I understand it's an expression of agreement. What exactly does it mean and where did it originate from?
Learn English – What’s the origin of “I’m down with it”
phrase-origin
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Best Answer
"I'm down with it" or more often "I'm down with that" is confirmation, acceptance as in "that's fine by me", or commitment. It's originally African American jazz slang from around 1935.
It was popular during the 1990s especially in rap and hip hop, also in the 1970s, and in jazz from the 1930s to at least the 1960s.
Definitions
Webster's New World American Idioms Handbook (2011) says:
A poster on Wordreference.com (2006) said:
Our Souls to Keep: Black/White Relations in America (1999) by George Henderson equates "I agree" with black English "right on" and "I'm down with that".
Law Enforcement Vocabulary (1973) by Julian A. Martin:
This version was used in Buffy The Vampire Slayer in 1998, showing overlap between being friends with someone or generally agreeable with them, and and described as mainstream slang in the book Slayer Slang: A Buffy the Vampire Slayer Lexicon (2004) by Michael Adams (first published online in 1999):
The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms (1997) shows a slightly different use:
From the introduction to A Jazz Lexicon (1964) by Robert S. Gold:
And its own entry (read online):
Early examples
From an interview with rapper Guru from Gang Starr in Blues & Soul magazine (1990):
Ebony magazine (January 1976):
New Black voices: an anthology of contemporary Afro-American literature (1972):
From Mezz Mezzrow's autobiography Really the Blues (1946) , in a reference to jazz slang of the 1930s:
A translation of terms appears in the glossary: