Imma gonna try to flip the script. {"flip the script"- Hip-Hopese for "turning the conversation around"; "introducing a different way of looking at a subject"}

Instead of thinking that people are using slang to exclude others, isn't it possible that some people use slang as an expression of creativity and/or a way of showing off their 'hipness' {their up to dateness with the latest word fashions}

It seems to me that the creative use of slang {or-put another way-slang use as a creative activity} should be a no-brainer for a folk music community since songs and words have something in common
{Gee, I wonder what?}

And maybe the desire to be creative and/or hip isn't only a people thing. Maybe words themselves have this same desire.

Maybe words like people to play with them and change them and update them so that they [the words]can be considered hip. Or maybe words want to be used differently or more than one definitions or have their meanings change because if that doesn't happen they [the words] may be 'kicked to the curb' {meaning=retired; withdrawn from usage; go where all old timey, old fashioned, old hoopty words go-THE WORD GRAVEYARD.

To get a sense of where I'm comin from, check out this website:
Dictionary of Jive Talk made me think of this idea.

And to give you some sense of that site's flava, check out this introductory description:
(A selection of uptown and downtown jive talk drawn from the compilations of Dan Burley, Cab Calloway and Bill Treadwell . Like all languages it is not just a question of understanding individual words but comprehending them when they are put together in regular speech! Nevertheless the amazing thing is how many of these words have become Standard English, and are even used for academic purposes!)

-snip-

Here's another excerpt from that Jive {Swing} Talkin Site:

"Swing talk is a loose, vivid, living language. It does not and cannot stand still; it partakes of the dynamics of our time. New words are forever entering the fold, old words departing or changing. Thrown up out of this flux are the following meanings of the moment. Take them for what they are: words, twisting and turning, seeking to find fresh, unique modes of expression that will embody the nuance and spirit of a modern, tradition-smashing music."

-snip-

Now I'm not sayin that I know anything about jive talkin. As a matter of fact, the 'jive' these people are talkin about is different from what I usually mean by 'jive talkin'. In my neighborhood {which some might call "the 'hood"}, a person talkin jive is talkin trash which means he or she aint sayin nothin I wanna hear. And where I live, if a person, place, or thing is 'jive', that means they aint any good.

But once upon a time, some people thought it was good to be 'jive' or to talk jive. I think they were called hipsters..[Well go on with ya bad self!!]

Creative Black Jazz musicians created jive talk {which admittedly was an 'in language' but that didn't mean it wasn't creative}. And people danced to the music these jive talkin jazz musicians played {Wow! Dancing to Jazz!! What a concept!}

But then somehow the music and the dance got divorced. And many Black people turned their backs on Jazz music and moved on to other newly created dances [some with old names, and most with old steps changed up or kept the same].

And now I see White people have changed 'jive' to 'swing'.

After all "It don't mean ah thing if it aint got that swing."

I can dig it. Or at least I'm tryin to get into the swing of it all.

What about you?




Azizi