, and shows its breadth of influence in the seminal writings of Richard Wright, Langston Hughes, and Zora Neale Hurston the comedy of Richard Pryor and George Carlin the dark humor of the blues the hip slang and competitive jamming of jazz and in its ultimate evolution into the improvisatory battling of rap From schoolyard games and rural work songs to urban novels and nightclub comedy, and pop hits from ragtime to rap, Wald uses the dozens as a lens to provide new insight into over a century of African American culture A groundbreaking work, Talking Bout Your Mama is an essential book for anyone interested in African American cultural studies, history and linguistics, and the origins of rap music. New Download The Dozens [ author ] Elijah Wald [ Kindle ePUB or eBook ] – kino-fada.fr Great scholarship on the history of the dozensThe title is a bit misleading as Rap is discussed as about 5 10% of the total text, because the historical precedents are actually muchinteresting rooting back into the Jazz era, the writing, the music, the survival strategy aspects of slipping into the dozens, of testing boundaries and affirming friendships and outing aggressorsjust dope all around.I grew up talking shit and capping clowning my friends, talking up and down about thei Great scholarship on the history of the dozensThe title is a bit misleading as Rap is discussed as about 5 10% of the total text, because the historical precedents are actually muchinteresting rooting back into the Jazz era, the writing, the music, the survival strategy aspects of slipping into the dozens, of testing boundaries and affirming friendships and outing aggressorsjust dope all around.I grew up talking shit and capping clowning my friends, talking up and down about their mothers in the most debased sexist, racist, juvenile and CREATIVE ways You grew to know when too much was too much, and we all grew thick skins and THAT kept us out of trouble with folks who didn t know us like that And one of the fondest memories of my high school years was when all these s...Wald writes academically about aspects of American culture that aren t often afforded the treatment, which means he s doing important and occasionally groundbreaking work while never being quite as entertaining or engaging as his subjects would seem to...Wald s always pleasurable reading In depth research, lots of laughs.Gave me repartee ideas for putting my wise a. buddies in their place.notes preface viichoices madepreserve original language, even if sexist, racist, homophobicetc effective, objective handling of offensiveness.4..1st written reference 1921, chris smith song don t slip me in the dozens NBA standard trash talking10. 47, black mocking signifying songs similar to African songs of derision.also, wa wa trump Wald s always pleasurable reading In depth research, lots of laughs.Gave me repartee ideas for putting my wise a. buddies in their place.notes preface viichoices madepreserve original language, even if sexist, racist, homophobicetc effective, objective handling of offensiveness.4..1st written reference 1921, chris smith song don t slip me in the dozens NBA standard trash talking10. 47, black mocking signifying songs similar to African songs of derision.also, wa wa trumpet in jazz blues15..interpretations predatory bullying, or survival of an ancient African tradition17..a way to feel importantmost of us ain t goin nowhere in this world, ain t goin to do much better than we re doin now51 52..often used c ck to mean vulva, not penis c sucker can mean man performing cunnilin gus Ancient euphemism, abbrev of cockle , or scallop shell, symbol of f...I came across a reference to the dozens in something I read and I was fascinated because I had never heard the term Probably because I m an old white lady This book is tracing a cultural phenomenon of a game played in a group, usually for a group, of throwing insults about a person s mama or family back and forth until one person is declared winner These games can be fun and humorous, but can also lead to physical violence The author likens the game to jazz, as well as r...I enjoy everything the author writes I could not wait to get into this book give yourself and hour or so uninterrupted once you get into it you will not stop his books just flow This book was fascinating.gave insight on the way we communicate as black men Shows that nurturing is a trait in black men like any men , but it expressed in a different way could be considered harsh by some I like that Wald wasn t pretentious in explaining the topic and gave multiple points of Views I gotta ...Brings back childhood memories.Truly the best book ever on the pre history, history, literary use of, musical recording of, phenomenology of, and everything else you could think of, of insulting people s mamas Light footed, funny, and scholarly, too Pursues lots of different ideas of what they mean, includes multicultural insults including people doing the deed in Turkish , and scholarship on the relation of folk to commercial culture And since Wald knows a billion things about the old blues circuit see his excellent boo Truly the best book ever on the pre history, history, literary use of, musical recording of, phenomenology of, and everything else y...I agree with another good reads review that calls the book often frustratingly dry, especially given the vibrantly raunchy subject matter The author is an academic often uses words that I ve never even heard of before, forget knowing their definition For example, sequelae is used in the preface lagniappe is used in the last chapter I ve since looked up both words but I just skipped over many others I like having a big vocabulary myself, but it just seemed extra obnoxious in the I agree with another good reads review that calls the book often frustratingly dry, especially given the vibrantly raunchy subject matter The author is an academic often uses words that I ve never even heard of before, forget knowing their definition For example, sequelae is used in the preface lagniappe is used in the last chapter I ve since looked up ...I picked up this book thinking it was going to focus on the Dozens s relationship to rap, but it did not do that At all.This isof an academic look at the linguistics of insult battles, but Wald can often be found hedging any kind of concrete conclusions about the origins of certain stanzas or lines It is not uncommon in the book to find qualifying lines like It may be. or It is possible that The book is also very slow reading It s only 200 pages, but it feels much longer than tha I picked up this book thinking it was going to focus on the Dozens s relationship to rap, but it did not do that At all.This isof an academic look at the linguistics of insult battles, but Wald can often be found hedging any...

• English
• 15 June 2017
Elijah Wald
• Hardcover
• 244 pages
• 0199895406
• Elijah Wald
• The Dozens