The Theatrical and Ritual Aesthetics of Signifying

Signifying is a way people (usually in a weak position) use coded language to fool a person (usually in a position of power) who doesn't understand the play on words. The origin of signifying goes back to the African tale of the Signifying Monkey. The Signifying Monkey is a trickster figure of Yoruba mythology; also called Esu-Elegbara in Nigeria and Legaba among the Fon in Dahomey. Signifying uses one word, preserves its original meaning, but puts another oppositional layer of meaning over it. The word is both literal and figurative. Here is how Henry Louis Gates, Jr. interprets the Signifying Monkey tales:

The signifying monkey invariable repeats to his friend, the Lion, some insult purportedly generated by their mutual friend, the Elephant. The Monkey, however, speaks figuratively. The Lion, indignant and outraged, demands an apology of the Elephant, who refuses and then trounces the Lion. The Lion, realizing that his mistake was to take the Monkey literally, returns to trounce the Monkey. It is this relationship between the literal and the figurative, and the dire consequences of their confusion, which is the most striking repeated element of these tales. The Monkey's trick depends on the Lion's inability to mediate between these two poles of signification, of meaning. (p.55)

The Signifying Monkey is an embodiment of the poor man's values and dreams: He is weak and only has his speaking skills (slang Ð''mouthpiece') to survive on, and he uses it to play the powers of the jungle against one another. The same way a pimp survives on his Ð''mouthpiece' by using fast talk, sweet talk, jive, and jaw-blockin'.

The term signifying refers to the playful, humorous indirection or innuendo, the talking around an implied meaning, the ambiguous metaphor, the invective that only works if the opponent lacks humor and responds in a literal fashion. Signifying is an attitude toward language, but it is also a social gambit: signifying enables the man and the woman of words to challenge and criticize without becoming committed to any particular claim or meaning: for only the response will tell. For instance, if I say, Ð''Yo mama so old, her social security number is Ð''1'", and you say, Ð''Fuck you, man", you've lost, you took what was in the figurative and put it in the literal thus committing yourself to the fact that your mom is old. Now, if you reply, "well YO mama so old, when she was in school there was no history class", or "yo mama so old, when God said Ð''let there be light' she hit the switch" then the signifying can continue. This is called Capping, Joning, Ranking, Ripping, Snapping, Dissing, and a number of other terms, depending on where you're from.

Hip Hop Battles have become a way of signifying. In one of the segments from the Hip Hop Battle at the Blue Gator on Monday, March 1 2004, an M.C. brags about his t-shirt; but he also includes some Ð''sampled' rhymes by Common in his performance. The challenging M.C. signifies on him:

M.C. 1 ...See this shirt it says Kenko with a K

can't test this, man I swear...

M.C. 2 You got perfect timing

but I admit I love to see fat people rhymin'.

You gotta battle me, you sound so sloppy!

The K stands for Kinko's for the rhymes that you copy!

Here we see that the second M.C. takes a phrase from the prior M.C.'s rhymes, but he turns it around and against him. At the same time, he demonstrates what are legitimate and illegitimate uses of language, specifically of language used by others: you can Ð''cite' words or phrases, but you can't just copy them, you must do something to them like alter them or add to them.

There is signifying in music as well. Signifying and indirection puts black music in square opposition to the European tradition of music, specifically classical music, which is a tradition of writing. In European classical music, there is one author, the composer, who writes a text or score. The role of the performer is to reproduce or enact the score literally, that is, to be as truthful as possible to the author-composerÐ'â„-s intent as it is embodied in the score. There is very little room for variation. In the African-American tradition, and most noticeably in jazz, just the opposite is the case: you cite a theme (or someone else's solo) but you modify it, embellish it, signify upon it. Jazz, in other words, never has just one author, there really is no distinction between composer and performer; rather, the entire tradition of the music is the author.

Syncopation also is often a musical form of signifying: instead of playing on the beat, the musician plays "against" the beat, but in a way which keeps the beat in play; the beat is "implied".

The structure of signifying is not a simple one. It takes quick wit, defense, and a poker face that would shame the thuggest of the thug. The fact that prowess in this area, specifically in playing the dozens, is shown in the black community at such a young age is mind boggling when you think, academically, about what signifying is. As I said before, it is a way of using figurative language, as well as simile and hyperbole.