Last night I watched rapper Rocko’s live Ustream video with anticipation that he would stand up for his baby mama Monica who was being bullied on a social networking site. Rocko came through, though not in the forceful way that I hoped he would. He put the Internet bully in his place using tact and decorum not usually seen in a thug.

That intrigued me.

What also intrigued me was Rocko’s thug swagga. I kind of get what the chicks see in thugs. Although some may believe that a thug’s “swagga” is just compensation for their perceived shortcomings or low self-esteem, I see it differently.

What separates a thug like Rocko from your average every day male is his testosterone-fueled machismo. You can see it in everything he does. From Rocko’s intensely impersonal greetings (“What up though”), to the way he enters a room and owns it, to the way he aggressively unzipped his jacket and put his hats on. Even in the way he continuously (and some might say, annoyingly) sucked his teeth.

I know now that my uncle was a thug because my uncle displayed these same exaggerated behaviors when I was young. To me, my uncle was the coolest man on earth. He always walked with an exaggerated swagger as if he owned the air around him. And he repeatedly sucked his teeth and chewed on toothpicks even when he hadn’t eaten anything for hours.

It got my attention — and I was just a kid. Now I know why my uncle (who was average looking, at best) had so many women swarming over him like flies. My uncle knew back then what Rocko knows now — that it is their exaggerated, macho, cock of the walk manliness mixed with pride and a lack of emotion that turns women on.

I get it now.