I N T E R N E T ' S T O T A L L Y U N O F F I C I A L
R A P D I C T I O N A R Y
Hi,
This is the first part of the bi-weekly posting of the Totally Unofficial
Rap Dictionary to alt.rap. It is extracted from the WWW version accessible
at:
http://www.sci.kun.nl/thalia/rapdict/
This Rap Dictionary is not intended to show the only correct spelling
of words; slang is mostly a spoken language an noone exactly knows how to
spell things. A word might mean something other to you than displayed
here; that is because all words and corresponding meanings have been
put in the list on a "goes until challenged by someone" basis.
I have followed the English rules, writing out words fully. Most verbs
are usually written differently, though. Take for example "cruising",
which will usually be spelled like "cruisin'", or "brother" which is
often seen as "brotha". Some starting with an "f" are often written
with "ph", like "phat" or "phunky". And what to think of a thing like
"Doowutchalike"?
Where possible I have added a source in the form
"<line>" -- <artist> (<song> [year])
to show in what context the word can be used. Note the _a_, I don't
mean _the_ source, since that would take ages of debating. ;-)
Note that in slang or dialects the grammar is not strongly typed, so
nouns can be verbs etcetera. Slang for gun and penis is almost always
interchangable.
Wherever you encounter "(?)" I am not sure about whatever I am saying there.
"???" means that I don't have that particular piece of information. If you
know more than I, please let me know.
Please help making this list more complete. If it wasn't for the help of
the UseNet alt.rap community, this list wouldn't be one percent of its
current size. Feel free to use or to contribute to this list. I don't
want anyone (including myself) to use this list for financial gain, though.
Also I would like to thank Patrick 'Tricky' Atoon for starting this
dictionary. He has collected most of the words in this Totally Unofficial
Rap Dictionary!
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-- 0-9 --
_1 and 2_
Turntables. _"DJ behind the 1 and 2"_.
_1-2 checker_
1) Checking the MIC.
2) Checking the scene.
_10_
A gun. _"Had my ten in my hand"_ -- Coolio (Gangsta's paradise
[1995]).
_10%_
See 5%. _"Ten percent took a loss"_ -- Boots of The Coup.
_107.5_
(n) A NYC radio station that helped bring hip-hop to the radio.
_1200_
1) (n) The Technics SL 1200 is regarded as the best turntable
for DJ'ing. The reason for this is its very, very high torque.
If you hit the start/stop button, the platter will reach top
speed within a 1/4th revolution. Not many turntables can match
that. _"My DJ you know 1200's he's using, I don't!"_ --
Schoolly D. (I don't like rock 'n roll [??])
2) (n) SP-1200 sampler, a top of the line product.
_1555_
(n) The year the first slaveships arrived in America. _"Sayin'
1555 how I'm livin'"_ -- Public Enemy (Can't truss it [??]).
_186_
(n) Police term for a murder or homicide. To be on the lookout
for someone who is trying to kill you.
_187_
(n) Californian penal code number for homicide. The police in
California uses the penal code numbers as shorthand on the
radio. Eg. in Oregon the code for homicide is _"163.005"_,
different from California. _"Try to set me up for a 211, fuck
around and get caught up in a 187"_ -- Dr. Dre (Let me ride
[1992]).
_2 to 4_
(n) The duration of a imprisonement sentence, two to four years
in jail. _"Hit with a 2 to 4 is difficult"_ -- Mobb Deep
(Survival of the fittest [1995]).
_20_
(n) See twenty sack. _"I'm an addict for sneakers, 20's of
buddah and bitches with beepers"_ -- NAS (New York state of
mind [1994]).
_21 Cerritos_
(n) Long Beach crip set. The Dogg Pound and Warren G have
rumored association with them. _"But you don't really know
about, you know, the Cerritos silly ho"_ -- Daz (Who gotz some
gangsta shit [1994]).
_211_
(n) Police code for armed robbery. _"Try to set me up for a
211, fuck around and get caught up in a 187"_ -- Dr. Dre (Let
me ride [1992]).
_212_
(n) A New York area code.
_213_
(n) The name of a group with Snoop, Nate Dogg and Warren G.
This group was separated when they all got big. _"Way back then
213 was the clique"_ -- Warren G (Do you see [1994]).
(n) Los Angeles area code.
_22_
(n) 22 caliber gun. _"Twentytwo automatic on my person"_ --
Beastie Boys (Rhymin' & stealin' [1986])
_24/7, 24/7/365_
(n) All the time, from 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days
a year.
_25 with an L_
(n) 25 years to life sentence. _"25 with an izL"_ -- Snoop
Doggy Dog (Murder was the case [1993]).
_30_
(n) A firearm of .30 calibre.
_310_
(n) The area code for Long Beach.
_357_
(n) A .357 Magnum pistol. _".357 break it on down"_ -- LL Cool
J. (.357 Break it on down [1987]).
_36 chambers_
1) (n) The 36 chambers a warrior has to go through to become a
Shaolin. Every chambers has a special task the warrior has to
complete in order to be able to continue to the next chamber.
The RZA said in an interview with Billboard Magazine that there
are nine members in the Clan, and each member has four chambers
in his heart, which makes 9x4 = 36 chambers.
2) (n) There are 36 'death-points' on the body, each seperated
from the other at 10 degree intervals, where the trained Wu
expert can cause death at a single blow.
_38_
1) (n) 38 caliber pistol.
2) (n) _"38 hot"_ means very angry.
_380_
(n) A .380 calibre handgun. _"Unpacked and I grabbed my three
eighty cause where we stayin', niggaz look shady"_ -- Ice Cube
(Summer Vacation [1991]).
_4 pound_
(n) 45 caliber (1 caliber = 1/100th inch) gun.
_40_
(n) A 40-ounce bottle of malt liquor. _"Use to drink every day,
straight 40's to the head"_ -- Ice-T. (Ed [1991]).
_411_
(n) Information, from the US phone number for information.
_4-5-6_
(n) See celo. See the song _"456"_ by Kool G Rap.
_4-9-3-11_
(n) The numbers represent letters of the alphabet; 4 is D, 9 is
I, and so on. These numbers spell _"dick"_. _I be comin'
through like the 4-9-3-11 tearing up the power-U"_ -- Method
Man (Meth vs Chef [1994]).
_5% Nation_
5% Nation -- A group which started as an offshoot of the NoI.
They teach that any large group of people, and more
specifically, the African American nation, can be divided into
three groups, the 85% = basically the ignorant masses which
need to be led, the 5% = the people with true knowledge of self
whose job it is to lead the masses and fight against the 10%,
the 10% = people who have partial knowledge of self and use it
to gain power and wealth by exploiting the 85, also referred to
as "bloodsuckers of the poor". The chosen percentages are what
they feel that the percentages are within the black community.
These numbers are neither universal (all though these groups do
exist within any large group) nor unchangeable. _"That'll be
the day the five percent eat swine"_ -- Dred Scott (Breakin'
combs [1994]).
_5 on it_
Five dollars on a sac of marihuana. _"I got five on it"_ -- The
Luniz (I got five on it [1995]).
_5-plated_
(adj) Nickel plated.
_5 0_
1) (n) A police officer, from the series Hawaii Five-O. The
word is used mainly in East LA. _"Five-O said 'freeze', and I
got numb"_ -- Public Enemy (Bring the Noise).
2) (n) A 5.0 liter Ford Mustang, which is used as a police
vehicle in some areas.
_5000_
(interj) A farewell bidding, from _"I'm outta here"_, which
evolved to _"I'm Audi"_, and to _5000"_ after the Audi 5000
car, which got recalled and is a rare sight nowadays. _"Yo, we
outta here, 5000, G!"_ -- Ice Cube and Flavor Flav (I'm only
out for one thang [1990]).
_502_
(n) 25 years ago, California had a vehicle code 502 for drunk
driving. The current code is 23152(a) vc. _"Fuck the police and
a 502"_ -- N.W.A. (8-ball [??]).
_5150_
(n) Code of the California Legal Codes that stands for a
mentally unstable person. Also the name of an old Van Halen
album. It is also a track on Da Luniz' album _"Operation
Stackola"_.
_64_
1) (n) A 64-ounce bottle of malt liquor. _"40's are no more
because now I'm drinkin' 64s"_ -- Grand Puba (Three Men at
Chung King)
2) (n) A 1964 Chevrolet Impala. _"Jumped in the 64 with the
diamond in the back, sunroof top"_ -- N.W.A. (Gangsta, gangsta
[1988]).
_7-11_
1) (n) All-night convenience store, which was originally open
from 7am to 11pm when other stores were closed. _"He always has
me open like a 7-11"_ -- Salt 'n Pepa (What a man [??]).
2) (n) From the dice game called craps, rolling a 7 and then 11
wins. _"Shake em up, shake em, rollin with a couple of homies
and watch me break em with a seven, seven-eleven"_ -- Ice Cube
(Today was a good day [1993]).
_8-ball_
1) (n) Old English 800, a popular beer in the hood.
2) (n) An eightball is literally, in drug terms, an eight of an
ounce. There are twenty-eight grams in an ounce, and hence,
three and one half grams in an eightball. In places where an
eightball is less than three and a half grams, the laws of
supply and demand have constricted the quantity in favor of a
popular price.
3) (n) On to it. Ie: _"on the 8-ball"_, up with the play.
4) (n) The 8-ball is the last ball to pot in the billiards game
of pool. If you accidentally pot it before the end of the game,
you lose. So, the 8-ball also represents chance.
_808_
1) (n) The bassdrum from a Roland TR-808 drum machine, which is
now a popular sample.
2) (n) The penal code for disturbing the peace. Refers to the
sound of bass from stereos.
_85%_
See 5%. _"Why? That's most asked by 85"_ -- Ladybug of Digable
Planets (???).
_86_
(v) To kill a plan or action. In the restaurant lingo it means
that you want to cancel an order already placed with the
kitchen or on the bill. _"86 that spinach salad!"_.
_9, 9mm_
(n) 9 mm gun. _"My nine is easy to load"_ -- L.L. Cool J. (Mama
said knock you out [1990])
_9 to 5_
(n) A job where you work from 9:00 am till 5:00 pm. _"While
your were at your job working nine to five, the Beastie Boys
were at the garden cold kickin' it live!"_ -- Beastie Boys (No
sleep till Brooklyn [1986]).
_911_
(n) The US phone number for emergencies. _"Now I dialed 911 a
long time ago"_ -- Public Enemy (911 is a joke).
_917_
(n) New York City area code where all the cellular phones and
pagers are on.
_950_
(n) The Akai S-950, a widely used rackmount sampler. A nice
piece of equipment that allowed the producer to _"stretch"_ the
sound wave so that the sample could be sped up or slowed down
without changing the pitch. It was made popular by the Bomb
Squad who used them to stack samples thus giving their tracks
the dope sound. From the Alkaholiks (The next level [1994]).
_98 Oldsmobile_
(n) A make of Oldsmobile, usually considered to be their best
make of car, year after year. A real status symbol. _"My 98 is
tough to chase"_ -- Public Enemy (You gonna get yours [1987]).
_97.1_
(n) HOT 97, A CHR-turned-hip hop station in New York.
_98.7_
(n) WRKS KISS FM, a NYC radio station that helped bring hip-hop
to the radio.
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-- A --
_a_
(v) Going to. _"I'm a do it like this"_
_Ac_
The Acura Legend, a brand car. _"With the Mac in the Ac door
panelin'"_ -- Notorious BIG (Unbelievable [1994]).
_afro_
1) (n) Hairstyle like the Jackson Five had, much hair and round
like a ball.
2) (n) Person with an afro. _"Don't laugh hoes, I'm down with
The Afro's"_ -- Ice Cube (I gotta say what up!!! [1990]) (note
that Cube refers to a rap group).
_AK/AK-47_
(n) Assault rifle of Russian origin, nowadays produced in
China. The letters stand for Alexander Kalashnikov, who
invented the gun in World War II. _"My AK-47 is the tool"_ --
Da Lench Mob (Freedom got an AK [1993]) (originally from NWA
(Straight out of Compton)).
_Aliz�_
(n) French beverage made from passion fruit and cognac.
_all that_
(adj) in possession of all good qualities.
_Alpine_
(n) Make of car stereo, the actual brand name is _"Alpina"_.
From the name of the manufacturers of the top in-car speaker
systems. _"Sit back and let the Alpine blast"_ -- Jazzy Jeff &
The Fresh Prince (Summertime [1991]).
_am_
(n) The morning, as in A.M. _"Steppin' to the am"_ -- 3rd Bass
(The cactus album [1989]).
_Amarredos_
Italian bit-size cookies that often come with meals. _"eatin'
better amerados"_ -- Raekwon (Investigative Reports [??]).
_A&R_
(n) Refers to Artist and Repetoir execs in record companies
they are hooked up with an artist to help to find new artists
and put out an image for them. artists albums. _"First of all,
who's your A&R, a mountain climber who plays an electric
guitar?"_ -- Wu Tang Clan (Protect ya neck [1994]).
_around the way_
(n) From the neighbourhood. _"From around the way"_ -- Beastie
Boys (No sleep till Brooklyn [1986]).
_axe_
(v) Ask. _"Gave her ten dollars, then she axed me for some
more"_ -- Schoolly D. (P.S.K. (what does it mean?) [??]).
_ay yo trip_
(interj) Phrase to seek attention, compare _"Check this out"_.
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-- B --
_bag up_
1) (v) To laugh real hard at something.
2) (v) To be caught or arrested by the police.
3) (v) To have sexual intercourse with. _"Bag up bitches from
John Jay"_ -- Nas (One Love [1994]).
_bail out_
(v) Run away for someone.
_bamma'_
1) (n) Person who cannot dress, a loser. _"Me and the rest of
the bammers"_ -- Question Mark Asylum (Deriving from teh D.C.
area [??]).
2) Shake, a type of marijuana from the leaves rather than the
buds of the hemp plant.
_bang_
1) (v) To fight to kill
_banger_
1) (n) Banger: someone associated with gangs and murder.
2) (n) Rocker, from headbanging.
_bank_
(n) Money. _"That's cool cause I whipped out bank"_ -- Sir
Mix-a-lot (I got game [??]).
_battle_
(v) To compete, usually freestyle rapping, sometimes
breakdancing or graffiti. _"You want to rap and you got no
battle, it's like havin' a boat and you got no paddle"_ --
Public Enemy (??? [1987]).
_bawla_
(n) Someone who has established himself in the hood, who is
making much money (beit illegitimate or not), and who is good
with the ladies; it is a Blood term. The Crip version of this
word is _"highroller"_.
_b-boy_
(n) From _"break boy"_; one who breakdances. _B-boys in the
front, back, side and middle, check out my b-boy rhyme and
riddle"_ -- Schoolly D. (B-boy rhyme [??]).
_beam me up, Scotty_
(interj) Give me crack.
_beamer_
(n) Expensive European car: BMW, status symbol. Used by Tribe
Called Quest on Low End Theory. References to 325i's are to BMW
3-series models with a 2.5 litre engine. References to 735i's,
740i's, 750i's are to models in the 7-series range of BMW
models. The 750iL is the flagship model made by BMW. A
reference to the a seven series model is found in Ice Cube's
_"Ghetto Bird"_. 850i's (mentioned in Wu-Tang's "Can It All
Be...") is to the BMW 850i Coup�.
_bean_
(n) Head or brain.
_beef_
1) (n) And argument or discrepancy with another individual or
group of individuals. The following citation is from the book
Juba to Jive: the dictionary of African-American slang, by
Clarence Major. Beef n. (1930s-1940s; 1960s-1970s) an _"old"_
word dating back to general criminal use in the thirties. For
young black in the sixties and later it meant roughly the same
as it had earlier: a complaint or argument; a disagreement in
progress.
2) (n) Sexual meat, like a penis. _"No service of beef ...
meaning to have sex"_ -- NWA (Parental Discretion Iz Advised
[??])
_bend_
(n) A prostitute. _"She was more than just a bend"_ -- Grand
Puba
_Benz_
1) (n) Expensive European car: Mercedes Benz, status symbol.
_"I used to get no play, now she stays behind me, 'cause I said
I had a Benz 190"_ -- N.W.A. (I ain't the one [1988]).
2) (interj) Used to acknowledge _"Audi"_, meaning goodbye.
_Benzi-box_
1) (n) A pull out radio. _"Here come the cops... put the
Benzi-box under the seat"_ -- Naughty by Nature (Strike a nerve
[1991]).
2) (n) A box full of Mercedes Benz emblems that were stolen off
the cars.
_being [down] with something_
(v) Favouring something, thinking the same way. _"Howie Tee,
are you with me?"_ -- The Real Roxanne and Howie Tee ((Bang
zoom) let's gogo).
_berry_
(n) A crack fiend that will perform sexual favors for crack or
loot. _"Didn't even see a berry flashing those high beams"_ --
Ice Cube (Today was a good day [1993]). Cube is talking about
not even having seen a woman exposing her breasts to him.
_BG_
1) (n) Baby gangster, as opposed to OG. An OG has shot
somebody, a BG has not shot anyone yet. _"I quit school cuz of
recess, you fuckin BG"_ -- Snoop Doggy Dogg (Pump Pump [1993]).
2) (n) Black gangster.
_bill_
(n) A one hundred dollar banknote.
_bima_
(n) See beamer. _"Lex, coupe, bimaz, benz"_ -- Lost Boyz (???
[??]).
_bird_
(n) Kilo. _"A bird in the hand"_ -- Ice Cube (A bird in the
hand [1991]).
_bitch_
1) (n) Prostitute; girls call each other _"What's up, bitch?"_
Doesn't necessarily have to be negative. Doesn't have to mean
females either. _"Cause some of y'all niggas is bitches too"_
-- Ice T (Bitches 2 [1991]).
2) (v) To curse or nag about something.
_bite_
1) (v) To copy lyrics from other people. _"I know you down
south are biting my lines, and if I catch you boy, your ass is
mine"_ -- Schoolly D. (Gucci time)
2) (v) To steal
_bizzo_
1) (n) A girl. _"My seven bizzos"_ -- 2 Live crew (My seven
bizzos [1989]).
2) (n) Someone who is bizarre.
_black book_
1) A small book carried by graffiti artists for others to do
work in.
2) A book to carry phone numbers in.
3) The Bible.
_Black Panther movement_
(n) This movement was founded in Oakland, California by Huey P.
Newton, H.R. Brown and Bobby Seale. Fought for the rights of
black to bear arms like white people in the late 1960's and the
early 1970's.
