Unsure of the meaning of “shizzle my nizzle” and “mish mish man,” an English high-court judge ruled rap lyrics should be treated as a “foreign language,” reports the London Daily Telegraph.
Before arriving at his decision, according to the paper, Kim Lewison considered inviting a drug dealer into the court as an expert witness.
The judge was hearing arguments on a copyright battle between two British rap bands. Ant’ill Mob claims lyrics “laid over” top of a remix of one of its songs by rival Heartless Crew amounted to “derogatory treatment” of the copyright.
Ant’ill Mob’s writer Andrew Alcee maintains the lyrics – including the phrase “string dem up” – referred to drugs and violence and “distorted and mutilated” his original tune.
Lewison admitted the case sent him scrambling to decode the lyrics, and he even consulted an Internet slang dictionary called Urban Dictionary. According to the “dictionary,” which resembles a blog where users add their own definitions to the terms, “shizzle my nizzle” has a variety of meanings, none of which referred to drugs. He said that while some definitions carried sexual connotations, the most popular definition indicated that it meant “for sure.”
The Telegraph reports the judge told the court there were no entries for “mish mish man,” but said he had heard Elephant Man, the rapper who uttered the disputed phrases, often made up words simply for their rhyming effect.
The judge concluded that although the lyrics were written in a form of English, they were “for practical purposes a foreign language,” and he had no expert evidence as to what they meant, according to the London paper.
Having failed to “decipher” the disputed phrases, and having no evidence about Alcee’s honor or reputation, the judge ultimately dismissed the case.
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