U MAD?
About[]
“U MAD?”, sometimes written as “you mad?” or “u mad bro?”, is a popular catchphrase that is often used in discussion threads to imply that someone is losing their temper during the course of an argument, and is often used to taunt or bait others into a flamewar. Due to the incendiary nature of the phrase, it is often considered a form of trolling.
Origin[]
in the context of hip hop music, the phrase “You mad, ‘cause [I’m better than you]” is a dissing technique that has its roots in freestyle battling and can be often heard on “diss tracks”.[1]
The first image macro featured the Harlem-based rapper Cam’Ron pointing off camera with the captioned text “YOU MAD.” The image came from a segment on the Bill O’Reilly Show where Cam’Ron appeared with producer Damon Dash in November of 2003.
DAMON DASH: How do you hurt children by promoting to be an entrepreneur and a CEO and to do right…
(CROSSTALK)
O’REILLY: Hold it! Hold it! You’re looking at a principal…
CAM’RON: Why don’t you want to let him talk? You mad. You mad.
O’REILLY: You won’t let me finish.
CAM’RON: Where did you start, A Current Affair, right?
O’REILLY: No, wrong.
CAM’RON: I’m going to get at you in a minute.
O’REILLY: You go ahead. You get at me.
CAM’RON: I’m going to get at you in a minute.
Spread[]
the first Urban Dictionary submission was created by user Johnny Twoguns[4] on August 13th, 2004. A “u mad” YTMND[6] page was created on September 25th, 2005. On the Body Building Forums, a thread titled “‘U Mad’ pictures”[5] was posted on June 20th, 2007.
The phrase is often used in discussions threads on 4chan to taunt other users, and an example of this can be seen in an archived 4chan[3] thread from March 28th, 2011. Several Facebook[2] groups exist referencing “u mad”, and a “u mad bro?” has 25,165 likes as of September 6th, 2011.
High School Sign Controvensy[]
On September 3rd, 2011, Fox 8 Cleveland[8] reported on a group of high school students in Ohio that were accused of “racial intimidation” for displaying a “YOU MAD BRO” banner during a football game. “At the conclusion of the game, some of their students and parents put up a sign that we believe was racial intimidation, ethnic intimidation,” said Roderick Coffee, president of the Lake County chapter of the NAACP, who was also at the game.
“For them to put it up there that was bad sportsmanship, too,” Painesville Harvey football player, Jerome Becks said.
The big sign read: ‘You Mad Bro.’The article was subsequently posted to Reddit[9] and Gawker[7] on September 5th, 2011.