Translating Double-Dutch to Hip-Hop: The Musical Vernacular of Black Girls’ Play

These comments capture the ideals of black cultural performance as observed in ring games, hand-clapping games, and double-dutch jump rope. These observations reveal the often overlooked significance of the musical behavior (songs, rhymes, chants, rhythmic hand claps, and dance) associated with the daily rituals of many young black girls. Black girls’ musical games promote the skillful development of musical authority that reflects blackness, gender, individual expressive ability, and the very musical styles and approaches that later contribute to adult African-American musical activities. I intend to show how these games act as oral, rather than written, études3 for learning simple and complex black musical aesthetics. These études are the first autonomous avenue for black girls to learn the “rules” for making music sound “black.”