_blast_
(v) To smoke crack.
_blend_
(n) See marihuana.
_blindside_
(v) To creep up on someone.
_blood_
1) (n) Blood brother
2) (n) Member of the Bloods gang.
_blunt_
(n) See marihuana. Marijuana cigarette, herb stuffed cigar,
generally phillies.
_blunted_
(v) Under influence of a blunt. _"Made a little record for the
blunted to chill with"_ -- Cypress Hill (Hand on the pump
[1993])
_BM_
(n) See beamer. _"Drop top BM's, I'm the man, girlfriend"_ --
Notorious BIG (Big Poppa [??]).
_boat_
(n) Marijuana laced with embalming fluid.
_bomb_
1) (n) Marijuana laced with heroin.
2) (adj) Very good. _"Dre be playing them bomb beats"_ -- ???
(??? [??]).
_bone_
1) (v) To have sexual intercourse. _"Your aim is to bone"_ --
Tribe Called Quest (Classic example of a date rape).
2) (n) Penis. _"You can act like a doggy, and play with my
bone"_ -- Schoolly D. (Another poem [??]). 3) (n) One dollar.
4) (n) Core, soul. _"I'm a rock hard trooper to the bone"_ --
Public Enemy (Louder Than A Bomb)
5) (v) To bone out, as in leaving. _"They all got in the car
and boned out"_ -- Smokey (Friday [1995]).
6) (n) A joint. _"Smokin' bones in the staircase"_ -- Wu-Tang
Clan (C.R.E.A.M. [??]).
_bones_
(n) Dominos.
_boneyard_
1) (n) Graveyard.
2) (n) Domino pile to draw from.
_bong_
(n) A waterpipe for smoking marijuana. The marijuana is
filtered through the water. When you suck it decreases the
pressure in the chamber so the smoke get pulled through the
water so it looks like it boiling. It is good because it
filters out some of the bad stuff like tar. It also cools the
smoke to make it less harsh.
_boo_
(n) A term of endearment, like baby. _"I'll be in here, boo"_
-- Method Man (You're all I need [1994]).
_boo boo head_
(n) Whore, deceitful woman. Used mostly around the Bay Area,
especially East Bay (check the whole song dedicated to this
word by Del on his No Need For Alarm album).
_booster_
(n) A shoplifter.
_booty_
1) (adj) Not good, lacking. _"And them rhymes you were kickin
were quite bootylicious"_ -- Snoop Doggy Dogg (Dre Day [??]).
2) (n) Bottom, ass. Or getting a piece of ass.
3) (n) Biblical, as in pirates booty or treasure. Since booty
is stolen treasure, it could be good or bad. Often used in the
negative today.
_boo-yaa_
1) (n) Totally dope, incredibly fine. Probably orignated from
the _"Boo-yaa Tribe"_. _That shit was straight-up boo-yaa"_ --
??.
2) (n) Impression of the sound of a shotgun, also
_"boo-yaaka"_. _"Shotgun goes boo-ya"_ -- Cypress Hill (Hand on
the pump [1993]).
3) (n) Marijuana, probably derived from Buddha. 4) (n) Crack,
probably related from the fact that smoking crack is sort of
equivalent to putting a shotgun to your head and pulling the
trigger.
_bounce_
1) (v) To leave, to get up, to break. _"You mean bounce... I'm
with you, bounce right outta NYC"_ -- Raekwon (??? [??]).
2) (n) Form of music from New Orleans. Check Mystikal's album
for a song called _"Neva gonna bounce"_.
3) (n) A reference to the Banhead Bounce, a dance made famous
in Atlanta rap music.
_bout it_
(n) Real, not fake, true to the game. _"I'm bout it, bout it"_
-- Master P (Bout it, bout it [1995]).
_box_
(n) Video Music Box, a NYC hip-hop video music show.
_boy_
(n) Friend, possibly short for homeboy. _"That's my boy"_.
_boys in blue_
(n) Police. _"As I ran there were the boys in blue, pointing
their guns at my four man crew"_ -- Boogie Down Productions
(Love's gonna getcha [1990]).
_bozack, 'zack_
(n) Scrotum.
_Brass Monkey_
1) (n) an alcoholic concoction available in liquor stores.
_"Drinking Brass Monkey"_ -- Beastie Boys (Brass Monkey
[1986]).
_break to_
1) Comes from the Biblical term _"selah"_. Comes from music,
_"on the break"_, but for hip-hop refers to the break in the
record that is created by the DJ. _"Beats and breaks"_.
2) (v) transport onesself to, often quickly.
_break off_
(v) Marijuana is sometimes sold as little blocks. So, breaking
off some means to share the good stuff with others. _"Break ya
off something"_ -- Cypress Hill (Insane in the brain [1993]).
_bremelo_
(n) Derogative term for fat ugly women from Bremerton, WA, a
working-class town with a Naval Base. The joke is that these
women hang around and _"chasin' fellas in the Navy"_.
_brick_
1) (adj) Very cold.
2) (v) To punch.
3) (n) A quantity of cocaine.
_broady_
(v) To take or steal something.
_broccoli_
(n) See marihuana. _"With a handful of broccoli"_ -- Spice 1
(??? [??]).
_brother_
(n) Man of the same group; friend. In the Bible you will read
_"brethern"_, which is used in the same meaning.
_doing a buck 50_
(v) To speed or get out of a bad situation. Derived from a
_"buck"_, or dollar. A buck fifty would then be 1.50, referring
to doing 150 miles per hour.
_bucket_
(n) Old car in bad shape. _"So I moved on an old car, it was a
bucket, but fuck it, it had to do"_ -- Ice-T. (Midnight
[1991]).
_buckwilding_
(v) To get buckwild means to have sex, see also wilding. A
_"buck"_ is a young, unbroken horse that cowboys try to master
at a rodeo. _"Get buckwild with the white freaks, show 'em how
to really work the white sheets"_ -- Body Count (KKK Bitch
[1992]).
_buddah_
(n) See marihuana. _"I'm an addict for sneakers, 20's of buddah
and bitches with beepers"_ -- NAS (New York state of mind
[1994]).
_buddy_
1) (n) At the start of De La soul's _"Buddy"_ video, Prince
Paul makes a statement to the effect that _"Buddy means body."_
2) (n) Sexual partner. A bit more than a friend.
3) (adj) Something that appears okay at first, but is actually
a cheap imitation; a knockoff, ripoff or fake. Said to be from
_"Buddies"_ which are shoes that look cool but fall apart real
quickly. _"Get that buddy shit out of here"_ -- (???).
_bug_
(v) To act strange, crazy, weird. See ill. _"You don't have to
take us seriously, we're only buggin'"_ -- Whistle (Only
buggin' [1984]).
_bumrush_
1) (n) Crash the gates of a show with a pack of people, in the
hope to get in without having to pay. _"Yo!Bum rush the show"_
-- Public Enemy. (Yo!Bum rush the show) [1987].
2) (v) To get beaten up by a large, angry group of people.
_bunk_
1) (adj) Unpleasant, bad.
2) (n) A load of bunk: a lot of nonsense.
_burner_
1) (n) A large piece of graffiti usually involving many colors.
2) (n) A gun.
_bust a nut_
(v) To ejaculate.
_bust this_
(interj) Pay attention. _"But bust this!"_ -- Ice-T (Bitches 2
[1991]).
_bust slugs_
(v) To fire bullets. _"And bust some slugs for South Africa"_
-- Heather B. with BDP (Seven MC's)
_busta_
1) (n) Fake person, weak individual. _"Busta ass nigga talkin'
bullshit"_ -- Dr. Dre (Rat-a-tat-tat [1992]).
2) (n) A snitch, a person who tattle-tales.
_butt_
1) (n) Bottom.
2) (adj) Not good, lacking. _"Get yourself some toilet paper
'cause your lyrics is butt"_ -- Tribe Called Quest (Low End
Theory).
_butter_
(adj) Well liked, smoothed out. _"Phife Dog is on the mic and
I'm smooth like butter. It's like butter, not no Parkay, not no
margerine, strictly butter, baby"_ -- A Tribe Called Quest
(Butter [??]).
_buyaka_
(n) Jamaican, resembles the sound of gunshots. See boo-yaa.
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-- C --
_cap_
1) (n) Bullet. _"I'm a pop a cap in him"_ -- Jules in the movie
_"Pulp Fiction"_
2) (n) Cranium, top of the skull. _"Blood's on my gear, from
caps I've peeled"_ -- Ice-T. (Mic contract [1991]).
3) (n) Crack.
_Casper_
(interj) _"I'm Casper"_, I'm out of here, I'm ghost. From the
Casper the ghost cartoon.
_cat_
1) (n) Vagina. _"Sprung on the Cat"_ -- Sir Mixalot (Sprung on
the cat [1992]). 2) (n) Person. Used in the 70s. _"You cant
take the jungle out of the cat"_ -- Jeru Tha Damaja (Frustrated
Nigger [1995]).
3) (adv) When someone is being a pussy about something. _"Why
don't you ask the girl out and stop being so cat?"_
_cateye_
1) To stare at a woman/man with sexual intentions.
2) A stud with many women.
_cave bitch_
(n) Female version of _"cave boy"_. Ice Cube (Cave bitch
[1993]).
_cave boy_
(n) A white person. Derived from the theory that early white
man lived in caves.
