My new LEAST favorite phrases

(UPDATE: Here's a remotely tolerable use of "make it rain" that still provides a good example of what I am trying to convey...)

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I guess you could define this as raging...

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"Make it rain":



This is now officially a verb in the mind of mainstream America. It means to throw ridiculous amounts of money around for absolutely no reason. It doesn't HAVE to be in a strip club. It can be in a normal club. It doesn't have to be in a normal club. It can be in a hip-hop video. It doesn't have to be in a hip-hop video, it can be at your son's birthday party? What's next, bar mitzvah's?

I've always had a problem with slang that originates as a part of hip-hop culture and are then used relentlessly by those who more likely than not have no true knowledge of or real respect for the history of the culture. Only it's current money-driven state which I don't believe is a true reflection of hip-hop by any means.

The song "Make It Rain" is pretty lame. The act of "making it rain" (no R Kelly) is pretty lame. Thank you Fat Joe for this contribution to the laundry-list of hip-hop slang gone wrong! It's even been expanded upon by artists like Young Jeezy:

"Thunderstorm at the Body Tap [strip club], look what I done!"

Obviously, it can't just rain anymore, it has to be something torrential. What's next, Typhoon at the French Tickler? How do you manage to be creatively uncreative?

This phrase has officially replaced "bling-bling" as the most disappointingly wack thing you will hear at least once during an ESPN Sportscenter episode. Speaking of, if I hear one more corny joke about PacMan Jones making it rain in Vegas over NBA Allstar weekend, I think I might spontaneously combust!

"Let it rain, clear it out..."

Yes, please clear it out...

"Some kinda way":

I am now catching on that this is the new phrase people use when they want be ambiguous about how they feel or when they think that the other person alreaady knows how they actually feel. Or my personal favorite, what people say when they want to NOT state how they really feel because they think it's cool that everybody says "some kinda way". This one actually gets on my nerves a lot more than "make it rain" because I can't stand it when people try to find ways to be obtuse or ambiguous on purpose. If you feel a certain way, then say how you feel. If you don't know how you feel, say that!

Whenever I hear this phrase I think of Vivian Green's song, "What is Love?" (A Love Story) or Dwele's album, "Some Kinda". Vivian's song however, has so much more meaning and context than when people typically throw this phrase out in conversation. Sometimes we have to flip the slang switch to off in order to effectively communicate. The native language of this country is ENGLISH, people. Learn to use it effectively!