Tuesday

"that's so ghetto"

Lately, I've noticed teenagers using the word "ghetto" as an adjective all the time, as in, "That's so ghetto."

I can't quite get a read on what they mean by "ghetto" these days, but apparently, to Hilary Duff, "ghetto" means AN AFFLUENT MARYLAND SUBURB.

10 comments:

karrie said...

Not unlike Britney Spears being "country." :)

Anonymous said...

Despite the numbers, Waldorf is still pretty busted-ass, if not exactly "ghetto."

Anonymous said...

How about some "ghetto lemonade"? Do you know what that is? Order water with lemon at restaurant then add sweet n low to make it lemonade, aka ghetto lemonade!

Anonymous said...

Do these lyrics help?



So Ghetto Lyrics
by Jay-Z

Back at'cha
How we do
Primo, Jigga-Man
History in the making
Let's go

Uhh, uh-huh-uh-UHH
Uh-huh-uh-uhh, uhh
I spit the murder-murder-murderous
Mur-mur-ma-murderous SHIT
Uh-huh-uh-huh-uh-huh-uh-UHH
I keep the gangsta-gangsta-gangsta
Gah-gah-ga-gangsta beat, feel me? Uhh
I spit that Brooklyn-Brooklyn-Brook
Uh-uhh, uh-huh-uh-uhh, uh-uhh
Uh-huh-UHH

Yo.. career crook, nobody rap Brooklyn like me
Jigga-Man, Volume 3, I'm back lookin like me
Stop the presses, baby girls, drop your dresses
B-K lick a shot for Big Pop' in heaven
Ever since I came through, niggaz got the impression
everything I drop, out of the question, stop the guessin
it's hot, flows provin I pack cause my dough's movin
My whole crew up in this muh'fucker
We spray corners, stand there like you got a cape on ya, fine
You'll be wearing a black suit a long time
I put your crew in hard bottoms
The priest is like, "God's got him
He never did nuttin to nobody but them boys shot him"
Brandish iron, outlandish buyin
Bentley Coupes, not braggin just simply the truth
We all from the ghetto, only difference, we go back
Back up in D&D on this Primo track, listen

Chorus: Jay-Z {scratching by DJ Premier}

I'm so gangsta prissy chicks don't wanna fuck with me
"Iceberg, Slim baby ride rims"
I'm so gutter, ghetto girls fall in love with me
"You know him well.." "..by the name of Jigga"
I'm so gangsta prissy chicks don't wanna fuck with me
"You can love me or hate me.." "..Jay-Z"
I'm so gutter, ghetto girls fall in love with me
"Roc-a-Fella lock the whole block down"

[Jay-Z]
Wednesday's I'm up in Shine, Cheetah's Monday night
I'm fuckin with the model chicks Friday night at light
So I'm cruisin in the car with this boozy broad
She said, "Jigga-Man you rich, take the doo-rag off"
Hit a U-turn; ma I'm droppin you back off
Front of the club, "Jigga why you do that for?"
Thug nigga til the end, tell a friend bitch
Won't change for no paper plus I been rich
Eighty-eight been hustlin, linen been crushin em
Women been fuckin them HUH?
You see I live for the love of the street
Rap to the ruggedest beats
Hall closet cluttered with heat
I spit that murder-murder-murder
that Brook-Brook-a-Brooklyn shit
Furthermore ma..
We tote guns to the Grammy's, pop bottles on the White House lawn
Guess I'm just the same old Shawn

Chorus

[Jay-Z]
I'm from the M-to-the-A-baby-R-C-Y
So it's hard for me to let the larceny die
Niggaz see me in the streets with no bodyguards
just two big guns that'll body your squad
Could niggaz be scheamin on me? Probably are
Think Jigga's a joke nigga? Hardy har
I spit Brook-Brook-Brooklyn every time I bust
Radio's gotta play me though I cuss too much
Magazine said I'm shallow, I never learned to swim
Still they put me on they cover cause I earn for them
Soon as I sell too much, watch them turn on him
cause that seem to be the shit that'll earn for them
I spit that murder-murder-murderous everytime a verbalist
iller than Verbal Kint is or O-Dog in "Menace"
I'm ill, start to finish, I rip apart contenders
I'm hot.. hehehehe..

Chorus

[Jay-Z]
I'm so gangsta prissy chicks don't wanna fuck with me, uhh
I'm so gutter, ghetto girls ..
Heheh, (uhh, uhh, uh-huh-uh-uhh), yeah
Uhh, yeah, funk, yeah, with me, yeah, beyotch, yeah
Jigga, yeah, Primo, yeah, gangsta, yeah, niggaz, yeah
Brooklyn, yeah

karrie said...

Those lyrics now have me confused about the definition of ghetto.

The ghetto lemonade comment is hilarious. Shouldn't real ghetto lemonade have a shot of cheap booze as well?

Anonymous said...

Karrie,
I'm old, so I could be wrong, here is my interpretation. ;-/

Being "Ghetto" is not a complement. It's said as an insult.
All the references in Jay z song are about dangerous ghetto neighborhoods in Brooklyn.

I think it is said to someone who leaves the ghetto but still does not know how to behave in situations outside their "hood", someone undereducated and entrenched in the life of street crime. Rappers use it towards each other when they make it big and become rich but their behavior reveals their roots from urban ghettos filled with poverty and crime.

Hillary Duff is an android created by her parents and Disney. Her overly ambitious involved in everything crap annoys me, and her weird boyfriend from that group Good Charlotte who is part of the Straight Edge cult Is not Ghetto!

karrie said...

I thought it was generally used (by teens anyway) as a a complimentary "insult." Something along the lines of hardcore or badass.

I'm old too though, Dewi, so your guess is as good as mine! ;)

Anonymous said...

Karrie,
We could both be right.
I think white kids in the suburbs are using it differently then actual teens who grew up in inner city ghettos.

My successful father used to refer to himself in this much kinder and gentler expression...
"You can take the boy out of Brooklyn, but you can't take Brooklyn out of the boy".

karrie said...

I agree that ghetto could also mean "busted down, brokeass_____" or some other negative.

My first thought was actually that teens use it the way that some use a word beginning with N as a way of bonding, when it may or may not also describe their own racial group when used as a slur. Or much like the way some women use words like c_nt to take back ownership from men using the term in a derogatory manner. Or to take it a step further, how some gay men call one another b*tch.

Make sense?

Anonymous said...

mommy its jane i just wanted to say that thats like a regular word now people arnt being racest or anything its like an adgictive now ok well bye!!!!!