_C.B._
1) (n) See cock block.
2) (n) Cell block.
3) (n) Trucker radio.
_-cha_
You. _"I'm comin' to getcha"_ -- Ice Cube (I'm gonna wetcha
[1993])
_in check_
(n) Under control by someone else. Probably from a game of
chess.
_cheeba_
1) (n) See marihuana. Company inscriptions on pharmaceutical
drugs read "ciba", pronounced "cheeba".
2) (n) Black, sticky, gooey Brazilian marijuana often sold in
pounds. _"Some call it cheeba, some call it weed"_ -- Schoolly
D. (Saturday night [??]).
_cheese_
(n) money; material wealth (from Bone: Thugs & Harmony).
_chickenhead_
1) (n) Any dumb person (usually refers to women unfortunately)
who clucks (speaks) alot, and walks around aimlessly or without
purpose (like a chicken with its head cut off). _"Give me all
the chickenheads from Pasadena to Medina, let B.I.G. get in
between ya"_ - Total featuring the B.I.G. (Can't you see
[1995]).
2) (n) A derrogatory term used when referring to females who
perform oral sex on males, because of the motion of the woman's
head: back and forth, like a chichenhead. _"With the
chickenheads cluckin' in the bathroom"_ -- ??? (?? [??]).
3) Crack addict, because many will perform oral sex to get free
crack or money. Repeatedly referred to in _"Do or die"_, a book
about the conflict between the Crips and the Bloods in South
Central.
_chill_
1) (n) Relax. _"Why don't you just chill"_ -- L.L. Cool J. (Eat
em up L chill [1990]).
2) (adj) Mellow.
_chulo_
(n) The word in Spanish directly translates to "pimp". In Spain
the word means _"cool"_. It is synonymous with _bad ass"_ or
_"bad guy"_. _Vatos, chulos, call us what you will"_ -- Kid
Frost (La Raza [1990]).
_chrome_
1) (n) Gun. _"Now I gotta follow him home with the chrome"_ --
Ice Cube (Robbin' hood [1994]).
2) Chrome wheel. _"Sittin' on da chrome"_ -- Masta Ace Inc.
[1995].
_chronic_
(n) See marihuana. Incredibly potent marihuana, it started out
as weed laced with coke. _"The Chronic"_ -- Dr. Dre (The
Chronic [1992]).
_chronic flakes_
(n) Ashes from a marihuana cigarette. _"What up Ren? Still
droppin' chronic plates on yo ass, bitch"_ -- Snoop Doggy Dog
(The Chronic [1992]).
_chubby_
(n) Erection.
_cipher_
1) (n) A circle of brothers dropping science, showing and
proving.
2) (n) A graffitti writer.
_claim_
1) (v) To say one allies oneself with a gang or set.
2) (v) To claim membership in a gang.
3) (v) To say something that is not necessarily true.
_Clarks_
Clarks are an excellent English shoe brand.
_clip_
(n) Gun or holder of bullets to load a semi-automatic or fully
automatic gun with. _"My AK-47 holdin' 50 clips"_ -- Da Lench
Mob (Freedom got an AK [1992]).
_clique_
(n) the West Coast equivalent of _"crew"_.
_Celo_
(n) A dice game also called _"4-5-6"_, because you need to roll
4-5-6 to win in this game. _"Like shootin' Celo, and always
hittin' head cracks"_ -- A Tribe Called Quest (Low end theory
[??]).
_clock_
1) (v) To stay aware of what happens around you. _"You're the
one that I'm clocking"_ -- Ol' Dirty Bastard (Raw hide [1994])
2) (v) To earn. _"I clock ducats"_ -- Public Enemy (??? [??]).
3) (v) To always watch, always have or to always be into
something. _"clockin' a grip"_ -- Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dogg
(Ain't nothing but a G-thang [1992]).
_cluck (head)_
(n) Crack user.
_cock_
1) (n) Penis.
2) (n) Vagina. _"She was giving up the cock"_ -- Ice Cube
(Gangsta's Fairytale [1991])
3) (v) To pull the hammer of a gun. _"Cock the hammer, it's
time for action"_ -- Cypress Hill (Cock the hammer [1993])
_cock block_
(v) To prevent someone from getting sexual intercourse. See the
Kool G Rap song _"Operation CB"_.
_cock diesel_
(adj) Very muscular.
_coconut_
(n) A hispanic person trying to be white. Compare with oreo.
_cold_
1) (adj) Intensely. _"Stone cold rhymin'"_ -- Young MC (Stone
cold rhymin').
2) (adj) Mean, not nice.
_come correct_
(v) To represent the real, to do something the way it should be
done. _"When I'm on the mic, I come correct"_ -- Beastie Boys
(Sure shot [1994])
_coochie_
(n) Vagina.
_cool_
(adj) Okay.
_coqui 900_
1) (n) A type of malt liquor. _"Coqui 900"_ -- Schoolly D.
(Coqui 900 [??]).
2) (n) A kind of frog native to Puerto Rico.
_county blues_
(n) Prison-issue clothes.
_CPT_
1) (n) Compton in the phonebook. Call it CPT for ease of use.
_"Claimin' they are from the CPT"_ -- N.W.A. (Compton's in the
house [1990])
2) (n) Short for _"Colored People Time"_; being late.
_crab_
(n) Derogatory name for a member of the Crips, an L.A. gang,
used by members of the Bloods, another L.A. gang. On the album
_"Damu ridas"_ there is a song called _"Fucc Crabz"_.
_cream_
Money. From: Cash Rules Everything Around Me, by the Wu-Tang
Clan.
_crib_
(n) Home. _"Black Ceasar at the crib"_ -- Public Enemy (Burn
Hollywood Burn [1990])
_crack_
(n) Synthetic drug, extremely addictive.
_crack a brew_
(v) Open a beer. _"Crack another 40, smoke some kill"_ --
Schoolly D. (Smoke some kill)
_cracker_
(n) Originally a term from Reconstruction time (1870) to mean
southern men. Now it means white bigot, from whip-cracker or
slavedriver. _"Got a little problem with the redneck cracker"_
-- Ice Cube (The Predator).
_crazy_
(adj) Besides meaning insane or extremely daring, it is kind of
synonymous with mad.
(adj) Extremely or very. _"Crazy fly bitches"_ -- Ice-T (???).
_C.R.E.A.M._
(n) Money. Acronym for Cash Rules Everything Around Me. From
the Wu-Tang Clan (36 chambers [??]).
_Cronkite_
(n) News, after the newsreader Walter Cronkite. _"Grand Puba
and Studd Doogie droppin' Cronkite"_ -- Grand Puba (A little of
this).
_cross fader_
(n) Fading switch to select the left or right turntable.
Without it, scratching wouldn't sound too good.
_cruise_
(v) Driving around, preferably showing off your car.
_crump_
(adj) Hype, phat.
_crunk_
(adj) Hype, phat. _"Tonight is going to be crunk"_ -- ??.
_creep_
1) (v) To sneak up on someone.
2) (v) To be unfaithful in a relationship.
_crew_
(n) Group, band.
_crip_
(n) Member of the Crips gang.
_cut_
1) (n) A record, the latest hit
2) (n) A recently received haircut.
3) (v) Cutting wax: scratching a record. _"Rip the cut!"_ --
Just Ice (Back to the old school) [198?]
4) (n) Behind, or out of the way. _"I glance in the cut and I
see my homey Nate"_ -- Warren G (Regulate [1994]).
_cut up_
(n) Vagina. _"I gots to get me some cut up!"_ -- Kriss Kross
(??? [??]).
_cuz_
1) (n) homeboy or homegirl.
2) (n) Cousin, apparently a Crip term.
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-- D --
_D's, Dayton's_
(n) An expensive brand of alloy wheels. _"Rollin' in my fo' on
D's, hittin' the switches"_ Dr. Dre (Let me ride [1992]).
_dank_
(n) See marihuana. _"Go on and hit the dank"_ -- Too Short.
_dap_
1) (n) Sort of high-five type of handshake. _"Gimme a dap, I'll
give you one back"_ -- Ice T. (Ziplock [1991])
2) (n) Dignity and Pride, old slang (think 70's here).
_dead presidents_
(n) Money. Most American dollarbills have a former president of
the United States on them. _"I'm out for dead presidents to
represent me"_ -- NAS (The world is yours [1994]).
_deal with_
(v) To take care of business.
_deep_
1) (n) A unit of measure. _"It was a crew four deep"_ -- D-Nice
(??).
2) (n) A hip hop clothing manufacturer (X-Large).
3) Heavy in the hippy sense of the word.
_def_
1) (adj) Okay. The word has been officially buried by BET.
_"But you still think our music is def, right?"_ -- De La Soul
(Brain washed follower [??]).
2) (adj) the standard of excellence.
3) Some more info on def: comes from the expression _"Death
O.J."_ but I think first used on record in "Rapper's Delight".
As Nelson George defines it:"In "Rapper's Delight" the term
"Death OJ" is used. In current slang "death" means something
good, while "OJ" is a reference to a big car: Erstwhile
football star and all-around adman O.J. Simpson does Hertz
commercials featuring Ford and Lincoln Mercury cars. If we add
"death" to Ford and Lincoln Mercury cars (leaving out any
disrespectful reference to Pintos), we come up with the
"Rapper's Delight" character driving off in a Lincoln
Continental." From _Buppies, B-Boys, Baps & Bohos: Notes on
Post-Soul Black Culture_ by Nelson George.
