"Quit hating on me" — profanity?

BILL MILLER

You know, I was thinking...

About last Wednesday's story on the Battle Creek Central-Portage Central game (that the Bearcats lost 48-47 after a technical foul against BCC's Jason Washburn). According to Jason Idalski's story, Washburn told the referee, "Quit hating on me." There was some discussion about whether it was profanity. Well, this intrigued me. Why didn't Washburn just say, "Quit hating me?"

So I googled it. Found the line in a site with lyrics by rap artist T.I. to a song called "My Life."
The line goes: "Can't ya see I'm on fire, so quit hating on me pimpin, I'm just living my life."

I won't relay any of the other lines — this is kind of a family blog.

It shows up in a number of other lyrics sites as well — rapper Too $hort has just "Quit Hatin.'" And there are YouTube videos, and more.

Which gets back to the question — was it profanity? Check out the "My Life" lyrics and they're shot through with the stuff. So maybe the words themselves weren't profane, but maybe the referee knew the context better than some of the rest of us and made the association.

What do you think?

Comments

[School Mom]

As the mother of two adult males and one high school female, I'm sure I've asked the definition of a "gazillion" slang terms used by today's youth. While you may have found "hatin'" in a rap song laced with profanity, the term itself is not profane. It's a term used when people believe others are "trashing" them because of their accomplishments, possessions, etc. (I'm sure you've heard the term "haters".)

"Quit hatin' on me" and "Quit hating me" are two totally different things. Perhaps Washburn thought the ref made a bad call because he (Washburn) was having a good game - I don't know...I wasn't there.

If anything, it was more a sign of disrespect and bad sportmanship than anything else.

[Laura Adams]

For someone who didn't know why someone would say "Quit hating me" instead of "Quit hating on me"-two phrasees with different meanings, you have done an excellent job of hating on the slang used by a particular demographic group-young male African-Americans, like the kids I mentor.

I learn new slang terms from my kids on a daily basis.

When someone says that a person is "Hating on" someone or something, that usually implies that the person using that phrase feels that they are on the receiving end of some form of bigotry, stereotyping, envy or prejudice-based hatred or bullying. It's often used as another way of saying "Quit picking on me".

It is not an obscenity, regardless of whether or not it appears in rap song lyrics, as most slang terms used by that demographic group do.

So...Yo, quit hatin' on the kids' slang, G. That's whack.

:)

Laura Adams

[Kingpin]

Laura...I think the term is actually "wack"...no H. 'Hard to say for sure...these kid's enunciation is pretty poor, usually!

:)

In my opinion, THAT tech should never have been handed out. The call (over the back by the defender) could have gone either way. Exchanges like that (questioning a ref's call on a close play, no cursing) occur all game long. With two ticks left on the clock, you call THAT to send a kid to the line?!?!? I prefer it when the PLAYER decide the outcome...not an official.

[Sam]

all u adults r so effin blindfolded. u dont even wanna kno wat we r thinkn. so stop tryin 2 crack our world. get da f*ck ova yoselvez bitches. dang. go on sumwhere...really.