HipHop Leprechaun in Mobile, Alabama

Subject: HipHop Leprechaun in Mobile, Alabama
From: PoppaGator
Date: 19 Apr 06 - 03:25 AM

First watch the actual news footage from local news in Mobile, Alabama, a day or two before St. Patrick's Day:

Channel 15 news story

There's at least one other report that aired on another station, too:

More Leprechaun News

Now you're ready to check out the hiphop video mix, posted to the internet not long afterwards:

Gimme The Gold

This seems to be authentic, not a hoax. (Well, I'm not saying that the leprechaun really exists, but this "news event" apparently actually made it to the air on at least two local stations, and some creative young person apparently saw this "news" and then conceived the song/video.) If it was a hoax in the sense of being staged to attract the newscasters' attention for purposes of promoting a preconceived musical presentation, that would be amazing beyond belief.

A note to you foreigners in other outposts of the English-speaking world, who might not be able to understand the local folks being interviewed: this is actual African-American English, as spoken here on the Gulf Coast. It's undeniably rhythmic, isn't it, and arguably quite melodic as well ~ the "songwriter"/video producer found it pretty easy to weave his samples together into a coherent piece, without even any key changes.

Not only did I find this absolutely hilarious, I also seem to have found a new grudging appreciation for hiphop, which I never liked or understood in the least until now. This particular piece really tickled me, and I can kinda see what all the hype is about.

PS ~ My feelings won't be hurt if this is reassigned to "BS," but I submit that this is a music topic, not non-music at all...

Subject: RE: HipHop Leprechaun in Mobile, Alabama
From: Ernest
Date: 19 Apr 06 - 11:42 AM

HipHop Leprechauns are easy to recognize: they always carry a full volume big bog-blaster...

Subject: RE: HipHop Leprechaun in Mobile, Alabama
From: Ernest
Date: 20 Apr 06 - 06:05 AM

blasting away "Mary-Mac`s mother making Mary-Mac marry me / my mother`s making me marry Mary-Mac / I´m gonna marry Mary cause Mary `s taking care of me / we all be making merry when I marry Mary-Mac/ etc.

Subject: RE: HipHop Leprechaun in Mobile, Alabama
From: Azizi
Date: 20 Apr 06 - 08:14 AM

I applaud the creativity of the hip-hop video even more than the song. I also found it interesting that one Black man was carrying a flute that he said was generations old and given to him by his Irish ancestor.

I also noted that the leprechaun was supposedly seen up in a very tall tree-I'm not sure how Irish that belief is {somehow I always associated leprechauns with hiding behind bushes near the ground}.

But belief in spirits inhabiting trees is very much a part of traditional African religion. Some trees are more sacred than others because they are the abode of a spirit or spirits. And that belief traveled to the Caribbean and to the USA South with enslaved African Americans.

See this excerpt from this article: http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/caribarch/Ceiba.htm

"Various beliefs in supernatural spirits were brought to the West Indies from Africa by enslaved peoples. It is likely that these beliefs also were influenced in the 16th century by the last remaining native peoples One of the modern words for spirits of the dead in the West Indies -- Obeah -- may originally have come from the Taino name (see Zombi for another example). In 1936, Anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston received a Guggenheim Fellowship to study Obeah in the West Indies. She lived in Jamaica from April to September and attended numerous local ceremonies. Jamaicans believe that "duppies" (spirits of the dead) live mostly in silk cotton trees and almond trees. For that reason neither tree should be planted too close to the house because the duppies who live in them will "throw heat" on the people as they come and go. Duppies are responsible for various kinds of mischief and can hurt a living person such that medicinal cures (including "balm baths") must be sought from local healers who serve as both "doctor and priest." We should keep in mind that while modern Jamaicans recognize that belief in duppies is a part of their heritage, the practices associated with these beliefs have faded with time.

-snip-

This online article about the silk cotton tree also talks about the Taino {of the West Indies} belief in tree spirits and other spirits. With regard to the traditional African belief, I'm not sure if there is/was any specific spirit that was associated with a pot of gold, but certainly Ghana, West Africa and other parts of Africa} are known for their gold deposits. And praying/singing/dancing/invoking spirits & gods who received their powers from a Supreme Deity was said to help a person get and keep wealth is an integral part of traditional African religions.

Subject: RE: HipHop Leprechaun in Mobile, Alabama
From: Azizi
Date: 20 Apr 06 - 09:19 AM

Warning: thread drift-at least sorta.

Ernest, your reference to "Mary Mac" may have been tongue in cheek", but I'm interested in the connection between the "Mary Mac marry me" song and the very widely known {among many African American adults and children anyway}children's rhyme {Miss} Mary Mack [also known as "Old Mary Mack", "Mary Mack" etc}.

The verses for this rhyme as I learned them in Atlantic City, New Jersey in the 1950s and as I hear them in Pittsburgh, PA in the 1980s to date, are [with the minor Pittsburgh changes in brackets]:

Miss Mary Mary Maack Mack Mack
all dressed in black black black
with silver buckels [buttons] buckels, buckles, buckels
all down her back back back

She asked her mother mother mother
for 15 [50] cents cents cents
to see the elephant elephant elephant
jumpt the fence fence fence

He jumped so high high high
He touched the sky sky sky
and he never came back back back
till the 4th of July ly ly

-snip

I don't remember doing a handclap or any other movement to this "song" but I've seen it performed as a two partner, three person, and four person {to sets of partners alternating handclaps in Pittsburgh and elsewhere. One book I read "Negro Folk Songs-USA" by Courlander, though I muight be mistaken about the author-noted that Mary Mack was a children's line game.

There are other floating verses to this song, depending on what region one lives in. For instance, the July won't walk/July won't talkJuly won't eat with a knive and folk" and "she went upstairs to make her bed/bumped her head on a piece of corn bread" and the "went to the river but couldn't get across" series of rhymes...

I remember reading somewhere that Mary Mac[k] was an English {Bristish?} riddle for coffin. Has any one else heard this? Also, there is a "song" entitled "The Elephant" in Thomas W. Talley which starts with the rhyme about [the girl?] asking her mother for 15 cents to see the elephant jump the fence, and the elephant not coming back until July. However, that song does not include any reference to Mary Mack.

I'm curious how these two rhymes got so intrically linked together.

Subject: RE: HipHop Leprechaun in Mobile, Alabama
From: Azizi
Date: 20 Apr 06 - 09:55 AM

Sorry- I made a number of typos in my last post. Here's a correction for one of them:

"July won't walk/July won't talk/July won't eat with a knife and fork"

I've also seen this as July can't eat" etc

Subject: RE: HipHop Leprechaun in Mobile, Alabama
From: Kaleea
Date: 20 Apr 06 - 01:18 PM

Sure, and the wee folk do love a good joke. I think it's actually my wee cousin Shorty Flannigan from just outside of Atlanta who always preferred to live in a treehouse. Low self esteem from being short led him to a life spent mostly in hiding. Come to think of it, Shorty loves HipHop. And gold. And the picture looks just like him . ..