Ragga-muffin

noun RA-ga-muf-fin ˈraɡamʌfɪn

Also spelled raggamuffin, ragamuffin, ragga

A ghetto youth — a rough-and-ready, streetwise young person from the poorer inner-city areas, dressed and carrying themselves in raw dancehall style. Once simply meaning a ragged, scruffy person, in Jamaica 'raggamuffin' became a proud badge of ghetto identity and a whole dancehall style ('ragga') of hard, digital-riddim music and street fashion.

  • Di raggamuffin youth dem run di dancehall.

    The ghetto youths run the dancehall scene.

  • Him a raggamuffin, straight from di ghetto.

    He's a raggamuffin, straight from the ghetto.

  • Ragga music hard an digital.

    Ragga music is hard and digital.

From 'ragamuffin' (a ragged person), reclaimed as a proud ghetto-youth and dancehall-style label. See [[rude-bwoy]], [[ghetto]].

A streetwise ghetto youth; also the 'ragga' dancehall style. See [[rude-bwoy]], [[shotta]].