That’s really reaching. Other verses address “you”. The first one talks about “this dude” whom he doesn’t know. Not the same person.
Exactly. EXACTLY!!!
As much as I like you Troppus, I’m going to have to question the wisdom you’ve shown in this here thread. I have spent 35 years inhabiting the body of a black woman born and raised in the Dirty Souf. I do not need to turn on a got’damn* radio (a radio from the 80s, no doubt!) to learn how black people speak. And it’s kind of insulting for you to think I would believe otherwise.
*I think I am turning into Samuel L.
In the first verse he uses “He” throughout the verse.
In the rest of the verses they use “YOU” throughout the verse.
But they never use “He be illin’”
If your interpretation was correct, they would use ‘he be illin’ in the first verse.
Ask ANY HIP HOP FAN IN THE WORLD what RUN DMC meant in that song and they will tell you it is the habitual aspect of ‘be’.
You found that song, thought it meant something different, and you were wrong.
Are you fucking serious? We’re talking about the chorus to a song here, okay? The whole thing is filled with silly anecdotes of people behaving poorly, and the hook says “You be illin.” It’s not that complicated. They also aren’t referring to YOU specifically when they say “You be illin.” Please also note in the verse you quoted, he’s talking about some guy (third person) then the chorus just repeats that you (second person) be illin. Who is he talking to? Then in the next verses, he’s talking about other people, and the hook doesn’t change. Gaaaah, this is all so very confusing! Dude, that’s just how the hook goes, and the phrase means that you consistently ill. Not hard.
Seriously, you’re going to claim the “habitual be” we’re talking about here isn’t real because you’re not too keen on the chorus of a Run DMC song? Sit down.
I know this is a thread about language usage nitpicks, so I apologize for the hijack, but there’s something bothering me lately and I wonder if you can help. In my work I deal with very poor people who are experiencing a lot of stress and sometimes behave badly. For some reason, although these people represent a variety of races, cultures and nationalities, I seem to most often notice the bad behavior of one specific group. This makes me worry that I actually may be a racist, or that I’m becoming one due to the stresses of this job, even though my life experience has never led me to think so in the past.
Is anyone willing to help me explore this in an honest, nonjudgemental way? Maybe together we can come up with some strategies for maintaining my best self in these difficult circumstances, and for making sure that I treat everyone with kindness and respect.
I’m having a hard time seeing how the (real or not) patient’s use of “be” violates the rules. It’s trivial to say “he wasn’t referring to the pain his thumb was in at that moment, but rather the pain it had been in for the last few days.” When Webbie says “Yeah, you be forgetting” and when Childish Gambino says “My feet be feelin’ highbrow” they seem to be using the word in exactly the same way as the patient.
Else I be trippin’, shit I don’t know.
Both of those usages are the habitual.
I know it seems like a nitpick, but I swear to god, Clock, if people use it wrong, they change the meaning so much the sentence becomes meaningless.
No one ever says ‘my thumb be hurtin’ unless it often hurts. Not one time smash with a hammer hurt.
This is a circular argument. You’re saying that the “be illin’” is a “habitual” use of “be” because that’s the way it is in ebonics. Even if it is logically contradicted in the song. Anyway, here are some lyrics by “Fabolous”:
I can’t really explain it
My friends be thinking I’m slippin
These girls be thinking I’m trippin
What kinda weed you be smokin
What typa drinks you be sippin
Sweet thing just to think of you dippin
Would have me with the blues so hard
Is he “habitually” slippin, trippin, etc? Or is it just for this “sweet thing” now? In fact, replace all the "be"s with "are"s, and the meaning stays the same. And "are"s are not “habitual”.
Are you serious? YOU quoted me and behaved as if I needed to lie down and gave some folksy LAWDAMERCY to show some kind of bewilderment yet YOU want ME to stop addressing you in this thread?
If you didn’t want to have me address you anymore (lawl, okay your highness!) wouldn’t the prudent thing be to not respond to me again? I’d think the exact wrong thing to do is quote me with your foolish and ignorant “lie down” hurdy durdy nonsense because seriously, this let-me-snipe-at-you-and-then-say-I-don’t-want-you-to-respond-to-me-anymore is making me wonder if you missed a dose of something.
