Entry · catalog no. 0020
the Dougie
/ ðə ˈdʌɡi /thuh DUG-ee
n. · Dallas, Texas · 2000s
✓ Verified
1.
A loose, rolling dance worked from the shoulders and hips, with one hand passing back over the head in a stroking motion — the gesture that gives it its name, taken from Doug E. Fresh's habit of running a hand over his hair. In Dallas it belonged to a wider style called the D-Town Boogie before the name Dougie settled on it.
“He was in the mirror doing the Dougie for twenty minutes before we left.”
Origin & Attribution
Developed in the Dallas dance scene in the mid-2000s as part of the D-Town Boogie, and named for the Bronx rapper Doug E. Fresh, whose hand-over-the-head move it borrows. Lil Wil's "My Dougie" made it a Dallas radio record in 2007. Cali Swag District, out of Inglewood, California, took it national with "Teach Me How to Dougie" in 2010.
2007
Lil Wil's "My Dougie" makes it a Dallas record
2010
Cali Swag District's "Teach Me How to Dougie" reaches the Billboard Hot 100 and goes platinum
2011
Lil Wil publicly disputes the credit, saying Dallas was written out
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
The South
Dallas, Texas · 2000s
Spoken by
Black Dallas dancers, then the wider Southern and West Coast rap audience
$THEDOUThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Faded19 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
40/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
2007
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
@nolakid
New Orleans, LA
@htxdri
Houston, TX
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Citations & Sources
■
"My Dougie" — Lil Wil, 2007
audio · single
■
"Teach Me How to Dougie" — Cali Swag District, Capitol Records, 2010
audio · single
■
+ Cite a source"Know Your L.A. Hip-Hop Dances: The Controversial Origin Story of the Dougie" — LA Weekly
text · newspaper
See also