Bling-bling
Encyclopedia
Slang
Slang is the use of informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's language or dialect but are considered more acceptable when used socially. Slang is often to be found in areas of the lexicon that refer to things considered taboo...
term popularized in hip hop
Hip hop
Hip hop is a form of musical expression and artistic culture that originated in African-American and Latino communities during the 1970s in New York City, specifically the Bronx. DJ Afrika Bambaataa outlined the four pillars of hip hop culture: MCing, DJing, breaking and graffiti writing...
culture, referring to flashy, ostentatious or elaborate jewelry and ornamented accessories that are carried, worn or installed, such as cell phones
Mobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
or tooth caps
Grill (jewelry)
thumb|A gold dental grillIn hip hop culture, a grill is a type of jewelry worn over the teeth. Grills are made of metal and are generally removable. They began to be worn by hip hop artists in the early 1980s, but they became widely popular during the mid-2000s due to the rise of Dirty South rap...
.
Origins and popularization of the term
In linguisticsLinguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
terms, bling bling is an ideophone
Ideophone
Ideophones are words used by speakers to evoke a vivid impression of certain sensation or sensory perceptions, e.g. smell, color, shape, sound, action, or movement. Ideophones are attested in all languages of the world, however, languages differ in the extent to which they make use of them...
intended to evoke the "sound" of light hitting silver, platinum, or diamonds. It is not an onomatopoeia, because the act of jewelry shining does not make a sound. The form bling-bling is a case of reduplication
Reduplication
Reduplication in linguistics is a morphological process in which the root or stem of a word is repeated exactly or with a slight change....
.
Lil Wayne
Dwayne Michael Carter, Jr. , better known by his stage name Lil Wayne, is an American rapper. At the age of nine, Lil Wayne joined Cash Money Records as the youngest member of the label, and half of the duo, The B.G.'z, with B.G.. In 1997, Lil Wayne joined the group Hot Boys, which also included...
once claimed to have "invented" the word one night in the studio. However, this particular ideophone was already in use some 35 years earlier, and was in usage in rap
Rap
Rap may refer to:*Rapping, performance in which rhyming lyrics are used, with or without musical accompaniment ; while an MC performs spoken verses in time to a beat/ melody**Hip hop subculture**Hip hop music...
songs such as Slick Rick
Slick Rick
Richard Walters , better known by his stage name Slick Rick is a Grammy-nominated English-American rapper...
's 1988 single "Mona Lisa
The Great Adventures of Slick Rick
-Samples used:*"Children's Story" samples "Think " by Lyn Collins & "Nautilus" by Bob James*"The Moment I Feared" samples "Funky Drummer" by James Brown", "Take Me to the Mardi Gras" by Bob James & "Peter Piper" by Run-D.M.C....
." During the mid- to late 1960s, toothpaste maker Ultra Brite
Ultra Brite
Ultra Brite is an American toothpaste and tooth-whitener marketed by Colgate-Palmolive in the United States. Ultra Brite gained popularity during the 1970's with a commercial that stated, "Ultra Brite gives your mouth...[bling]...sex appeal!" It was introduced as an imitator of Maclean's adult...
ran a series of commercials stating, "Ultrabrite gives your mouth...[ping]...sex appeal!" Before the words "sex appeal", a bell sound was heard as a young man or woman smiled. Comedians such as Martin Lawrence
Martin Lawrence
Martin Fitzgerald Lawrence is an American actor, film director, film producer, screenwriter, and stand up comedian. He came to fame during the 1990s, establishing a Hollywood career as a leading actor, most notably the films Bad Boys, Blue Streak, and Big Momma's House...
parodied the "Ultrabrite smile" by vocalizing the sound effect as both "bling-bling," and "bling-blauw." The term was used in this way to describe a gaudy piece of jewelry, for example the otherwise rotten gold-toothed smile and stereotypical pimp jewelry of the character "Jerome" on the television series Martin
Martin (TV series)
Martin is an American sitcom produced by HBO Independent Productions that aired for five seasons, from August 27, 1992 to May 1, 1997 on Fox...
. Jesse West (known as rapper 3rd Eye) is cited as perhaps the first rapper to use the complete term "bling bling" on Super Cat
Super Cat
Super Cat is a deejay most popular during the late 1980s and early 1990s dancehall movement. Super Cat was born in Jamaica and was nicknamed Wild Apache. His nickname, the "Wild Apache" was given to him by his mentor Early B...
