Or that they misspelled the word “misspell”?
I believe the point is that Americans emphasize the second syllable, and it is not pronounced this way.
From my observation, it seems that the “Fiddy cent” pronuciation evolved after he was popular and appears just to be a nickname. Pronouncing “fiddy” appeared to be a way that kids could show that they were cool and “in the know.” I have never heard him pronounce his own name.
I work with teens everyday. When he first came out, the kids called him “Fifty cent” and went on and on how he was shot 10 times or whatever. Eventually, they started calling him Fiddy Cent and also using the term fiddy whenever they could work it into the conversation. Just like the Snoop “For shizzle my nizzle” speak came and went as a fad, the saying of fiddy rather than fifty thing faded too. Where did they get the fiddy from? My best guess is that his the way the local DJ’s pronounced it to seem hip and urban, since it is unlikely that the kids ever saw it in print or heard it on a CD.
You might be able to compare it to other entertainers who developed nicknames by DJ’s and fans. Morrisey could serve as an example. I believe that his fans gave him the nickname “Moz” (or at least popularized it) and eventually the hip media of the day (certain mags, not all) responded by referring to him as Moz as well. In this case, either name could be used and appeared to be correct, depending on the intended audience. I would think it silly for a older white newcaster on CNN to say “Fiddy Cent”, but I would think it entirely appropriate for a young hip host of a video show to introduce his video as being done by Fiddy Cent (although by now it is not all that hip, since everyone says it, remember when it was cool to say Bling Bling?).
Exactly. Some of them practically shouted the “DAM” part. It was just weird.
When he toured the UK he was known as “approximately 27p”.
If they wanted to do Eddie Murphy doing revisionist Buckwheat history, they’d say “O-tay”, **but Porky was actually the one whose trademark saying was “O-tay”. **
What…? This is like finding out my real father is the milkman or something :eek:
I’m not sure how Americans pronounce it, but the second syllable in “Saddam” in Modern Standard Arabic is much longer, which naturally seems to give it more emphasis. It comes out something like “Suh-daaam”.
I brought this up (sorry for hijacking), but I recall there was a Middle Eastern musician who made a dance track about SH back in the day. It was played on our news and the singer clearly pronounced the name Sa-DAMM. I can’t ever recall hearing it pronounced otherwise by anyone from that region of the world (on the news anyway).
I will gladly be corrected if need be.
Atticus’ phonetic spelling is better than mine. It reflects exactly the way I heard it in that song, and the way I hear 99% of people here pronounce it.
It’s to differentiate from the other act, 50’s Ent., short for Fiftie’s Entertainment. They cover the hits from the 1950’s and play at prisons.
Well, you either got whooshed, or i’m less the effervescent wit than i had fancied.
fiddy–> handdome, etc…
perhaps i’ll get out of comedy.
hh