Entry · catalog no. 0021
Boogie Down
/ ˈbʊɡi ˈdaʊn /BOO-ghee DOWN
n. · The Bronx, New York City · 1970s
✓ Verified
1.
The Bronx. A name the borough gave itself out of its own party and dance life — boogie for dancing, down for where the thing is actually happening — and which hardened into the borough's standard affectionate name as its place in the invention of hip-hop became a point of pride rather than an address to apologize for.
“He's Boogie Down born and raised, don't let the accent fool you.”
Origin & Attribution
Bronx street and party vernacular of the 1970s, out of the block-party culture that produced hip-hop. No single coiner is documented, and the name plainly circulated in speech well before it reached print. KRS-One, DJ Scott La Rock and D-Nice formalized it in 1986 by naming themselves the Boogie Down Crew, then Boogie Down Productions.
1970s
Bronx block-party culture puts the phrase in ordinary circulation
1986
KRS-One, DJ Scott La Rock and D-Nice form the Boogie Down Crew
1987
Criminal Minded carries the name out of the borough
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
The Northeast
The Bronx, New York City · 1970s
Spoken by
Black and Puerto Rican Bronx — block-party crowds, then the hip-hop record business
$BOOGIEThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Steady40 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
65/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
1986
in the culture
Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.
Hear it spoken
By region — how it actually sounds
@bxgriot
The Bronx, NY
@phillyanne
Philadelphia, PA
Contribute your pronunciation
Citations & Sources
■
Criminal Minded — Boogie Down Productions, B-Boy Records, 1987
audio · album
■
+ Cite a sourceBy All Means Necessary — Boogie Down Productions, Jive Records, 1988
audio · album
See also