Paul Hartzer wrote:

>> I think it may have come from it's similarity with "beach",
>> stretched out to "be-ach".
>
> I don't think so. While I did mention Pauly Shore (a "surfer
> dude" sort of actor), the word seems to be widely associated with
> gangsta rap culture, which is overwhelmingly urban and not
> particularly associated with beaches (with a few exceptions, such
> as Venice Beach, California). What is associated with gangsta rap
> culture is a variety of pronunciation changes, such as -er# ->
> -a# (as in gangsta), Snoop Dogg's infixing or consonant
> replacement with -zz- or -izzle (as in hizzouse, "house" and
> shizzle, "sure," as in "for shizzle my nizzle," i.e., "for sure,
> my [brother]"). One Urban Dictionary entry credits "biatch" to
> Snoop Dogg, but I don't think that's correct (if he uses it,
> though, that would certainly account for its spread, especially
> among white urban males trying to sound tough; I recall Snoop
> Dogg complaining that white people had to stop using "nizzle"
> because it was obvious they didn't get what it meant).

I doubt this, especially since the term predates this. "Biatch" is
a pronunication I've never used but heard it used before rap noise
became an influence.

> It could also be a memetic bowlderization, started by someone in
> order to make it past TV censors (US TV censors are notoriously
> simplistic in their treatment of obscenities; in the movie
> "Johnny Dangerously," for instance, a character with a heavy
> accent says things like "icehole," which is clearly meant to be
> "asshole," but because it *isn't* "asshole," it makes it to
> primetime), and having since caught on.

This is more likely as people often say things like "gosh darn"
instead of "god damn" or "son of a beach" instead of "son of a
bitch". Before that movie, I never heard "sons of bastages", but
that too is in use now.