_Def Jam_
1) (n) A great record.
2) (n) One of the first big labels for rap artists, founded by
Rick Rubin, led by Russels Simmons.
_delf_
(n) "Delf" was quoted for the first time by Parrish Smith when
EPMD's last album was released in 1992. It was in a Source
interview and it's about the same as "self" like going for delf
(self). _"Release yo delf"_ -- Da Method Man (Release yo delf
[1994]).
_deuce_
1) (n) Two. _"About to get loose with the deuce deuce"_ -- Ice
Cube (Gangsta fairytale II [1993]). 2) (n) 20 ounce of liquor.
_devil_
(n) an enemy, usually white people. _"The devil made me do it"_
-- Paris (the devil made me do it) [??].
_dick_
(n) penis. _"Mister Big Dick, who do you think you are?"_ --
Schoolly D. (Mr. Big Dick).
_dig out_
(v) To have sexual intercourse. _"By 2 am. I was diggin' her
out"_ -- Ice Cube (Ghetto bird [1993]).
_Dillon_
(n) Pistol. _"Made a move for my Dillon; and all I remember the
Gangsta Lean was killin'"_ -- ?? (??? [??]).
_dime_
1) (n) Ten dolar bag of marihuana. Due to price variations the
price may actually be higher for the same bag.
2) (n) "To drop a dime", to fink. The term has probably
descended from the time when phone calls were 10 cents, and is
related to the notion of moving gossip quickly, as one would
drop a dime into the phone to make a call.
3) (n) Ten as in a rating on a woman's beauty. _"Slaying dime
honeys"_.
_dip_
1) (v) Dipping is what a car with a hydraulic suspension does.
_"Set trippin', fo' dippin'"_ -- Ice Cube (Friday [1995]). 2)
(v) To pay more attention to other people's business than to
one's own.
3) (v) To leave, _"Yo, let's dip to the mall"_.
4) (adj) Dressed in the latest fashion, _"looking fresh
dipped"_.
_dis_
(v) Insult or thwart in a social manner, short for disrespect.
_"Challenge BDP, you'll get dissed, expect it"_ -- Boogie Down
Productions (Part time sucker [1988]).
_DJ_
(n) Disc Jockey, means MC in Jamaica. _"My DJ Derek B is best"_
-- Derek B. (Get down [??]).
_DL_
See down low.
_do_
1) (n) Hairdo.
2) (v) Having sex.
3) (v) Killing someone.
_dog_
1) (v) To tear something up like a dog would do.
2) (v) To insult someone in front of his friends.
3) (v) To have sex the doggy way. _"You don't love me, you just
love my doggy style"_ -- Snoop Doggy Dog (What's My Name [??]).
4) (p) a form of addressing: _"Whatup dog?"_, not meant to be
offensive
5) (n) a friend, _"That's my Dog"_. Road ~: West Coast gangsta
for friend.
_dolo_
(n) Like delf/self, dolo/solo. _I go for dolo_ -- ??? (??
[??]).
_dome_
(n) A person's big head, skull, gun against your head.
_dope_
1) (n) Narcotics.
2) (adj) Great, addictive.
_dopeman_
(n) Seller of narcotics. _"If you see somebody getting pussy
for crack, he's the dopeman, dopeman"_ -- N.W.A. (Tha Dopeman
[1988])
_double deuce juice_
1) (n) 22 oz of cold 45 ml beer.
2) (n) Colt 45 (the Billy D. juice).
_dough_
(n) Money. _"Don't you know when the dough get low, the juice
go"_ -- Mobb Deep (Survival of the fittest [??]).
_down low_
(n) Covert, secret, _"hush hush"_, derived from _low profile"_.
_down with_
(adv) To be down with: to be sympathetic to something, or to be
friends with someone.
_DPG_
(n) Dogg pound gangsta.
_drawin'_
(adj) Sometimes pronounced _"drawlin'"_, Philly slang meaning
that one is acting in such a way as to draw attention to
oneself in public, usually in an embarrassing manner.
_drawers_
(n) Pants, underpants.
_drive-by_
(n) A gang form of execution; armed with guns they drive by
their victims, take a shot at them, and drive off. _"With your
drive-by's it took time to getcha, but now I'm gonna wetcha"_
-- Ice Cube (I'm gonna wetcha [1993])
_drop science, drop knowledge_
(v) To demonstrate wisdom or skill. _"I'm droppin' science"_ --
7a3 (Coolin' in Cali) [1988]
_Dropping a Dime_
(v) Informing.
_DSL_
(n) Dick sucking lips; oral sex.
_dukey rope_
(n) Fat gold chain.
_dumm_
(v) To act stupid. _"Ya dummin'"_ -- Funkdoobiest (You're
dummin').
_dusting_
(v) To snort cocaine. _"Like the Hudson on PCP, when I'm
dustin'"_ -- Wu-Tang Clan (Proteck ya neck [??]).
_Dutch Master_
(n) Dutch Master is a brand of cigars. Sometimes when rolling a
serious blunt, the tobacco is removed from a cigar and replaced
with marihuana. _"Slit a nigga back like a Dutchmasta killa"_
-- Wu-Tang Clan (???).
_duckets_
(n) Money, from _"ducats"_: coins. _He's gettin' juiced for his
duckets"_ -- N.W.A. (I ain't the one [1988]).
_dun_
(n) Used like the word son. _"What up, dun?"_ -- Nas (Represent
[1994]).
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-- E --
_El_
Short for El Producto cigars. _"I contact eleven El's and macs
in heaven"_ -- Nas (One time 4 your mind [1994]).
_elbow_
(n) A pound of marijuana.
_Elijah Muhammad_
(n) Elijah Poole, a Georgia-born ex-factory worker who founded
the black muslim movement Nation of Islam in Detroit in 1930,
also known as Honorable Elijah Muhammad. _"Read the book how to
eat to live, from Elijah Muhammad, it's a brown paperback"_ --
Boogie Down Productions (Beef [1990])
_ese_
(n) Spanish word for homeboy.
_E.Z. Wides_
Blunt withdrawal. _"Don't hide the crop cause I got the E.Z.
Wides"_
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-- F --
_fade_
1) (n) The hairdo (see high top fade).
2) (v) Means to not listen to, erase, or get rid of (kill). Has
mutated into various other meanings as well as has most other
hiphop lingo. It (the phrase) started from actually pulling
down the fader on a mixer, which of course, results in not
listening to whomever was on at the time. So Ice Cube wants you
to listen to him always and not fade him or turn him off...
_"You can't fade me"_ -- Ice Cube (You can't fade me).
3) (n) Term from from the dice-game craps, related to losing.
The player rolling the dice must have someone to fade them
(i.e. to put up money against the money they are gambling). If
you are faded, you have lost.
_fag_
(n) Homosexual man, short for faggot. _"...and I thought it was
a gag, when I thought it was a girl, it was nothing but a fag"_
-- Schoolly D. (Saturday night).
_fake jacks_
(v) To front, to fake moves. _"Cuz the brothers that fake jacks
get laid on they backs"_ -- Mobb Deep (??? [??]).
_fat_
(adj) Rich like butter, really good, extremely well put
together. _"ATCQ be putting together some fat beats"_ -- ???
(???)
_federal_
1) (adj) Refering to the federal government. _"The reasons are
several, most of the federal"_ -- Public Enemy (Black steel in
the hour of chaos [1988]).
2) (adj) Something of exceptional quality or of an extreme
nature. Used throughout E-40 tapes, probably Bay Area in
origin.
3) (adj) Going federal: rising up in the game.
_fiend_
1) (v) To be hostile to. 2) (v) To need something badly, most
often drugs. But you can also be a fiend for a dope beat.
_figga_
(n) Figure.
_finger on the trigger_
1) (n) Someone with the ~: someone prepared to shoot if
necessary. _"I got my hand in my pocket and my finger's on the
trigger"_ -- Beastie Boys (Posse in effect [1986]).
2) In a stae of readiness, prepared.
3) In a position of power or authority.
_fix_
(n) Heroin.
_flamboasting_
(v) To show off in a manner of actually flashing material items
in the faces of other individuals.
_flava_
1) (n) Flavour
2) (n) Flavor Flav, Chuck D's right hand man in Public Enemy.
_Flavavision_
(n) The glasses of PE's Flavor. _"Don't worry, Flavavision
ain't blurry"_ -- Public Enemy (Don't believe the hype).
_flay_
(v) _"Flay on the mix"_, serious old school mixing and
scratching.
_flex_
1) (v) To show one's mettle, flexing one's muscles, showing
one's arsenal and readiness to put it to use, letting one's
pugilistic prowess be known. To strike someone, or to get up in
someones face for intimidation. _"I use my nine when suckas
start to flex"_ -- Ice Cube (Man's best friend [1991]).
2) (v) Scratching, from flexing of the wrist. Rakim used to
talk about Eric B being on the flex.
_floss_
1) (v) Move in and out of something. _"Floss the NSX"_ -- DJ
Quick (Dollars and sense).
2) (v) To show off.
_flow_
1) (n) Money.
2) (v) To rhyme continuously in the same rhyme scheme without
stopping.
