Entry · catalog no. 1020

yadadamean

/ /ˌjæ.də.dəˈmiːn/ /YA-da-da-MEEN

phrase · Bay Area, West · 2000s

✓ Verified

"You know what I mean?" — a run-together tag dropped at the end of a thought to check that you're being followed. Also "yadadeezy," "yadada."

“It's about the movement, yadadamean?”

Origin & Attribution

Bay Area hyphy movement. Carried by rappers Keak da Sneak and E-40 and woven through the region's hip-hop in the 2000s, it compresses a whole sentence into one bouncing word — a signature of Bay Area speech.

2000s

Woven through Bay Area hyphy speech and rap

2006

Spread nationally via E-40 and Keak da Sneak

Region of origin

West

Midwest

N.East

South

The West

Bay Area, West · 2000s

Spoken by

Bay Area hyphy speakers

$YADADAThe Record · cultural traction

▲ Steady

22 yrs

ahead of the mainstream

45/100

peak cultural energy

Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.

Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest

First used

2004

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

@bayarea

Oakland, CA

@ladi

Los Angeles, CA

Contribute your pronunciation

Citations & Sources

■

The FADER, "What Yaddadimean Means in the Bay Area" — article · 2016

submitted

■

Keak da Sneak / E-40, hyphy movement — Bay Area hip-hop · 2000s

submitted

+ Cite a source