No disrespect to other southern cities...

...but I've come to a firm conclusion that the term "mane" was created in Memphis, TN. Understand, as a child, my brother TzariZM and I travelled the globe. We got on at least 6 planes a year every year by ourselves starting when I was only four years old. We went everywhere. There's almost no part of the country that we haven't visited at least once. Every time we returned back to Memphis, the first thing that let me know I was back home was hearing the word "mane." NONE of the other southern cities we visited used this word. They used other words like "cuz" "cuh" "woadie" "bruh" "pimpin" and several others. "MANE" was ONLY heard in Memphis. In fact I remember going to other southern cities thinking "mane" was a southern thing, and they looked at us repeating "mane" while smiling and laughing like "where are you guys from?" My man Mave, the most Memphis sounding man ever, would go places with us, north and south, and have to explain "mane." In Memphis, there are people whose NAME is MANE. "Mane Mane" "Lil Mane" or just "Mane." "Mane, come get your breakfast!" This is a mom talking specifically to ONE person, her son, whose nickname is simply "MANE." Then outta nowhere, southern hip-hop took off and the south was on the map. It got to the point where even northern rappers were saying variations of "mane"...like "mang"...or "mayne" yet somewhere in the mix I don't think Memphis ever got its props for using that word that way. People assume its a southern thing. Look. THAT STARTED IN MEMPHIS.

Yesterday my 73 year old uncle said to my Dad, "Im 73 mane..."

He didn't get that from anyone younger. He'd been saying that since he was my age.

No one can argue with me about this. Over 20 years of research on this topic. I'm just here to #LetItBeKnown.