To “Roll Deep” Is to Have Friends Who Have Your Back

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, guys. This is Rob Weitzel from Dallas, Texas.

Hi, Rob.

Hey there, Rob. What’s up?

Hey, I just had a quick question for you guys. You know the song Rolling in the Deep by Adele?

Sure.

Yeah. It’s a major hit in the United States and around the world, I’m sure. And I have no idea what that means. The title and the words in the song and all that. And I’m sure a lot of people haven’t even thought about it.

Can you sing it for us?

I think people will turn off the radio.

Yeah, I always wondered about that. I thought it maybe was a mondegreen, you know, that I was just mishearing, rolling in the, you know, I thought it was like, there’s a bathroom on the right. I got that one wrong for years. But rolling in the deep, yeah. The deep what?

She’s talked about it in an interview. She gave an interview to Rolling Stone in February of 2011 and a couple other places. And she said that she pulled it out of British slang, where if you roll deep with someone, it means that you have each other’s backs, that you’ve got somebody to lean on. You’ve got like a permanent pal, somebody who will stick with you through thick and thin.

This is always a question that comes up because it’s not something that most Americans use. We don’t know roll deep. I do believe that there’s an African-American expression that’s very similar, that it’s about being paired with somebody probably who isn’t a romantic partner, who is your like permanent friend. You know, somebody who like even when you’re down, they pull you up. And when you’re up, you pull them up with you, you know, like a permanent log rolling buddy, I guess.

Oh, so it doesn’t have anything to do with being 20,000 leagues under the sea. So the deep is a noun in this case?

Well, she’s taken the expression, which is to roll deep. Like, Martha, you and I roll deep. So she’s taken the expression roll deep and elaborated on it and used her artistic license to build it into the lyrics. So it’s a great use of idiom, I think.

Yeah, I like it. Do you like it, Rob?

Yeah, I do. I never thought about it that way. I always thought it was kind of maybe a nautical term or something, but it kind of meshes those two worlds together with some of the other lyrics about the ships and fever pitch and whatever.

Well, you can parse it out a little bit. In English, I’m sorry, in North American English, you might say, that’s how I roll. You might say, that’s the way I go. Like, for example, if you show up at a party with 20 or 30 friends that weren’t invited, you’d be like, that’s how I roll. You know, I come with a posse, right? And what that means is I operate in that way. That’s how my life is conducted, usually in a grand fashion.

So we’ve got that sense of role, which is similar to what she’s talking about. And then the deep is just simply means a strong connection. So deep meaning thoroughly or completely. So we roll deep together, Martha.

Well, yes, we do.

We do. I’m just thinking as popular as that song has been, I don’t hear people around me saying it.

Nope, we don’t, do we?

I mean, is that your experience, Rob?

I’ve never heard anybody ever say that. You hear people singing the lyrics or humming it. You’re always like, what are they? Do they even know what they’re saying? I don’t even know what it means. It could have been something horrible, you know? Doing drugs or something like that, whatever the kids are into nowadays. Rolling the, yeah.

I think even at this point, long after the album came out, there is no point in America where that song is not playing in every city, somewhere on the radio.

It’s true. It’s a great album. I think you can flip down the dial and still find that song, or maybe the other big hit off the album.

Rob, we appreciate your calling.

Appreciate you guys for having me on. Y’all have a great one.

Take care.

All right.

Bye-bye.

Take care.

Thanks.

Bye.

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