EUPHEMISM: "Baby Leg."

[youtube:v=iOid8NkO8m4]

DEFINING MOMENT: I swear I heard a rapper threaten to hit a woman with his "baby leg" in a song on the radio last night. I couldn't find the track to confirm that, but I did find Sporty Thievz' "Fuck I Look Like," which employs the turn of phrase this way: "I get crazy head, on the crazy reg.  She say my dick thick like a baby leg."

LITERALLY: According to Wikipedia, a "baby" is a "term used to refer to the very young offspring of humans," while a "leg" is defined as "a weight bearing animal structure used for locomotion." In other words, it's an extremely, extremely gross anatomical feature to convert into a euphemism for . . .

UNDERLYING MEANING: . . . a large penis. Urban Dictionary defines "baby leg" in terms both sexual and non. A "baby leg" can apparently signify a "really, really big joint," but the euphemism's central interpretation is "a large penis or dick."

Aside from "Fuck I Look Like" and the elusive radio jam, I can't find any other songs that employ the term "baby leg" to refer to either genitalia or marijuana. English pop singer Jonatahan Pop Levi's song, "(A Style Called) Cryin' Chic," does make reference to a "baby's leg": "She made him whimper, made him beg/ I had to shoot my baby's leg," he sings. But the meaning here is quite different from that of Sporty Thievz: The leg in the lyric is literal, and the "baby" is used not to gauge the size of one's penis, but rather as a "term of endearment, usually used by people having sexual intercourse with one another."

[youtube:v=VhV2OmPRa5o]

SEX EUPHEMISM: Sushi

[youtube:v=Y-QObX9JeuM]

LITERALLY: According to Wikipedia, sushi is "cooked vinegar rice which is commonly topped with other ingredients, such as fish, or put into rolls."

UNDERLYING MEANING: Urban Dictionary floats several bizarre sexual interpretations of the term, from a threesome, to "rough sex," to "more than 1/4 cup of semen produced in one ejaculation." But the most widespread sexual connotation of "sushi" is surely "vagina."

DEFINING MOMENT: The vaginal sushi reference most recently popped up in Young Money's "Bedrock," in which Drake announces, "I Love your sushi rolls / hotter then Wasabi." The term has not always been employed in a sexual context, however. In 2006's "Killa Cam," Cam'ron uses "sushi" to play off the idea of "sleeping with the fishes": "Ass cap, put em in the river / I'm the sushi king / And I'ma keep ya fresh / Let the fish eat ya flesh."

Perhaps the most overtly sexual use of "sushi" came in Funkdoobiest's 1995 song, "Pussy Ain't Shit" (above). While Young Money's "BedRock" attempts to takes a softer, less explicit approach to the sushi roll, Funkdoobiest's use of "sushi" clearly situates the term in a violent and denigrating sexual context. In a song dedicated to why female genitalia, and by extension, women, "ain't shit," Funkdoobiest drops several lines comparing women to consumable (and therefore disposable) objects. "Pussy ain't shit, give it to me in a frying pan," the track insists, before listing off the menu: "brothas in prison doing time for the coochie / the tuna, the shrimp, the snatch, and the sushi."

Despite Young Money's attempts to convert "sushi" into a sweeter sexual euphemism, the term will perhaps never recover from Funkdoobiest's more explicit interpretation.

EUPHEMISM: "Bedrock."

[youtube:v=Ha80ZaecGkQ]

DEFINING MOMENT: Young Money's "BedRock," in which Lloyd announces, "Call me Mr. Flinstone, I can make your bed rock." (Thanks to Heartless Doll for the tip).

LITERALLY: "Bedrock" has several classic associations. According to Wikipedia, bedrock is the stratigraphic term for "the native consolidated rock underlying the surface of a terrestrial planet, usually the Earth." Bedrock, when employed as a proper noun, is also home to animated prehistoric family The Flinstones. It is this definition which the Young Money lyrics favor.

UNDERLYING MEANING: Has there ever been a weaker sexual euphemism? According to Urban Dictionary, the phenomenon of bedrock—the sexy kind—occurs "when two are enjoying intercourse & the man shakes the bed." Obviously. "Bedrock" is mostly pun at this point, but if Young Money's track takes off, we may see this term come into its own as a bonafide euphemism. On the other hand, for a song filled with references like "Call me Red Bull / we can fly away" and "I be stuck to her / Like glue, baby," I'm not betting on this track's lyrical stylings enduring.