_fly_
(adj) Attractive, beautiful. _"Put on the Bally shoes and the
fly green socks"_ -- Slick Rick and Doug E. Fresh (Ladidadi).
_four_
(n) See '64.
_forty dog_
(n) 40 ounce bottle of Olde English 800 malt liquor. _"Forty
dog, one love"_ -- Nas (One love [1994]).
_freak_
1) (v) Dance in a provocative way.
2) (v) Have sex.
3) (n) Person who practices the above things; sexually
aggressive female (never missing a beat).
_free world_
(n) Free from incarceration; the world outside of prison. _"I
really miss my free world"_ -- Convicts (??? [1991]).
_freestyle_
(v) Freestyling is when an MC flows with lyrics right of the
top of his or her head. It is inpromptu and spontaneous and
only the most creative rhymers can do it well. It is also a
kind of competition between MC's because you have to be good to
bust a good freestyle. It helps to keep MCs on their toes too,
because its is like practice. _"We gonna do a little freestyle
for y'all, and it go like this"_ -- Schoolly D. (Cuttin' and
scratchin' [??]).
_fresh_
1) (adj) New
2) (adj) Okay
_front_
(v) Pretend to be that which you are not; act tough. _"You
can't front on that"_ -- Beastie Boys (So what'cha want
[1992]).
_fuck_
(n,v) This is the most powerful word in the American English
language. It can be the very best or the very worst. You might
enjoy getting your brains fucked out, but then again you might
not.
_funk_
1) (adj) Malodorous.
2) (n) The essence of being, as in faking the funk.
_funky drummer_
(n) Famous drumtrack by Clyde Stubblefield, James Brown's
drummer. Often used in hiphop.
_furilla_
(adj) Contraction of the phrase _"for real"_; something known
to be true. _"On the furilla, my nigga, just call me Scarface"_
-- Geto Boys (Scarface [1989]).
_fu-shnicken_
(n) A variety of fried chicken often cooked op in and around
the area of Jackson Mississippi. Also known as "Rico".
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-- G --
_G_
1) (n) Anything that starts with a G. E.g. God, Gangsta, Girl,
Guy. As in _"Whatup, G?"_.
2) (v) To have sexual intercourse. E.g. Sir Mix-a-Lot's self
titled EP has a song called _"Let's G"_.
3) (n) Money, from Grands or thousands, for example a hundred
G's equals $100,000. _"I clock G's while you clock Z's"_ - EPMD
(??? [??]).
_G'd up_
(adv) Dressed to kill, like a bawla.
_gaffle_
(n) To harass. Especially being _"gaffled"_ by the police.
_gaffled_
(adj) Past tense of _"to gaffle"_. The state of being messed
up; a misfortunate condition.
_game_
1) (v) Wooing. _"Cause I'm gamin' on a female that's gamin' on
me"_ -- N.W.A. (I ain't the one [1988]).
2) (v) In the game, whatever the game might be. A game is some
way to make money or advance oneself, or just a game.
3) (adv) To be game, do be down with.
_gang_
(n) Group of organised criminals. The main gangs in Northern
California are:
1. Bloods
2. Norte
3. Surenos
4. Crips
_gangbang_
1) (v) To commit crimes in a gang.
2) (v) To to have sex in groups.
_gangsta_
1) (n) A gangster or criminal.
2) (adj) In the way of a gangster.
3) (adj) A style of rap that evolved in South Central, Los
Angeles.
_gangsta lean_
1) (n) The way a person drives where they lean over to the
passenger seat and get really low. _"Digging the scene with a
gangsta lean"_ -- N.W.A. (Gangsta, gangsta [1988]).
2) (n) The heaven where gangsters end up, when a homie dies,
you pour out a little liquor or lean the bottle over to spill
liquor. _"This is for my homies kickin' it in the Gangsta Lean"_
-- DRS (Gangsta Lean [1992]).
_ganja_
(n) See marihuana. _"Ganja business controls America"_ --
Boogie Down Productions (Illegal Business [??]).
_gank_
(v) Same as skank, ie. to hurt, steal from, or diss in some
way. _"I guess that's what I get, for trying to gank the little
homies for their grip"_ -- Dr. Dre (Lil' ghetto boy [1992]).
_gasface_
1) To show someone a sign of disrespect.
2) Make stupid face towards someone you don't like. _"The same
people that got gasfaced last year"_ -- 3rd Bass (No master
plan, no master race [1991])
_gatt_
1) (n) Refers to any gun. It originates from Gattling, the name
of the man who invented the machine gun (the Gattling gun). 2)
(n) Hip-Hop Clothing Co.
_gauge_
(n) A shotgun. _"Hopped in his caddy, loaded his 12 gauge"_ --
Schoolly D (Signifying rapper [??]).
_George Clinton_
(n) One of the most sampled men alive, creator of the P-Funk.
_get burned_
(v) To catch a sexually transmitted disease. Specifically
refers to the burning sensation caused by gonorrhoea when
urinating. _"Stay in the microwave too long you'll get burned"_
-- Kool Moe Dee (Go see the doctor [??]).
_get busy_
1) (v) Have sex.
2) (v) eat _"Ya mama is so big and fat that she can get busy
with 22 burritoes, but times are rough, I seen her in the
back'a taco bell with handcuffs"_ -- Pharcyde (Ya Mama)
_get/give head/skull_
(v) Receive/give fellatio.
_get/give props_
(v) See props.
_G-funk_
(n) Gangsta funk. Examples: Snoop Doggy Dogg, Warren G & Nate
Dog.
_ghetto bird_
(n) Police helicopter. _"Motherfuck you and your punk ass
ghetto bird."_ -- Ice Cube (Ghetto Bird [1993]).
_ghetto sled_
(n) car, usually American made, that generally sports a rusted
body covered with house paint and brand new custom rims.
Synonym of hooptie.
_ghost_
(n) Out of here: _"I'm ghost"_.
_Glock_
(n) Austrian manufacturer of handguns. People usually mean the
9mm glock, which can hold up to 20 rounds, plus one in the
chamber. With an extended clip they can hold up to 33 rounds.
Most of the Glock is made of steel, but it is wrapped in a
plastic cover, giving the gun a futuristic feel to it.
_Gore-tex_
(n) Material made into jackets and other clothing. Also made
into high durability boots. _"Bow to the group in the boots"_
-- Sir Mix-a-lot (Gortex [1989]).
_government cheese_
(n) On welfare.
_grill_
1) _"Guard your grill"_: protect yourself, _grill"_ stands for
your teeth, protect your face from getting punched. _"I got the
skill, I'll bust ya in the grill"_ -- House of Pain (Shamrocks
and Shenanigans [??]).
2) Front of a car.
_grip_
1) (n) Ability on the microphone.
2) (n) Gun.
3) (n) Money. _"I guess that's what I get, for trying to gank
the little homies for their grip"_ -- Dr. Dre (Lil' ghetto boy
[??]).
_GT_
(n) Ferrari GT model, one of the rarest and therefore most
expensive Ferrari's around.
_GTA_
(n) Grand theft auto, legalese for stealing a car. _"It's all
about makin' that GTA"_ -- Eazy-E (Boyz in the hood [1989]).
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-- H --
_hard_
1) (adv) Tough. _"Cause I'm too hard to lift"_ -- Dr. Dre (Let
me ride [??]).
2) (adv) Erected. _"Ya dicks on hard"_ -- Dr. Dre (In your own
dogs [??]).
_hardcore_
(adj) True to what you claim.
_hawk_
1) (v) To look at something.
2) (v) To stare down someone.
3) (n) The wind, especially when it is blowing hard.
_head_
1) Someone who earned respect.
_hella_
(adv) A hell of a lot. _"I got hella scrilla"_ -- ??? (???
[??]).
_Hennessey_
(n) Brand of Cognac. _"Take this Hennessey!"_ NAS -- (The
Genesis [1994]).
_herbalz_
1) (n) Marijuana, comes from herbs. _"Herbalz in my mouth"_ --
3rd Bass (Herbalz in my mouth [1991]).
2) (n) Semen (mentioned in an interview once by 3rd Bass).
_[to be] high_
To be intoxicated by a drug of somekind. Reported other terms
for it are: blazed, blunted, bombed, charged, juiced, skunked,
stressed, toked. _"I want to get high, so high"_ -- Cypress
Hill (I want to get high [1993]).
_high-five_
(n) Greeting where you slap hands together in the air, as
opposed to low-five, where you slap hands at waist height.
_highside_
(v) To ignore or disrespect someone by not acknowledging their
presence. _"Bitches get mad cause we highside"_ -- Big Mike
(Smoke 'em and & choke 'em [??]).
_high top fade_
(n) Haircut high on the top, fading down to close cut on the
sides _"Livin' in fear of my shade or my high top fade"_ --
Public Enemy (??? [??]).
_hip-hop_
(n) In Jamaican ska era, 60's, a DJ would spin and cut the wax
and a MC would sing or shout or dub poetry over it. That's the
roots of hiphop which were brought to New York City by Kool DJ
Herc, but hip-hop or rap was created in New York City.
_ho_
1) (n) Hooker, prostitute, from the Southern pronounciation of
the word whore. _"She ain't nothing but another ho, according
to the system"_ -- KRS-One (Exhibit D. [1990]).
2) (v) To sell out.
_ho cake_
(n) Vagina.
_hold the fort down_
(v) To represent where you are from. _"If so hold the fort down
and represent to the fullest"_ -- Nas (One Love [1994]).
