I think this one is a little bit dated, as I’ve heard it in early-'90s rap songs and GTA:San Andreas, which is set in roughly the same time period, but I was wondering where it comes from, and how it came to mean what it does?
It doesn’t seem to make any sense to my ears.
It’s used in a lot of west coast rap songs, and I’ve seen several different explanations at the word’s origins. The one that makes the most sense to me is that it refers to a patrol car occupied by one officer. It’s actually police lingo… if the made a traffic stop of a lone drive, they’d report the vehicle was occupied one time. If their were two occupants they’d say it was occupied two times.
Another explanation I’ve seen is that it refers to the fact that when the police approach you should only look at them one time. If you do a double take, or if every body in a group turns to look, it attracts too much attention.
UrbanDictionary.com might offer some other suggestions.
Could you give an example sentence?
The term generally refers to those police officers who deliberately provoke “a likely suspect” into doing something illegal/questionable so that the cop will have an excuse to bust them, even if the “suspect” was doing nothing wrong to begin with. Usually a white cop and a young, black, male civilian. It typically involves racial profiling, i.e. stopping and questioning someone simply because they’re black. The cop will conduct the questioning in a manner that provokes the “suspect” into becoming uncooperative, giving the cop an excuse to arrest them for something like failing to provide identification when asked, and then perhaps roughing them up when they resist.
I believe the term came out of the Los Angeles gang scene, where it was not at all uncommon for cops to stop and question anybody who looked like a possible gang member for simply walking down the street.
“One-Time’s Got No Case” by Sir Mix-a-lot
The police think I’m movin’ them keys
They trip cause I clock much D
They pull a gat an’ they yell out “Freeze!”
I’m whippin’ out my I.D.
My gat sits under my seat
The cops throw me out in the street
They found my gun like thieves
Officer Friendly has got a new beef
So I show him my gun permit
I told him I roll legit
Give me a test to see if I’m drinkin’
They claim my breath was stinkin’
They had me walk on the line
I walked backwards stopped on a dime
My female just reclines
Cause she knows I know the time
I’m hip to the cop procedure
They get ya everytime they see ya
They stop ya, they cuff ya
They roll ya an’ they rough ya
They ask what I do for a livin’
Should this information be givin’?
This is what keeps me driven
Some cops want a brother in prison
So I got me a few attorneys
Just in case a cop wanna burn me
They protect me from the state
Cause one-time’s got no case
“One-Time” is basically the rap version of what we here would call a “troll”.
It seems to have been used as a substitute for the word “cop” in pretty much any situation from what I’ve heard.
“We’ve got one-time on our asses.”
“Keep an eye out for one-time.”
Sounds like “look one time” and “lone police officer/car” are the two leading theories. We’d need an authoritative origin to know any further.
In Menace II Society, one of the characters sees a cop coming and yells out “Oh, shit, one time!” Then they all flee. I always wondered what he meant by that til now!