Rihanna and Mark Ronson, wilding to the top of the charts

Two of the top 5 songs on the iTunes list of top sellers are Rihanna’s “FourFiveSeconds” and Mark Ronson’s “Uptown Funk.” The most curious link between the two songs is the use of the word “wilding.” Most sites list Ronson’s lyrics as “whilen” and Rihanna’s as “wilding” but based on the Urban Dictionary definition of “whilen”:

1) to express erratic behavior
2) to act outside of societies normal behavioral standard

And the Dictionary.com definition of “wilding”:
the practice by a group of youths of going on a random spree of violent criminal activity

I’m gonna go ahead and assume they’re both referring to the act of wilding. Now, this has been around since 1989 after the Central Park 5 were arrested in New York City. Evidently some teens were out wilding and it got them into trouble. Like, years in prison trouble. The group of teens, now adults, were released from prison after some other guy confessed to the crime. So their convictions were vacated, which basically is another way of the city saying, oops. But since a documentary was made a few years ago about the trial and convictions, wilding has become a thing. No surprise it’s now used in music as a way to say, I’m about to get my crazy on.

-Out of the Wilderness