Badman is a word that was originally used in

Kingston, Jamaica Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long sand spit which connects the town of Port Royal and the Norman Manley Interna ...

in the 1980s

ska Ska (; ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a w ...

and Jamaican dancehall cultures. It was used to describe an anti-social youth who was non law-abiding and was feared by others. They were often gang members. After the integration of

Jamaican culture Jamaican culture consists of the religion, norms, values, and lifestyle that define the people of Jamaica. The culture is mixed, with an ethnically diverse society, stemming from a history of inhabitants beginning with the original inhabitants of ...

with that of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and Nor ...

in the 1970s, ''badman'' (along with several other words and phrases) became of common usage in the UK, where it has gained particular popularity in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major s ...

and the South-East. The words ''badman'' and very rarely ''badgirl'' are also associated with such UK music scenes as

grime Grime may refer to: * Dirt, in the form of black, ingrained dust * Grime (music genre), a genre of music * ''Grime'' (album), a 2001 album by Iniquity * ''Grime'' (video game), a 2021 Metroidvania video game * "Grime", a 2022 song by Dallas Woo ...

dubstep Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in South London in the early 2000s. The style emerged as a UK garage offshoot that blended 2-step rhythms and sparse dub production, as well as incorporating elements of broken be ...

and

big beat Big beat is an electronic music genre that usually uses heavy breakbeats and synthesizer-generated loops and patterns – common to acid house/techno. The term has been used by the British music industry to describe music by artists such as th ...

. The words are used in this context to describe a person who is either powerful, someone who commands respect in their neighbourhood, or someone affluent, any of which would make them ''stand out from the crowd''. In the UK grime culture, MCs whose lyrics are particularly meaningful or persuasive are said to be ''a badman''. The term can also be used sarcastically to describe somebody who has an inflated ego or brags about illegal acts. The word has parallels with other terms, such as ''

gangsta Gangsta may refer to: Urban culture * Gangsta rap, a subgenre of hip hop music that evolved from hardcore hip hop and purports to reflect urban crime and the violent lifestyles of inner-city youths * Gangster, a member of a gang * Hip hop fashion ...

'', ''

rude boy Rude boy, rudeboy, rudie, rudi, and rudy are slang terms that originated in 1960s Jamaican street culture, and that are still used today. In the late 1970s, there was a revival in England of the terms ''rude boy'' and ''rude girl'', among other ...

'', ''

yardie Yardie (or Yaadi) is a term often used, particularly within the Caribbean expatriate and Jamaican diaspora, to refer to people of Jamaican origin, though its exact meaning changes depending on context. The term is derived from the Jamaican pat ...

'', or '' bad boy''.

References

{{Reflist Jamaican culture Slang