The Sporkful cover image

The Musical History Of Jelly

The Sporkful

00:00

The Harlem Renaissance

The 1938 hip cat song "It must be jelly" is a call and response between two men talking about a woman. It invokes the tradition of going back and forth with burns like yomama jokes that has a long legacy in black American culture. The track came out just as the Harlem Renaissance drew to a close.

Transcript
Play full episode

The AI-powered Podcast Player

Save insights by tapping your headphones, chat with episodes, discover the best highlights - and more!
App store bannerPlay store banner
Get the app