's 1993 hit "Dolly My Baby (Remix)" - a song that West produced, and also featured Puff Daddy and a young Biggie Smalls in his record debut. The term was further popularized in 1999 when the song "Bling Bling"
Bling Bling (song)
"Bling Bling" is a song by New Orleans rapper B.G., released as the first single from his fifth studio album Chopper City in the Ghetto. It features Hot Boys and Big Tymers. The song peaked at #36 on the Billboard Hot 100, making it B.G.'s most successful single to date...
by rap artist B.G.
B.G. (rapper)
Christopher Dorsey , better known by his stage name B.G. , is an American rapper and actor, from New Orleans, Louisiana. He began his music career signed to Cash Money Records in 1993 with Lil Wayne as half of the duo The B.G.'z...
featuring the Cash Money Millionaires
Cash Money Millionaires
Cash Money Millionaires was a group of Cash Money rappers from New Orleans, Louisiana formed in 1995 and broke up in 2001. The group consisted rappers Birdman, Juvenile, Lil Wayne, Mannie Fresh, B.G. and Young Turk....
cracked the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
; the chorus of the song featured a young Lil' Wayne rapping "Everytime I come around your city bling bling; Pinky ring worth about 50 bling bling; Everytime I buy a new ride bling bling; Lorenzos on Yokahama tires bling bling." Late rapper 2 Pac mentioned bling in the song called "Fuck Friendz" of his posthumous album Until the End of Time. He goes by saying "Check out my - diamonds bitch everyone gonna blink (bling bling bling)". The song was recorded around 1995 or 1996.
While the specific term bling was first popularized in the hip hop community, it has spread beyond hip hop culture and into mass culture. This is similar to the meteoric rise of hip hop music itself, which has led to its most popular artists becoming mainstream pop music icons. "Bling" was added to the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary
Shorter Oxford English Dictionary
The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, often abbreviated to SOED, is a scaled-down version of the Oxford English Dictionary . It comprises two volumes rather than the twenty needed for the full second edition of the OED...
in 2002 and to the Merriam Webster dictionary in 2006. Companies such as Sprint and Cadillac have used the word bling in their advertisements. During a 2008 Martin Luther King, Jr. Day parade in Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Florida in terms of both population and land area, and the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. It is the county seat of Duval County, with which the city government consolidated in 1968...
, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney
Mitt Romney
Willard Mitt Romney is an American businessman and politician. He was the 70th Governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007 and is a candidate for the 2012 Republican Party presidential nomination.The son of George W...
admired a baby decked in dress attire with gold jewelry and said, "Oh, you've got some bling-bling here." In 2004, MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
released a satirical cartoon showing the term being used first by a rapper and then by several progressively less "streetwise" characters, concluding with a middle-aged white woman describing her earrings to her elderly mother. It ended with the statement, "RIP
Headstone
A headstone, tombstone, or gravestone is a marker, usually stone, that is placed over a grave. In most cases they have the deceased's name, date of birth, and date of death inscribed on them, along with a personal message, or prayer.- Use :...
bling-bling 1997-2003." In 2005, the rapper B.G. remarked that he "just wished that he'd trademarked it" so that he could have profited. Like many cases of once-exclusive vernacular that becomes mainstream, the views of the originators towards the term have changed significantly over the years. On VH1
VH1
VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...
's Why You Love Hip-Hop, rapper Fat Joe
Fat Joe
Joseph Antonio Cartagena , better known by his stage name Fat Joe, is an American rapper, CEO of Terror Squad Entertainment, and member of musical groups D.I.T.C. and Terror Squad....
stated, "rappers don't call jewelry 'bling' anymore, we just call 'em "diamonds"."
In other languages
The term has also spread to Spanish: rappers use the term in Latin hip-hop and in reggaetonReggaeton
Reggaeton is a form of Puerto Rican and Latin American urban and Caribbean music. After its mainstream exposure in 2004, it spread to North American, European and Asian audiences. Reggaeton originated in Puerto Rico but is also has roots from Reggae en Español from Panama and Puerto Rico and...
from Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
and Panama
Panama
Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
, although it is usually written and pronounced "blin-blin". The Spanish word blinblineo is also used to refer to bling-bling style. The term is used in French traditionally to describe nouveau riche
Nouveau riche
The nouveau riche , or new money, comprise those who have acquired considerable wealth within their own generation...
attitudes; such as "wearing expensive suits, stylish sunglasses and conspicuously large wristwatches" or anything that is ostentatious and can be considered of "poor taste".
Criticism
Chuck D
Carlton Douglas Ridenhour , better known by his stage name, Chuck D, is an American rapper, author, and producer. He helped create politically and socially conscious rap music in the mid-1980s as the leader of the rap group Public Enemy.- Early life :Ridenhour was born in Queens, New York...
