Entry · catalog no. 3018
the jerk
/ /ðə ˈdʒɜrk/ /thuh JURK
noun · Los Angeles, CA · 2000s
✓ Verified
1.
A street dance and rap style out of Black Los Angeles in the late 2000s, centered on the jerk — one leg crossing in front of the other, knees bending in and out, the torso bouncing low — and extended by the reject, the pindrop and the dip. It was a whole aesthetic as much as a step: bright skinny jeans, high-tops, video-sharing as the stage, and a deliberate turn away from the baggy styling of the generation before. In period use, jerkin also meant simply excellent.
“They cleared a circle at the mall, somebody''s cousin hit record, and by that night half the school had seen him pindrop.”
Origin & Attribution
Los Angeles, roughly 2008, out of Black and brown LA party-crew culture — South LA, Watts, Compton, and the mall and park circuit from Crenshaw to Ladera to Venice. There is no single coiner; it is a scene, and the earliest named crews include Action Figures, the Ranger$, Marvel Inc, Cold Flamez and Pink Dollaz. Participants describe it as the anti-dance, something gang members did at parties instead. Correct two standing errors: the New Boyz, whose 2009 single took it national, were from the High Desert and were the vector rather than the source; and the distinct online jerk microgenre of the 2020s is a revival, not the original.
2008
The jerk emerges out of LA party-crew and function-music culture
2009
April 2 — New Boyz release You''re a Jerk; it peaks at number 24 on the Hot 100 and the dance videos multiply overnight
2009
National and international press through the summer — Los Angeles Times in June, LA Weekly in August, the Guardian in August
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
Nationwide
Los Angeles, CA · 2000s
Spoken by
Black and brown Los Angeles teenagers, 2008 to 2011
$THEJERThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Fading1 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
58/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
2008
in the culture
Mainstream crossover
2009
search interest spikes
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
■
You''re a Jerk, New Boyz — single, Shotty/Asylum/Warner Bros. · April 2, 2009
archive-desk
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Jerky boys and girls: New Boyz, Rej3ctz and more lead a new youth movement — Los Angeles Times · June 12, 2009
archive-desk
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+ Cite a sourceWe''re Jerkin'' (Starring the New Boyz, J-Hawk and Pink Dollaz), Jeff Weiss — LA Weekly · August 6, 2009
archive-desk
See also