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Hula
Hula, Version 1
Category: (introduction/confrontation) Street Cheer
Source: Azizi Powell Collection,1995 {Pittsburgh, PA, mid.1980s;
Tazi Powell}
Group
Hula Hula.
Who think they bad?
Soloist #1
I do.
Group
Hula Hula.
Who think they bad?
Soloist #1
I do.
Well, I think I’m bad cause
Keisha’s my name
and love is my game.
I got this boy on my mind
and Lord knows he’s fine.
I got his name on my
shirt
and don’t call it dirt.
Group
Ooh, she thinks she’s bad.
Soloist #1 Correction,
baby I KNOW I’m bad.
Group
Ooh, she thinks she’s fine.
Soloist #1 Fine
enough to blow YOUR mind.
(Repeat entire chant with next soloist)
“Hula Hula” is one of
my favorite street cheers.. I
wrote down this introduction/confrontation
style street cheer from my daughter, Tazi Powell in 1995.
Tazi also remembers a
slightly different version of this chant that she and her friends used to
do. I also found another
slightly different example of this cheer in Barbara Michels and Bettye
Pinkney’s wonderful 1983 collection
of Black children's rhymes and chants from Houston, Texas, Apples On
A Stick (New York, Coward-McCann,
p 13).
The
word “hula” may refer to “hula hoops”, those wide plastic circular
tubes that used to be a popular toy in the 1970s.
Children and adults would have lots of fun trying to keep hula
hoops spinning around their waist, arms, necks or legs.
The word “hula” may also refer to the dance that is a traditional
dance of Hawaiian
people. Or
the word “hula” may just be used because it sounds good. The
word is repeated to enhance its rhythmic potential.
“Hula
Hula” demonstrates how cheers can help children develop and reinforce
their self-esteem. When the
group asks “Who thinks they bad?”, a soloist quickly says “I do”.
“Bad” is an African American slang term for “good.”
To use another outdated African American slang phrase, someone who
is “bad”
is "all that and a bag of chips".
Drama is an important part of
performing these cheers. When it’s her turn to be the soloist, even more
than before, a girl is expected to act out her part and show "attitude". When they the
group says
“and when I twist like this..”, they are doing a hip shaking motion.
And when they say “I break down like a worm”, they are really
showing off their best (and sexiest) dancing skills. At this time, the
girls are not necessarily doing the same dance, or they are not
necessarily doing the same dance the same way. But, when the cheer begins
with the next soloist, they will all return right
back to the step. The cheer continues until everyone has had one
turn as soloist.
Hula Hula’s beat is stomp, clap, stomp stomp
clap.
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