Now between this crazy interaction with you and the dissection of RUN DMC lyrics I think we’ve long passed rational discussion and are into Crazytown so you all have a good rest of the day 
If I heard someone say “You be forgetting”, my brain would translate that into “You are always forgetting.”
If I heard someone say “My thumb be hurting”, I would translate that into “My thumb has always been hurting.”
So it would make sense for the man to have said, “My thumb be hurting” if asked about his medical history. (But even then, it would be very weird. I’d expect him to say “My thumb been hurting” before “My thumb be hurting”).
That’s why “My thumb be hurting!” doesn’t make any sense as a declaration of urgency.
See, look, Clock. This is the rest of Webbie’s line:
“Sometimes you be trippin’ be forgetting what we have
And when it comes to fuck ups baby, you done had your share
Yeah, you be forgettin that
and the reason why you sittin where
you sittin at”
And Gambino’s whole song is talkin’ about how he “be on that other shit”…the whole song is talking about ways he is always on some other shit.
Yes! He didn’t trip one time and stop! He keeps trippin over this girl! He keeps slippin’ over this girl! And his friends keep having the thoughts that their friend is trippin and slippin’!
Look at the line, “what typa drinks you be sippin” THAT LINE SHOULD HELP YOU.
And as a lifelong resident of a pocket of Appalachia isolated from large cities, you are going to have to take me at my word for what I’ve seen and heard here. Kids pick up phrases from pop culture and incorporate them into daily speak. I grew up with primarily mixed kids who identified more strongly with black culture, but having limited contact with the all-black community means they often too cues from music, sports, and movies. It isn’t just a few sheltered white folk who think that the “be” convention is common, sheltered black kids screw it up, too, in an attempt to embrace the identity they prefer. Dismiss that silly song and wipe out a minor cultural artifact that bleeds into language today and will (mark my words) make it into Linguistics class if it hasn’t already.
I probably shouldn’t have referred to the songs at all. The crux of my argument was:
[QUOTE=AClockworkMelon]
It’s trivial to say “he wasn’t referring to the pain his thumb was in at that moment, but rather the pain it had been in for the last few days.”
[/quote]
Monstro’s post kind of addressed that by implying that the way to check is by seeing if you can swap out “be” for “always” without changing a sentence’s intended meaning. Does that mean a black person would never say, for example, “You be tripping” to a person they’re meeting/hearing about for the first time? Would the universe fold in on itself if they did?
You are really really stretching. She is “habitually” sippin?
How about (from Mac Miller):
But sometimes I be feelin’ like a needle to these young kids
Is he saying that he “habitually” feels like a needle? Or that he “sometimes” does? Because the two don’t work together.
Well, sigh. I would say it if I thought they are the type to trip often. Put it this way, If you met someone new, and they did something stupid, would you say to them “Wow, you really do dumb stuff”?
Maybe or maybe not, right? But if you DID say that, it would mean you think they do dumb stuff regularly, not just that one time.
My guess is both thumb guy and dick guy had been hurting for quite some time before complaining and seeking help, and dick guy was just wisecracking to take down his embarrassment a notch.
No. I’m not reaching. I actually think I’M ABOUT TO HAVE A BREAKTHROUGH WITH YOU.
Listen. He said drinkS. Plural. So that means he CAN’T mean what kind of drink are you sipping right now. He isn’t drinking two drinks at the same time, Terr.
You are hung up on the word ‘habitual’ SOMETIMES works just as well!
Should I try it out and see? I’m feeling kind of reckless, and this universe is kinda going to hell.
You don’t need to get to a breakthrough. I understand that the Ebonics grammar may favor the turn of phrase that you’re trying to explain. What I am amazed at is your insistence that all Ebonics users follow that, and none of them could possibly use the verb differently than your “accepted” use. That kind of absolutism is ridiculous. Native English speakers constantly mangle English grammar. Why you think that Ebonics speakers cannot possibly mangle Ebonics grammar is puzzling.