to declare yourself, to brag, to boast.

elaborate word games played out in African American vernacular tradition, also called "playing the dozens," saying one thing to mean another in a bragging fashion.

Signifyin(g) (Gates) or signifyin' (slang) is an African-American rhetorical device featuring indirect communication or persuasion and the creating of new meanings for old words and signs. Signifying, in this sense, includes repetition and difference, implication and association, combining words and meanings to create or associate new ones. In everyday practice it consists of telling people you know what you think about them or their actions, or making some other point, in an indirect way.