Yo Mama!: New Raps, Toasts, Dozens, Jokes, And - Softcover

Jemie, Onwuchekwa

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1592130291 ISBN 13: 9781592130290

Publisher: Temple University Press, 2003

Synopsis

Collected primarily in metropolitan New York and Philadelphia during the classic era of black "street poetry" (i.e., during the late 1960s and early 1970s) these raps, signifyings, toasts, boasts, jokes and children's rhymes will delight general readers as well as scholars. Ranging from the simple rhymes that accompany children's games to verbally inventive insults and the epic exploits of traditional characters like Shine and Stagger Lee, these texts sound the deep rivers of culture, echoing two continents. Onwuchekwa Jemie's introductory essay situates them in a globally pan-African context and relates them to more recent forms of oral culture such as rap and spoken word.

About this title

About the Author

Onwuchekwa Jemie teaches African American and African Literature at Howard University. He is the author of Langston Hughes: An Introduction to the Poetry and co-author of Toward the Decolonization of African Literature.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

I HATE BOSCO

I hate Bosco
It's no good for me
My mother poured
some in my milk
To try to poison me
But I fooled my mother
I poured some in her tea
Now I don't have no mother
To try to poison me

"Knock, knock."
"Who's there?"
"Yo." [or "Joe"]
"Yo who?"
"Yo' ma!"

"Ain't you mama... ?"
"Ain't my mama what?"
"Ain't you mama on the cornbread box?"
[picture of Aunt Jemima]

You ain't ugly, you're yugly.

Edition details

• Publisher: Temple University Press
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1592130291
• ISBN 13: 9781592130290
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 280