Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US black) used as a term of address/reference, with adj., e.g. bad, for (usu.) jocular characterization.

1947		S.C. Adams Jr. interviewee q. in Adams Thesis in Gordon & Nemerov Lost Delta Found (2005) 280: I wouldn't start before seven-thirty. Would just lay up in bed with my big black self, and just don't work 'fore no seven-thirty .
1968		James Brown ‘Say it Loud—I’m Black and I’m Proud’ 🎵 Uh, with your bad self, / Say it loud, I’m black and I’m proud,.
1970		G. Cain Blueschild Baby 130: ‘Get on with your bad self’.
1978		W.D. Myers It Ain’t All for Nothin’ 124: ‘[S]he [i.e. a newborn] might not even come out!’ ‘She better come out with her fresh tail self,’ Denise said.
1981		W.D. Myers Hoops 26: ‘So what you been doing with your bad self?’ Cal asked Sweet Man.
1984		Eble Campus Sl. Mar. 3: get down with your bad self – do a good job: Michael Jordan was getting down with his bad self during the game.
1996		W.D. Myers Slam! 24: ‘I got to get down to One-Two-Five Street and check out some beepers.’ ‘Go on with your bad self,’ Mtisha said. You couldn’t bring a beeper into Carver’ .
2007		W.D. Myers What They Found 16: ‘African braiding and Korean nails. Go on with your bad self!’.
2011		W.D. Myers The Cruisers: Checkmate 32: ‘I have figured out what is wrong with your dumb-butt self [...] You’re just stupid’.