# Sir Mix-a-lot's slang **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 14, 2015, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sir-mix-a-lots-slang/727870 "2015-08-14T21:10:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2015, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sir-mix-a-lots-slang/727870/1 "2015-08-14T21:10:16Z")
Looking back at Sir Mix-a-lot’s heyday around 1990, and comparing his lyrics to those of other rappers of the day, I realize that he used some slang terms that I don’t recall hearing from other rappers. So I wonder if these particular terms were Seattle-specific slang, or if I just missed hearing them from non-Seattle rappers: “Swass”, the title of Mix’s debut album. The title track’s chorus featured the line, “Don’t you wish your boyfriend was swass like me?” It seems to be a word meaning “cool, stylish”. “Clucker”, typically used in Mix’s songs to refer to drug-addicted young women. I live in Washington, only a couple hundred miles from Seattle, and neither of these slang terms were in use in my town before Mix used them. My alternative theory is that both words were simply made up by Mix-a-lot. Evidence: In his song, “My Hooptie”, he describes approaching a young woman with, “Rolled up smooth with the homemade slang”. Hmm. That’s another word I don’t recall ever hearing from a non-Seattle-based rapper: “hooptie”, to describe an old, beat-up, uncool car. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2015, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sir-mix-a-lots-slang/727870/2 "2015-08-14T21:21:14Z")
> [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > Hmm. That’s another word I don’t recall ever hearing from a non-Seattle-based rapper: “hooptie”, to describe an old, beat-up, uncool car. I’m from the Pacific Northwest and I remember hearing the term “hooptie” before Sir Mix-a-lot used it. However, a decrepit old motor vehicle is more often called a klunker, junker, heap, or beater. ---
**Author:** ![Valgard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7feea3/32.png) [@Valgard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valgard)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2015, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sir-mix-a-lots-slang/727870/3 "2015-08-14T22:47:28Z")
SF Bay Area, “hooptie” was certainly in use in the early 1980s. We mostly used it to refer to a clunker bicycle but it was a pretty generic term for a beater vehicle of any kind. ---
**Author:** ![GrumpyBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bc8723/32.png) [@GrumpyBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrumpyBunny)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2015, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sir-mix-a-lots-slang/727870/4 "2015-08-15T01:56:24Z")
I was in Florida then, and knew what “hoopdie” meant. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2015, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sir-mix-a-lots-slang/727870/5 "2015-08-15T02:41:15Z")
Yeah, a hooptie is a beat up car. I Clucker could come from chicken head-- a girl who likes to fellate the band. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2015, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sir-mix-a-lots-slang/727870/6 "2015-08-15T09:45:53Z")
I’ve always understood hooptie to specifically mean a large, old car. I’d look at someone strange if they called a beetle or a pinto a hooptie. ---
**Author:** ![JSexton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@JSexton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JSexton)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2015, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sir-mix-a-lots-slang/727870/7 "2015-08-18T18:22:13Z")
Clucker probably derives from chickenhead, an old reference to junkies who give head for drugs. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2015, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sir-mix-a-lots-slang/727870/8 "2015-08-18T19:31:11Z")
> [@JSexton](#): > > Clucker probably derives from chickenhead, an old reference to junkies who give head for drugs. No! Really? ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2015, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sir-mix-a-lots-slang/727870/9 "2015-08-19T00:23:25Z")
Hooptie is from [at least 1968](http://www.word-detective.com/2011/01/hooptie/) and possibly older. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2015, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sir-mix-a-lots-slang/727870/10 "2015-08-19T00:31:44Z")
As for “swass”, [he made it up](http://www.magnetmagazine.com/2009/06/22/qa-with-sir-mix-a-lot/). > [@](#): > > Back in the ’80s, I worked at a little arcade called Electric Palace. There was this one pinball machine that uttered some crazy word that sounded like “swass.” I don’t know what it was saying. Anyway, I decided to do a song called “Swass” as a joke. Actually, the word didn’t have a meaning until after the record was released. S.W.A.S.S. = Some Wild Ass Silly Shit. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2015, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sir-mix-a-lots-slang/727870/11 "2015-08-19T02:25:29Z")
> [@TroutMan](#): > > As for “swass”, [he made it up](http://www.magnetmagazine.com/2009/06/22/qa-with-sir-mix-a-lot/). Ha! “Homemade slang” indeed! ---
**Author:** ![BurnMeUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@BurnMeUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BurnMeUp)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2015, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sir-mix-a-lots-slang/727870/12 "2015-08-20T18:58:02Z")
Hooptie is well known as a junky car. Clucker is used by Eazy-E as well in a song as a junky “he’s addicted, he’s a smoker, but in Compton called a clucker” and “THe the bailif I had was the neighborhood cluck” ---
**Author:** ![actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/actualliberalnotoneofthose)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2015, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sir-mix-a-lots-slang/727870/13 "2015-08-20T21:05:37Z")
I’m from Maryland. When my mother would pick me up from school (probably around Mix-a-lot’s prime), kids would say “nice hooptie.” Got me on the other ones, though. Clucker reminds me of “chicken head” unless I’m way off, but I don’t really recall anyone using it. ---
**Author:** ![JSexton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@JSexton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JSexton)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2015, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sir-mix-a-lots-slang/727870/14 "2015-08-20T23:55:39Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > No! Really? I feel like you’re mocking me?