trickle down

okay so todd recently gave me all these old magazines he was throwing out (vice, spin, harp, etc) which is awesome. even though most of them are from 2 years ago, i was learning about stuff that i'm just hearing about now which begs the question, "what would life be like if your job was to find out what's cool." that itself could be a long, boring lament or an exuberant daydream but i got neither so i gotta move on.
the main thing i was thinking about was this. the fader i was reading on the dang elliptical was all about the word "grimey" which is like new york street slang for busted/triflin/bogus/or despicable and has been in use a long time, but recently (past years) has had a resurgence. i had just heard one of the kids in my class use it, and found myself wondering what steps the word took from mouths in nyc to a kid in my class's mouth. was it some radio track, or maybe one kid's cousin or hip uncle, and then they brought it back and someone told them they were wack the first time they said it, but it stuck?
used to, seems like, more of an emphasis was placed on "proper speech" as a reflection of intelligence etc. but our words seem to be as increasingly disposable as our furniture, plastics, clothing etc. this doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing, nawmean?