Entry · catalog no. 0046
talking out the side of your neck
/ /ˈtɔːkɪn aʊt ðə ˈsaɪd əv jər ˈnɛk/ /TAW-kin owt thuh SYDE uhv yer NEK
phrase · Black American speech nationwide; carried further by funk and by the Southern HBCU band circuit · 1980s
✓ Verified
1.
To speak nonsense, to lie, or to talk with a disrespect the speaker has no standing to back up. The charge is not simply that a person is wrong but that they are speaking carelessly and dishonestly — asserting things they know they cannot prove, or running somebody down behind talk that pretends to be straight. Used as an accusation, almost always in the second person, and usually delivered as a warning to stop.
“Don't come in here talking out the side of your neck when everybody in this room knows what actually happened.”
Origin & Attribution
Black American vernacular, in circulation by at least the mid-1970s and likely older. It is a deliberate reworking of the older general-English idiom talking out the side of one's mouth, with the mouth swapped for the neck — a substitution that sharpens the absurdity and marks the phrase as Black speech. It is not tied to one city; it moved through Black urban speech nationally. Cameo's 1984 record fixed it in the popular ear, and HBCU marching bands who took the tune up as "Neck" gave it a second life independent of its meaning. Lexicographer Grant Barrett, who entered the phrase in his Double-Tongued Dictionary in November 2005, states on the record that it is a historically African-American term and reports holding citations from 1975.
1975
Reported by lexicographers to be in Black American speech, though the underlying citation is not independently confirmed here
1984
Cameo release "Talkin' Out the Side of Your Neck" on She's Strange; HBCU bands adopt the tune as "Neck"
1998
Lauryn Hill uses the shortened form on "Doo Wop (That Thing)" — talking out your neck sayin you're a Christian — on a number one record
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
Nationwide / diaspora
Black American speech nationwide; carried further by funk and by the Southern HBCU band circuit · 1980s
Spoken by
Black Americans across regions and generations; particularly durable among Southern and urban speakers
$TALKINThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Steady42 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
78/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
1984
in the culture
Recorded here
2026
point of first record
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
■
Cameo, "Talkin' Out the Side of Your Neck," from She's Strange, 1984
funk single
■
Lauryn Hill, "Doo Wop (That Thing)," from The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, 1998
rap single
■
Grant Barrett, Double-Tongued Dictionary entry "talk out (the side of) one's neck," November 25, 2005
dictionary entry
■
+ Cite a source"Talk Out the Side of Your Neck," A Way with Words, 2016
public radio segment
See also