The word “Rap” itself is a slang for talking and when rappers (or “trappers”) conjure up new terms and phrases, these expressions become bankable commodities as song lines, hooks and titles.
By Dave AlloccaLIFE Photo Collection
Great examples of this is with songs like “Stan,” “Bling Bling” “Get Your Roll On,” and most recently “Munch.”
Snoop Doggy Dogg (1994-09-09)LIFE Photo Collection
Hip-Hop slang has become so transcending from the streets to pop culture zeitgeist, that some of these colloquialisms are now in Webster’s and Merriam’s Dictionary.
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Bands, Scrilla, Shmoney, gettin to the Chicken, dodging Chicken Heads, Sauce, Drip, Dunn, Son, Kiko, Hot Boys, City Girls, Trap Queens… FO! SHIZZLE!
If you truly are to adhere to the code of the streets, comprehension of what our beloved Lords and Ladies of lingo are talking about is a must.
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Not only have the genius, inventive minds of hip-hop wordsmiths mastered the traditional King’s English, they have devised their own delectable dialect.
It’s no coincidence that after Run-DMC rapped “not bad meaning ‘bad,’ but bad meaning ‘good’” on the 1986 classic “Peter Piper,” that The King of Pop himself, Michael Jackson, called his highly anticipated follow up to Thriller, Bad, in 1987.
In the true spirit of hip-hop, the street’s coded vernacular is conceived with no rules.
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Everything comes into play such as using people’s names (Government surnames, TV and movie characters, cognomens, stage monikers, aliases) such as Ric Flair, Ellen Degeneres, Barry Bonds and Hanna Montana as euphemisms.
And some words already existed and were just shortened to fit into sentences and they stuck. “Swagg” sounds way cooler than “Swagger.”
Anna Nicole Smith/Will SmithLIFE Photo Collection
Double entendre comes into play often (reference location nicknames such as M.I. Yayo and Yay Area, the adjective “bussin’,” the noun “cake,” “dope” as a noun and adjective.) As well as an abundance of word remixing like “Fly,” “Wavy,” “Shine,” “Ice,” and “Magic Stick.”
While acronyms can be huge ( peep “C.R.E.A.M.,” “W.A.P.” “B.A.N.” and of course “G.O.A.T.”), words seemingly pulled out of thin air can have an even greater impact. We all have used “Wants” as a dis and dabbled in doing the “dab” years back.
Speaking of which, some Street Code slang words and terms can expire as everyday jargon as new generations rise and swap em out and for new vocabulary.
Ll Cool J (1991)LIFE Photo Collection
One time speak staples such as “Fresh,” “Def” and eventually “Fresh to Def” have met death as far being used on a daily basis, while “homie,” and later “wardie,” and “round” have stood the test of time. We’ve got em all here, forever immortalized!
Google Arts & Culture celebrates some of hip-hop’s illest idioms with 50 Deep and Street Code playlist.
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Words coded by the street go back to the ancestors who used slang in the days of slavery, especially while taking the Underground Railroad (the “Railroad” was slang itself, because most slaves walked the path to freedom, while some were fortunate to have horses).
By Marion CurtisLIFE Photo Collection
Centuries later, the hip-hop community adopted and popularized the practice. You can go as far back as hip-hop’s birth year 1973 to hear how MCs freaked their verbalization. 50 years later, the lyrical lexicon is still being flipped to perfection. Yes, yes y’all!
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