What, exactly, is a "Def OJ"???

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These are always mentioned in really old school rap songs, and I've wondered about them for years. Apparently it's a kind of car, since people are always driving off in them. But what does it stand for??

― chuck, Friday, 19 March 2004 00:42 (twenty-two years ago)

I think I read somewhere that the OJ was a kind of expensive car that you rented in the late '70s. Oldsmobile Jetta, maybe?

― Matos W.K. (M Matos), Friday, 19 March 2004 00:44 (twenty-two years ago)

It was just slang for a hoopty. OJ Simpson used to shill for Hertz in the late 70's.

― Dr. Annabel Lies (Michael Kelly), Friday, 19 March 2004 00:50 (twenty-two years ago)

definitive orange juice?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 19 March 2004 00:51 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.xs4all.nl/~cgieliam/appelsientje.gif

― JoB (JoB), Friday, 19 March 2004 00:55 (twenty-two years ago)

cos hank knew "drive off in a appelsientje" just didn't scan.

from the rap dictionary, heading "DEF":

3) (adj) Some more info on def: comes from the expression "Death O.J." but I think first used on record in "Rapper's Delight". As Nelson George defines it:"In "Rapper's Delight" the term "Death OJ" is used. In current slang "death" means
something good, while "OJ" is a reference to a big car: Erstwhile football star and all-around adman O.J. Simpson does Hertz commercials featuring Ford and Lincoln Mercury cars. If we add "death" to Ford and Lincoln Mercury cars (leaving out any
disrespectful reference to Pintos), we come up with the "Rapper's Delight" character
driving off in a Lincoln Continental." From _Buppies, B-Boys, Baps & Bohos: Notes on
Post-Soul Black Culture_ by Nelson George.

― Dr. Annabel Lies (Michael Kelly), Friday, 19 March 2004 00:59 (twenty-two years ago)

that might be it, actually, but I swore I'd read something more specific than that. maybe in that Jim Fricke Yes Yes Y'all book--I'll look it up later.

― Matos W.K. (M Matos), Friday, 19 March 2004 01:20 (twenty-two years ago)

What the fuck ever. I still insist it was Sunny D.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Friday, 19 March 2004 01:22 (twenty-two years ago)

I've never heard of the death / def connection before. You sure about that?

― JoB (JoB), Friday, 19 March 2004 01:31 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm just quoting from the Rap Dictionary, who're quoting from Nelson George. But I listened to Rapper's Delight a minute ago, very closely, and yeah, funny enough, having noticed it before but not giving it the full gravity of the discussion at hand, he actually says "Death O.J." Don't know if "Def" is absolutely derived from this usage/mis-hearing though.

― Dr. Annabel Lies (Michael Kelly), Friday, 19 March 2004 02:53 (twenty-two years ago)

Musical Culture Mondegreens: S/D?

Destroy: the Sea and Cake, except for select parts of Nassau.

― Dr. Annabel Lies (Michael Kelly), Friday, 19 March 2004 03:26 (twenty-two years ago)

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