The Stoop · Hana Baba and Leila Day

Who all gon' be there?

July 10, 2024·33 min·3 clips

Jarrett Hill explains why 'I'm on my way' often means someone hasn't even left the house yet.

Some sayings arrive already humming. The episode starts with phrases the hosts know right away, then follows how pronunciation, warning, memory, and attitude turn plain words into cultural shorthand. Don't get cute means something. So does the pause before someone explains why a phrase belongs to a family, a region, or a different Black experience. The book opens the door. Its authors talk about collecting language from Black people, including Caribbean folk, immigrants, drag queens, pastors, professors, friends, and family. Nobody is expected to know every phrase. One guest says readers may miss some sayings but still learn about a Black experience they did not grow up with. That sticks with the hosts. They keep circling the Stoop's bigger question: how can Black language hold people together without pretending every Black person grew up saying the same things? Family sayings do real work. Travelle's grandmother's line about the rooster not crowing anymore becomes a way to say the old order has changed. Another aunt brings the devil is a lie. The phrase is treated less like a slogan and more like a lived response, the thing someone reaches for when a situation needs correcting. The laughter stays close. Even when the conversation gets thoughtful, it still feels like people comparing notes across Black experiences. The range matters. The guests' Bay Area roots, Atlanta school ties, military-brat movement, and far-flung friends and family all shape how they hear Black speech. Nobody gets the final word. The conversation keeps widening, making room for what is familiar, regional, inherited, and still surprising. The close turns communal again. After marking the end of the show's 10th season, the hosts point listeners back to the hundred episodes already waiting in the feed.

As heard by us

A playful look at Black phrases, family sayings, and the ways Black speech carries memory.

The Stoop uses Historically Black Phrases to look at what makes a phrase Black, moving from pronunciation and translation to warnings, family sayings, and questions of who gets to use them.

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Why you'd press play

If you want a funny, culturally specific conversation about Black phrases and what makes them read Black.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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