_hole_
1) (n) Vagina.
2) (n) Gun chamber. _"16 in the clip and one in the hole"_ --
Nate Dogg (Regulate [??]).
_holly_
(n) See ho.
_homeboy_
(n) Close friend.
_homegirl_
(n) Female equivalent of homeboy. _"Homegirls, see a guy you
like? Just grab him in the biscuits... and doowutchalike"_ --
Digital Underground (Doowutchalike [??]).
_homeskillet_
(n) A close relative or friend. _"My homeskillet gets me the
goods whenever I want"_ -- ?? (?? [??]).
_homey_
(n) See homeboy. _"But I wish he could have said it to my dead
homey"_ -- Ice Cube (Dead Homiez [1990]).
_honey_
(n) Female, generally attractive.
_Honey Dip_
(n) pretty young ladies with golden brown complexions.
_hood_
(n) The neighbourhood, usually a poor community.
_hoodie_
(n) T-shirt or sweatshirt with hood attached to it.
_hoodlum_
(n) A criminal; drugdealer, car thief, stick up kid. _"Hoodlums
and hustlers and bangers with Jheri-curls"_ -- Ice T.
(Lifestyles of the rich and infamous [1991])
_hoodrat_
(n) female, generally sexually promiscuous, and not upwardly
mobile _"Homies in the hood labeled her as a hoodrat"_ --
Domino (Ghetto jam [1993])
_hook_
(n) A hook, used in load of songs, is an aspect of popular or
commercial music that _"grabs"_ people and makes it easy to
like like or remember the song. For example, the riff from
_"Son of a Preacher Man"_ used in Cypress Hill's _"Hits from
the Bong"_ [1993] is an example of a hook. _"Check out the hook
while I drop crazy rhymes"_ -- ??? (???).
_[cold] hoopin' it_
(v) Playing a game of basketball.
_hooptie_
(n) Old car in bad shape.
_hoota_
(n) Blunt. _"It's a hoota of the Buddah blessed"_
_hop on the side_
(v) To get on the passenger side of a car.
_hops_
(n) Vertical jump, usually related to basketball. _"He's got
mad hops"_ -- ??? (??? [??]).
_hottie_
(n) A very attractive female. _"This hottie got a body and I
wanna get naughty"_ -- Sir Mixalot (Sprung on the Cat [1992]).
_housenigger_
(n) Person who blindly follows simple-minded people, the term
was used by Malcolm X. In slavery days, you had house slaves
and field slaves. The house slaves were _"well behaved"_ and
were _"rewarded"_ by being allowed to work in the _"big house"_
close to the master. The field slaves were _"rough"_ and only
suited for field work. Thus the people were divided and pitted
against themselves, instead of the common enemy.
_Huey P. Newton_
(n) Founder of the Black Panther movement along with H. R.
Brown and Bobby Seale. Mentioned in a few PE songs.
_humming_
(v) Coming at someone.
_hydro_
Hydroponic marihuana, which is due to an agricultural technique
of cultivation in the production of cannabis, a more potent
product. _"Hydro, me just can't let me, high go "_ - Bone Thugs
'n Harmony (Buddah lovas [1995]).
_hype_
1) (n) Statements made about something before that thing comes
out, especially wild statements guessing about the things
nature (whether positive or negative). For example, record
companies will often put many advertisements out before a
record comes out. Before Public Enemy's album came out there
was much negative hype in the media. _"Yo Harry! You're a
writer; are we that type? Don't believe the hype..."_ -- Public
Enemy (Don't believe the hype).
2) (adj) Cool. _"Too damn hype"_ -- Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh
Prince (??? [1988]).
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-- I --
_IBWC_
The Intelligent Black Womens Coalition, a group that Yo-Yo is
the founder(?) of.
_ice_
1) (n) Diamonds or jewelry with diamonds in it. _"Hands
smothered in ice."_ -- Ice-T (Bitches 2 [1991]).
2) (n) On ice - at the morgue.
3) (n) Ice or ice cream: drugs, or cocaine in particular.
_ill_
1) (v) To be obnoxious, or to act weird, as in eating dogfood.
_"You be illin'"_ -- RUN-DMC (You be illin' [1986]).
2) (adj) Negative.
3) (adj) Positive. _"Most illinest b-boys"_ -- Beastie Boys
(Rhymin' and stealing [??]).
_Impala_
(n) Type of popular low-cost car made by Chevrolet in the
seventies. The car is popular with low riders, especially the
1964 model. '63, '62 and '65 models are also sometimes used.
Ice Cube's car in _"Boyz 'n the hood"_ was an Impala. _"Knew
her from the back of my homeys Impala"_ -- Ice Cube (You can't
fade me [1990]).
_in check_
Under control, due to skills. _"I got you all in check"_ --
Busta Rhymes (Woo Hah! [1996]).
_in [full] effect_
Present and taking place.
_in foe deep_
A term used to refer to a car that contains four people at
once. _"In foe deep we creep"_ -- RBL Posse (Don't give me no
bammer [??]).
_in the house_
Present, here. _"Compton's in tha house"_ -- N.W.A. (Compton's
in tha house [1990])
_Indo_
(n) Marijuana from Indonesia. _"Indo smoke up in your lungs
like that"_ -- Dr. Dre (Rat-tat-tat-tat [1992]).
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-- J --
_jack_
1) (v) To rob someone face to face. _"Lets see who the fuck
I'ma jack today"_ -- Ice Cube (Robin hood [??]).
2) (n) Nothing, _"I ain't got jack to give you"_.
_jacker_
(n) Short for carjacker.
_jack roll_
(v) To rob the helpless.
_jailbait_
(n) Anybody who is at least five years younger than you are.
The word is from old taxi drivers who date young high school
girls and when high school guys go out with junior high school
students.
_jam_
1) (n) song, cut, track. _"This is the dope Jam!"_ -- Public
Enemy (Night the living baseheads [1989]).
2) (n) The sweet stuff - like honey.
3) (n) Slam dunk in basketball.
4) (n) To lock up, like when a bullet gets caught up in the
chamber of a gun the gun jams.
_jammy_
1) (n) Penis. _"All the fly ladies are on my jammy"_ -- Beastie
Boys (The new style [1986]).
2) (n) Gun. _"Pulled out the jammy aimed it at the sky"_ --
Beastie Boys (Paul Revere [1986]).
_James Brown_
(n) One of the funkiest and most sampled men alive.
_janky_
1) (adj) Bad, flawed (northern California)
2) (adj) Good, smooth (souther California). _"Dub C, nigga,
still janky as fuck!"_ -- W.C. and the Maad Circle (Intro
[1995]).
_jawn_
1) (n) Another word for joint, a marihuana cigarette. _"Back in
Philly, they call me da jawn"_ -- Bahamadia (Total Wreck [??]).
2) (n) Any type of thing, as in _"Yo, check this jawn out"_.
_jenny_
(n) Vagina.
_jet_
(v) To leave in a hurry.
_Jheri-curls_
(n) Wetlook, curly hairstyle. _"Hoodlums and hustlers and
bangers with Jheri-curls"_ -- Ice T. (Lifestyles of the rich
and infamous [1991])
_jiggy_
(n) To have a lot of money or riches. _"DKNY, oh my I'm jiggy"_
-- Junior M.A.F.I.A. (Player's Anthem [1995]).
_jimbrowsky_
(n) See Jimmy.
_Jimmy_
(n) Penis. _"Never sleep alone because Jimmy is a magnet"_ --
Beastie Boys (3 Minute rule [1989]).
_Jimmy hat/cap_
(n) Condom.
_jock_
1) (n) Crotch. Being on someone's jock means trying to get
involved with someone for his money or his status etc. The best
definition can be found on Ice Cube's _"Kill at will"_ in the
full version of the song _"Get off my dick and tell yo bitch to
come here"_.
2) (v) To sweat someone.
_jone_
(v) To taunt or to make fun, see snap.
_Jones_
(n) A craving for something. It is said to come from Jones
Alley in Manhattan where junkies used to live. E.g.: _"Baseball
Jones"_: needing baseball, _"love Jones"_: a dire craving for
someone, _"Jonesing for some MJ"_: wanting some marihuana. _I
got a love Jones for your body and skin tone"_ -- Method Man &
Mary J. Blidge (You are all I need [1994]).
_JPT_
(n) Japanese People Time; being early or on time.
_juice_
1) (n) Having hydraulics.
2) (v) To squeeze the juice out of something. _"You can't juice
Ice Cube, girl"_ -- N.W.A. (I ain't the one [1988]).
3) (n) _"To have juice means you kiss and lick a lot of booty"_
-- KRS-One (Blackman in effect [1990]).
4) (n) Respect, e.g. the movie _"Juice"_.
5) (n) Alcohol, as in _"being juiced up"_ or _get juice for the
party"_.
6) (n) Willpower.
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-- K --
_Kani_
(n) A clothing brand _"Karl Kani"_.
_kangol_
(n) A brand of hat. LL Cool J used to wear this along with
other east coast rappers. It has a kangaroo on the side, but
brothers wore them with the 'roo in front. _"Went back in, I
forgot my Kangol"_ -- Slick Rick and Doug E. Fresh (Ladidadi).