Cataloguing the sexual euphemisms of rap music is one of my favorite pastimes. So when a commenter requested that I parse Gucci Mane's lyrics for hidden sexual undertones, I was happy to attempt to smoke out some hidden naughty bits in the rapper's contribution to Young Problemz' "Boi" (Mane weighs in at the 2:55 mark).

Perhaps I am off my game. Because  for the life of me, I can't make out any clear sexual imagery in Mane's lyrical feast of gyros, egg rolls, tacos, and sting rays:

Extra lamb like a gyro / Wrap 'em like a egg roll
Beat up out the taco / Feed 'em to the octos
Fully fully auto / Shawty bout that good plate
Fuck around next they be sleepin with a sting ray

While the taco reference inspires an obvious anatomical comparison, that octopus shit is beyond me. So I turned to CP''s resident art staff for help:

Arts editor Sarah Godfrey was similarly tripped up by the taco:

After listening a few times, I'm thinking Gucci has mixed his metaphors a bit here. Although the taco thing and the sleeping with a sting ray thing seem like sex euphemisms, I'm pretty sure the extra lamb thing is about money, and the wrap 'em like an egg roll and feed 'em to the octos lines are about hurting people. But maybe I just have a hard time understanding his country ass.

Arts editor Ted Scheinman suspects that "extra lamb" refers to the size of Mane's dick:

Line 1: possible Christ ref. Also, isn't this, like, the weirdest endowment boast ever? Shoulda made it a half-smoke!

Line 3: I prefer to read this line as "meat up out the taco." Slightly racier. Though, let's be frank, the mixed-food metaphors are starting to make me nauseous

Line 4: Do octopi go for ethnic food?

Line 7: OK, Mr. Mane has now officially jumped the shark into full-on erotic-aquatic imagery. Or I guess this is a threat, like sleeping with the fishes. Either way, Shawty better not fuck around.

Listings czar Mike Riggs thinks it's ALL about the taco. And don't call it a taco!

1.) Lamb meat is an imaginative substitute for "roast beef," which was likely the most popular slice-meat parallel to vagina pre-Gucci. It would be worldly, perhaps even sophisticated, if comparisons to deli stuffs weren't pejorative.

2.) I hate taco references, thanks to the scene in "Me, Myself, and Irene" in which Jim Carrey commandeers the PA at a grocery store to harangue a woman who's buying Vagisil for her "cheesy taco."

3.) Then again, the "good plate" sounds, well, good! Like it's all tasty down there! And let's face it, the vagina is a tasty place, so it might as well be a tasty plate.

4.) I don't know about that whole stingray/egg roll/octo thing, except that octopus reminds me of Octopussy, the female lead from the same-titled 1983 James Bond movie, starring seafood connoisseur Roger Moore.

In closing, rappers can and should do better by the vagina. It's what they seem to live for, and yet they talk about it in terms befitting a so-so food cart. Jesus.

Ghostface "Stapleton Sex" video trailer from Miss Info on Vimeo.

I'm a big fan of sexual euphemisms popularized in hip-hop songs, so I was disappointed to hear that Ghostface's new hyper-sexual track, "Stapleton Sex," is so explicit it leaves little room for hilarious sexual wordplay.

The video trailer (warning: electrical tape boobs) features the first verse of the song:

You can put my dick in your mouth
And play with my nuts
But before I bust, babe
I think I’ll come on your butt
I got my gun on the floor and I’m ready to fuck
Like it’s nothing, it’s nothing

Yep, not too much to parse there. And the rest of the song is pretty much just like that. Take the outro, for instance: “When I get back home, have that little nurse outfit on, with the hat tilted to the side so I can bend you over that little desk we got in the room, with the thigh-highs. Word up, and I’ma stop at the Dell store and get one of them little Screamin’ Os so you can sit your little click on it and just let it buzz off all day, you know what I’m saying, ma?"

At least, I think he says "Dell store."

The closest I can find to a sexual euphemism in this thing is Ghostface observing his "helmet head smackin' on [his sex partner's] tushy"—hardly a stretch. Earlier, when he claims to "absorb pussy juice like a sponge," Ghostface also strays just slightly from the literal. But unless the "gun on the floor" in the first verse means something I'm not catching, I think this song is 100 percent euphemism-free. Can you catch any?