In 1938, jazz bandleader and singer Cab Calloway published the first dictionary by an African-American, Cab Calloway's Cat-ologue: A "Hepster's" Dictionary, which became the official jive language reference book of the New York Public Library.
"[5] However, H. L. Mencken in The American Language defined jive as "an amalgam of Negro-slang from Harlem and the argots of drug addicts and the pettier sort of criminals, with occasional additions from the Broadway gossip columns and the high school campus".
[7] In 1953, Albert Lavada Durst published the Jives of Dr. Hep Cat,[8] a collection of rhymes compiled when he was at KVET in Austin, where he did late night R&B.
Mezz Mezzrow gave this sample: Second Cat: Hey Mezzie, lay some of that hard-cuttin' mess on me.
I'm gonna lay a drape under the trey of knockers for Tenth Street and I'll be on the scene, wearin' the green.