diddy bop

Rap-Up

Diddy bop is much older than Sean “Puffy” Combs. It dates back to 1940s, when it was used in black slang for a contemptible black person affecting whiteness. In the 1950s, a diddy bop migrated to a “delinquent” or “street gang member,” and by the 1960s, to a kind of exaggerated, stylized strut, involving walking with a bounce, swinging one’s arms, and locking the knee—as if swaggering like an overconfident gangster. 

Diddy bop bopped its way into military slang by at least the Vietnam War. The US Marine Corps use it to describe a soldier who is incapable of marching in crisp formation.

MRE Soup: "Diddy Bop/Diddy Bopping" is poor performance in drill, or movement in a non-crisp, #Marine manner. #MM 

— U.S. Marines (@USMC) April 30, 2012

Diddy bop popularly resurfaced in black culture in the 1990s. In 1998, rapper Cam’ron used it in his track “Glory”: “When I rhyme / Niggas grab they dick and diddy bop / And pull they skully down / And put their ice grill on.” Cam’ron’s diddy bop describe the cocky strut of a man who can take on anything. Over his career, Cam’ron would use diddy bop in several of his other songs (and on his Twitter account).

Later, though, another hip hop artist would become the unofficial daddy of diddy bop. Sean Combs, known as Diddy at the time, released a 2009 single, “Diddy Boppin’.”

At the time, many fans thought Diddy himself invented the slang / dance, since he coincidentally and conveniently shared its name. Shortly after the release of “Diddy Boppin,” Combs released a video on his YouTube channel clarifying that he didn’t invent diddy bop. He also provided his own definition of the slang: for Combs, diddy bopping means feeling good, happy, and self-assured—being in the kind of mood that, well, makes you want to diddy bop.