LEARNING TOGETHER: The Story of America
From the 1939 Hepster Dictionary of Jive:
“Beat to my socks” means you’re broke.
“Blew their wigs” means excited with enthusiasm, gone crazy.
“Come again” means try it over, do better than you are doing, I don’t understand you.
“Fews and two” means money or cash in small quantity.
“Gimme some skin” means shake hands.
“Ground grippers” means new shoes.
“Hep cats” means a guy who knows all the answers, understands jive.
“Mash me a fin” means give me $5.
“Moo juice” means milk.
“Queen” means a beautiful girl.
“Rug cutter” a very good dancer, an active jitterbug.
“Skins” means drums.
“Sam got you” means you have been drafted into the army.
“Scratch” means folded or paper money.
“The man” means the law.
Black jive talk was a unique language developed by African Americans that gained popularity during the Jazz Age. Jive talk was fluid, ever changing, continuously evolving based on the situation and the speaker. There was a rhythm to jive. It separated the squares from the hipsters. It was an escape into a world of Black acceptance, where speaking jive didn’t demean the speaker, but instead the orator was welcomed into the community. By using jive lingo, African Americans could express our shared experiences, code our messages, and control our narratives. Black jive talk was creative, cool, joyful, funny, secretive, and it belonged to us…at least at first.
The origins of jive talk or some form of it can be traced as far back as West Africa during the slave trade. So jive talk wasn’t just a made-up language, but a dialect taken from the various tribes of enslaved people.
The word jive is also associated with a type of dance performed at jazz halls and swing clubs. These high-energy rhythmic movements can also be traced back to West African native dances.
However, it was Harlem jive talk that became popular during the Harlem Renaissance era. Jive talk rose at a time when some forms of Black upward mobility began to happen. Black pride, independence and self-determination pushed Black people to demand equality and justice in jobs, education, housing, etc. in America. In 1938, Cab Calloway, jazz bandleader, published a dictionary, “Cab Calloway’s Cat-ologue: A “Hepster’s” Dictionary, which helped to explain jive talk and how to use it.
Jive talk like so many other ideas, products, projects created by Black Americans, was pilfered, whitewashed, and repackaged for consumption by America’s white youth. No longer was the playing with words solely a “Black thing”. In the 50s, jive talk was spoken by the hipsters, the cool cats of poetry, and in the 60s it was the hippies who borrowed the language of cool…groovy. The phrase jive turkey was repeatedly used in the 70s and 80s, along with the phrase, the man.
But, like all exceptional ideas, items, concepts that are sanitized, normalized, and mass consumed, Black jive talk lost its coolness.
Thankfully, some forms of the beautiful rhythm and rhyme of jive talk lives on today. Black slang, jazz vernacular is still used in Rhythm and Blues music, smooth jazz songs, Blues lyrics, and even in hip-hop music.
Now that this blog has come to an end, this rug cutter needs to make some scratch. I don’t want to be beat to my socks. Fews and two in my pocket always makes me feel groovy. Why don’t you hep cats gimme some skin before this queen tries on her ground grippers while drinking moo juice.
OUR HISTORY MATTERS
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