Homie or homey is a slang term in urban culture whose origins etymologists generally trace [1] to African American language from the late 19th century. This was a time when many African Americans were migrating to cities in larger numbers, and "homeboy" meant a male friend from back home. It was eventually shortened to "homie". The word is also a contraction of Mexican slang words "homeboy" or "homebuddies" which became prevalent among some of the youth in Latino and chicano communities in the United States, starting in the late 1960s and continuing up to the present. Since the 1980s, the word has been particularly prevalent in hip hop subculture. Homie was also commonly associated with gangs, gang symbols, and rebellious youth.
In 1992, A Lighter Shade of Brown, a Latino rap hip hop group, released the recording "Homies" on their Hip Hop Locos album, which describes what a homie is in the Latino community. The status of "homie" is similar to "my best friend" or "someone I can trust", as in, "This is my homie Alex, we've known each other since grade school," or "I won't be around this afternoon, but you can give the money to my homie James. He'll give it to me later when I see him."
In an early use of the term Ella Mae Morse, a white singer, in the original 1946 version of the song "House of Blue Lights" asks, "What's that homie?" to Freddie Slack, the writer of the song.
In the hip-hop subculture the homeboy image is important for artists and audiences. The need to appear "hip" and "fresh" with their attitudes, clothing, and jewelry is an important aspect. The inspiration for this homeboy image can be traced to Malcolm X, who also rebelled against a tradition of being perceived as ineffectual.[2] It has been argued that hip-hop has redefined the homeboy by providing him with functions that contradict society's view of him. Manthia Diawara, author of "Homeboy Cosmopolitan", writes, "Hip-hop culture gives aesthetic pleasure through ironic and parodic play with mainstream images of black people".[2] Diawara argues that hip-hop permits the creation of a new image of black cultures, because it sharply turns against preconceived notions of African-American society and allows for the creation of a new image of black Americans. This image of staying hip is always evolving with new dress styles and sayings. The referenced website gives ten ways to stay hip every week, they change drastically week to week.[3]
As a Mexican-American slang word created in Southern California with the early 20th century cholo style generation, the term can be traced back to fact-based films such as Boulevard Nights (dramatizing their culture from 1975–1978), Blood In Blood Out/Bound By Honor (1972-1984 culture), and American Me (1940-50s culture)
The Southern California slang term "choloz", or Nahuatl for "it jumps", is inspired by cultural self-identity. The word originates from a commonly believed police mantra of "Get home boy; before we beat you down". This stems from the practice of late night de facto detainment by the police in the chicano barrio; anyone found outside late at night would get a promised beating. Often it has been said that police would announce "This is your new home boy so get used to it" when orientating detainees to the jail staff. Consequently this led to the creation of the Chicano Militancy movement and neighborhood street soldiers of "homeboys" who challenged against "[white]man, e.g., power" repression.
Comedian Pablo Francisco has utilized the similarity between "homie" and "homo" in some of his stand-up routines. The trailer for a Francisco's fictional film about gay gangsters includes "They were homies... they were homie-sexuals."[4]
In recent times, on August 14, 2009, an 11 year old TV reporter, Damon Weaver, from South Florida interviewed President Barack Obama and declared that the President was now his "homeboy".[5]
In some parts of Europe, especially in the Netherlands, homeboy is also used as a pejorative term, as well as to refer to individuals with diverging sexual preferences.