rudeboy

plural rudeboys · alternative rude boy

1. A male juvenile delinquent, originally in Jamaica in the 1960s.

   Leppo had been a rudeboy since his teens, earning his first three-month jail rap for vagrancy in 1971.

   2000, Timothy White, Catch a Fire: The Life of Bob Marley

   4 more examples

   I still use the word rudeboy cos it’s been round for longer. People’re always tryin to stick a label on our scene. That’s the problem with havin a fuckin scene. First we was rudeboys, then we be Indian niggas, then rajamuffins, then raggastanis, Britasians, fuckin Indobrits.

   2006, Gautam Malkani, Londonstani, HarperCollins, →ISBN, page 5

   We were shooting in Pittsburgh, and there were some rudeboys looking at us, like [agonisingly broad Jamaican accent]: “Ya shoodent be shoe-ting ere.” So we’re driving around in this grim area of Pittsburgh and I start talking in this over-the-top Jamaican accent.

   2014 March 6, Stuart Heritage, “Man v Food's Adam Richman – now causing Fandemonium”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 07 Jan 2019

   Since I was a teenager I have had to play different characters, negotiating the cultural expectations of a Pakistani family, Brit-Asian rudeboy culture, and a scholarship to private school.

   2016 September 15, Riz Ahmed, “Typecast as a terrorist”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 05 Apr 2020

   Few brands have been tussled over as hard by competing subcultures. From tennis nuts to Jamaican rudeboys, skinheads, mods, ska-punks, indie kids and Camden popstars, all have done the Perry polo before Proud Boys came along.

   2020 October 4, Nosheen Iqbal, “Fashion … or fascist? The long tussle over that Fred Perry logo”, in The Observer, →ISSN, archived from the original on 11 Apr 2022

   Synonyms: Rudy

2. A male enthusiast of ska music.

   "I swear I've watched as much MTV Base an Juggy D videos as they have, but I still can't attain the right level a rudeboy finesse," bemoans Jas.

   2007, Dohra Ahmad, Rotten English: A Literary Anthology

   1 more example

   The rudeboy might have evolved since his ska-fuelled early days on the streets of 1960s Jamaica, but the staples are the same: nicely buffed footwear, pork-pie hats, cropped trousers and sharp suits.

   2015 September 11, Martell Campbell & Donya Campbell, “Sharp and natty: the baddest rudeboys on the street today – in pictures”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 09 May 2017