, explains how diamonds (a staple of bling fashion) occasionally originate as blood diamonds, fueling wars, poverty, slavery and killings in Africa.
Bling: A Planet Rock (2007) documents the flashy world of commercial hip-hop jewelry against the significant role diamonds play in the ten-year civil war in Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone , officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the north and east, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west and southwest. Sierra Leone covers a total area of and has an estimated population between 5.4 and 6.4...
, West Africa. The movie follows three hip-hop celebrities: Raekwon
Raekwon
Corey Woods , better known by the stage name Raekwon, is an American rapper and a member of the Wu-Tang Clan. He released his solo debut, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... in 1995, and has since recorded four solo albums, as well as work with Wu-Tang and an extensive amount of guest contributions with...
(Wu-Tang Clan), Paul Wall
Paul Wall
Paul Michael Slayton , better known by his stage name Paul Wall, is an American rapper. He is currently affiliated with Swishahouse Records, having released several albums under the label as well as...
(maker of diamond grills), and Reggaetón
Reggaeton
Reggaeton is a form of Puerto Rican and Latin American urban and Caribbean music. After its mainstream exposure in 2004, it spread to North American, European and Asian audiences. Reggaeton originated in Puerto Rico but is also has roots from Reggae en Español from Panama and Puerto Rico and...
king Tego Calderón
Tego Calderón
Tegui Calderón Rosario is a Puerto Rican rapper and actor.-Early life:Calderón was born in Santurce, Puerto Rico, the son of Pilar Rosario Parrilla, a schoolteacher, and Esteban Calderón Ilarraza, a government worker for Puerto Rico's Department of Health. Moving at a young age from his native...
as they visit the capital of Freetown
Freetown
Freetown is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone, a country in West Africa. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean located in the Western Area of the country, and had a city proper population of 772,873 at the 2004 census. The city is the economic, financial, and cultural center of...
to meet the community and survey the devastation caused by the diamond mines.
Several hip hop insiders, such as the members of Public Enemy and the Puerto Rican reggaeton star Tego Calderon, have made the deliberate choice not to don expensive jewelry as a statement against bling culture. Missy Elliott stated in the aforementioned interview that hip hop artists should act as role model
Role model
The term role model generally means any "person who serves as an example, whose behaviour is emulated by others".The term first appeared in Robert K. Merton's socialization research of medical students...
s in this respect and encourage young people to invest responsibly and sensibly in stable, long-term assets.
Even more controversial is the value of bling bling in South African hip hop (kwaito
Kwaito
Kwaito is a music genre that emerged in Johannesburg, South Africa, during the 1990s. It is a variant of house music featuring the use of African sounds and samples. Typically at a slower tempo range than other styles of house music, Kwaito often contains catchy melodic and percussive loop samples,...
) aesthetics. Before, during, and after Apartheid, South Africans have been exploited for their land's precious gems and metals. Gavin Steingo has stated, "It truly is tragic that many young South Africans have embraced the Western gold fetish: a fetish which prizes gold as nothing more than a label of ostentatious wealth." Kwaito continues to show the conspicuous consumption that originated in Black American Hip Hop, despite its relations to blood diamonds.
See also
- AffluenzaAffluenzaAffluenza, from affluence and influenza, is a term used by critics of capitalism and consumerism. Sources define it as follows:Proponents of the term consider that the prizing of endless increases in material wealth may lead to feelings of worthlessness and dissatisfaction rather than experiences...
- Campy
- ChavChavA chav is a term that is used in the United Kingdom to describe a stereotype of teenagers and young adults from an underclass background.-Etymology:...
- Commodity fetishismCommodity fetishismIn Marx's critique of political economy, commodity fetishism denotes the mystification of human relations said to arise out of the growth of market trade, when social relationships between people are expressed as, mediated by and transformed into, objectified relationships between things .The...
- Conspicuous consumptionConspicuous consumptionConspicuous consumption is spending on goods and services acquired mainly for the purpose of displaying income or wealth. In the mind of a conspicuous consumer, such display serves as a means of attaining or maintaining social status....
- Diamonds as an investmentDiamonds as an investment-History:Diamonds have been treasured as gemstones since the ancient times. Popularity of diamonds has risen since the 19th century because of successful advertising in spite of a greatly increased supply. Diamonds are not normally used as a mainline store of value during times of crisis, because...
- Hip-hop culture
- Status symbolStatus symbolA status symbol is a perceived visible, external denotation of one's social position and perceived indicator of economic or social status. Many luxury goods are often considered status symbols...