Listening to hip-hop for most of my life (as well spending much of my childhood wishing I was black) has resulted in a couple of small side effects. Due to my penchant for turning the 'th' sound into an 'f' sound, there are a few words I struggle to say normally anymore. 'Teeth' becomes 'teef', 'both' becomes 'bof', 'truth' becomes 'truf'...you get it.
For the most part, I can keep this speech pattern in check during professional conversations (similar to the minor task of remembering not to ridiculously quote movies during inappropriate situations.) But the other day, during a seminar with about 25 other people in the room, when the answer the speaker was looking for was "Word of mouth", I blurted out "Word of mouf!" without turning on my white-accountant-in-his-thirties-filter. It wasn't the most awkward thing in the world or anything; it's not like I stood up and shouted "Word of mouf babayyyyyyyy! I got ho's in different area codes!"
I caught a few stray glances and half-cocked eyebrows, but most people probably just thought I had a speech impediment, or had food in my mouf or something. It wasn't quite a "When keepin' it real goes wrong" situation or anything. That being said, it won't go down as a high point in my life, either.
It's tough being from the streets. How we ever gonna come up, if this is how we get down?
