Entry · catalog no. 8503
Earth
/ /ɜrθ/ /URTH
noun · Harlem, New York City · 1960s
✓ Verified
1.
In the Five-Percent Nation (the Nation of Gods and Earths), a Black woman, the counterpart to a Black man, who is called a God.
“The God and his Earth taught the class together.”
2.
A respectful address for a Black woman in hip hop spaces shaped by Five Percenter language.
“Peace, Earth.”
Origin & Attribution
The Five-Percent Nation began in Harlem in 1964, founded by Clarence 13X (Clarence Edward Smith) after he left the Nation of Islam. Its teaching calls the Black man God and the Black woman Earth, the planet that holds and gives life. The vocabulary moved into New York hip hop through members and listeners in the 1980s and 1990s. The Five Percenters are a separate organization from the Nation of Islam, though the founder came from it.
1964
Clarence 13X founds the Five Percenters in Harlem
1990
Poor Righteous Teachers release 'Gods, Earths and 85ers'
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
Nationwide
Harlem, New York City · 1960s
Spoken by
Members of the Nation of Gods and Earths and hip hop communities
$EARTHThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Steady62 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
50/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
1964
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
@auntiereg
Atlanta, GA
@deltasoul
Memphis, TN
Contribute your pronunciation
Citations & Sources
■
Michael Muhammad Knight, The Five Percenters: Islam, Hip-Hop and the Gods of New York, Oneworld, 2007
book
■
NPR, 'God, the Black Man, and the Five Percenters,' Aug. 4, 2006
article
■
+ Cite a sourcePoor Righteous Teachers, 'Gods, Earths and 85ers,' Holy Intellect, 1990
song
See also