_KDAY_
(n) Radio station that broadcasted from Crenshaw in South
Central LA, and was devoted to local underground Hip Hop. The
musical director of KDAY was Greg Mack, and he single handedly
turned NWA from an unknown group to superstars. It signed Dr.
Dre and DJ Yella in 1983 to broadcast their own Mix Show, as
the Wreckin' Crew. _"It (KDAY) was percieved as a Rap station
cause we played rap no one else would"_ (Greg Mack, as
interviewed by Brian Cross in the book _"It's not about a
salarie"_). KDAY was sold in 1990, and was turned into a
business network. The defunct radio station symbolizes to a lot
of rappers coming out of LA area the shutting down of black
voice in America. _"This is K-Eazy E, wassup y'all this is Greg
Mack, Mack Attack"_ -- Eazy-E (Radio [1988]).
_key_
(n) Kilo, often used in conjuction with cocaine. _"Dope, like a
pound or a key"_ -- N.W.A. (Tell 'em what your name is [1988]).
_khakis_
(n) Hip-hop clothing, brown/tan colored pants. _"Wearin
ghackis, mob while ya ryhme, little fag tried to sag"_ --
Eazy-E (Real Motherphuckkin' G's [1993]).
_kicks_
(n) See sneakers.
_kill_
1) (n) See marihuana. _"Crack another 40, smoke some kill"_ --
Schoolly D. (Smoke some kill).
2) To be dope on the microphone.
_[kitty] cat_
(n) Vagina.
_knocka_
(n) A pest. _"Leave Flavor Flav alone, knocka"_ -- Public Enemy
(Cold lampin' with Flavor [1988]).
_knocking boots_
(v) To have sexual intercourse. The knock refers to the man's
hips hitting the woman's ass, which produces a slapping sound.
The motion litterally knocks her boots (buttocks). _"Bring your
friend, I likes you two's I'll knock the boots, the sneakers
and the house shoes."_ -- Digital Underground (Flowing on the
D-line [??]).
_knuckle up_
(v) Prepare to fight, by closing and raising ones fists.
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-- L --
_'lac_
(n) Short for Cadillac. _"Macks drive 'lacs"_ -- Big Mello
[1993].
_lamp_
1) (v) To hang out next to a streetlamp. _"I'm on the street,
cold lampin'"_ -- Public Enemy (Cold lampin' with Flavor).
2) (v) To relax while others panic.
_lay pipe_
(v) Having sexual intercourse. _"Cause a nigga like me'll lay
plenty of pipe"_ -- Ice Cube (I'm only out for one thang).
_leather Tuscadero_
(n) Female equivalent of The Fonz that appeared on Happy Days.
_"Now he's zipped up like leather Tuscadero"_ -- Ice Cube (We
had to tear this motherfucker up [1992]).
_leg pull_
(n) From: to pull someones leg, to make a joke. No leg pulls
means no jokes; speak the truth. _"No leg pulls kid"_.
_Lexus_
(n) Japanese luxury car. _"Drivin' a Lexus with a death wish"_
-- Nas (Watch them niggas [1996]).
_lime_
1) (v) Hanging around with friends of family.
2) (n) A casual gathering of friends and family. _"This lime
has no juice"_, this gathering is dull.
_lina_
(n) A line of cocaine. From the spanish _"una lina"_ which
translates to one line.
_live_
(adv) Great. _"Is it live?"_ -- L.L. Cool J (Is it live? [??]).
_llello_
(n) Cocaine, crack; it is a Spanish word, and the double l's
are pronounced as _"y"_'s. Used in the movie _"Scarface"_
[1983]. _The bitch came back with a bag of llello"_ -- Ice Cube
(Once upon a time in the projects [1991]).
_loc_
1) (n) Term used for local person.
2) (n) Crazy one, from the Spanish _"loco"_, often used for
friends or locals in a positive way. _"Don't you know I'm
loco?"_ -- Cypress (Insane in the brain [1993]) Hill (Insane in
the brain [1993])
3) (n) Lock or locks, as in Jheri-curls, but always pronounced
with the long o as in _"go"_.
4) (v) To _"go loc"_ means to get ready for a drive-by or to
shoot someone. This means putting on dark glasses, skullies,
caps and generally getting hard to identify.
_lock_
(n) Short for dredlocks.
_Long Beach_
(n) City south of Compton. _"Rollin' from the East Side south
of Compton, see a big ass, and I say 'word', took a look at the
face, and the bitch was to the curb!"_ -- N.W.A. (8 ball
(remix) [1988])
_lowriding_
(v) Adjusting the suspension of a car to get it closer to the
ground. Since it is illegal to drive that way, people have
hydraulic systems to adjust the height of the car while
driving, making it bounce.
_Louies_
(n) Louis Vuitton gear.
_LP_
1) Long Play, a nine or ten song regular tape.
2) A vinyl record.
_L-train_
1) (n) The late train. _"I'm on the L train going insane"_ --
The Roots (Silent treatment).
2) (n) Elevated trains in Chicago or NYC.
_lunch_
(v) To act stupid or crazy.
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-- M --
_M3_
(n) See beamer. M3 is a special edition model from the BMW
3-series range. _"purple M3s and jet skis"_ -- Nas (If I Ruled
the World [1996]).
_Mac 10_
(n) A submachine gun, manufactured by Ingram. The American
version of the Israeli Uzi. _"The Mac 10 is in the grass and I
run like a cheetah with thoughts of an assassin"_ -- Nas (???
[1994]).
_mack_
1) (n) Pimp.
2) (v) Being a pimp. _"Mackin' is a game and everybody's
playing it"_ -- Ice Cube (Who's the mack [1991])
3) (n) The Mack, an early 70's Blacksploitation film shot in
Oakland, CA.
4) (n) Ladies Man _"I love the ladies and they love me right
back, now who's the Mack"_ -- Ice T. (??? [??]).
5) (v) To steal.
6) (v) To have sex. _"You know, I was all getting my macks on
with her"_
_mad_
(adj) Extremely, very, a large quantity. _"His jeep was pumpin'
mad bass"_ -- ??? (???).
_madhatter_
(n) Someone who sells drugs.
_mag_
1) (n) Short for magazine, as in clip or ammo insert.
2) (n) Short for Magnum.
_mail_
(n) Money. _Mo' mail than the rest of the pushers_ -- E-40 (???
[??]).
_making ends_
1) (v) Dominoes term, you win when you make ends. _"So make all
the ends you can make, cuz when you're broke you break"_ -- Dr.
Dre (Lil' ghetto boy [1992])
2) (n) To make money. Think of the phrase _"The ends justify
the means"_. The ends may be taken to mean money.
_Malcolm [Malcolm X] _
(n) Malcolm X, civil rights activist leader, gunned down at the
age of 35 at the Audubon Ballroom on the north edge of Harlem
in New York in 1965 as he spoke to hundreds of followers. He
represented the largely urban North. Member of Nation of Islam
until 1964. Wrote many texts, interviews, notes and speeches
from 1950-1963, of which some can be considered racist.
Renounced these points of view in his last year.
_marihuana_
(n) Dried leaves and flowering tops of the pistillate hemp
plant that are smoked in cigarettes for their intoxicating
effect. Other reported words for it are: bammer, bionic, bomb,
brown, bud, buddha, cannabis, cheeba, chronic, dank, doubage,
ganja, grass, green, groove weed, hash, herb, home-grown, ill,
Indo, iszm, Lebanon, Mary Jane (mj), maui wowy, method, pot,
sess, shake, shit, skunk, stress, tabacci, Thai, wacky and
weed.
_marinate_
(v) To chill, hang out.
_mark_
1) (n) A sucker, a target for gaffling and crime. _"You
mark-ass busta, you betta raise up"_ -- Dr Dre (Dre [??].)
2) (n) Someone who is claiming a set (subset of a Crip or Blood
gang) to which he does not belong.
_max_
(v) To have great fun.
_MC_
(n) Probably Jamaican, in which case it comes from the TV game
shows, Master of Ceremonies (although the term existed before
TV). Could also stand for Microphone Controller, Mic Checka.
_"The term, MC, stand for Master of Ceremonies"_ --- A Tribe
Called Quest (Midnight Marauders [1993]).
_medina_
1) (n) Said to be an aphrodisiac. _"Funky col' medina"_ -- Tone
Loc (Funky cold medina [1989])
2) (n) Nickname for Brooklyn.
3) (n) One of the three holy cities in Islam (n) One of the
three holy cities in Islam
_megablast_
(n) Large breath of crack. _"Oh please, oh please, oh please,
just gimme just one more blast"_ -- Public Enemy (Megablast).
_meth, method_
(n) See marijuana.
_MF_
1) (n) Short for motherfucker.
2) (n) Short for Mark Ferhman; the police officer who tried to
set up O.J. Simpson by planting evidence on him.
_MLK_
(n) Martin Luther King, civil rights leader, shot april 4th,
1968. He represented the largely rural South.
_money_
(n) See brother, nigga.
_Moschino_
(n) Clothing label. _"Moschino on my misstres"_ -- Notorious
B.I.G. (??? [??]).
_Mossberg_
(n) Popular brand of twelge gauge shotgun, used by the police.
_"And I grabbed my 12 gauge Mossberg pump"_ -- Bone
Thugs-n-Harmony (??? [??]).
_motherfucker_
1) (n) Respectless person with no attitude.
2) (n) Also used to express a form of respect for someone. _"My
motherfuckin' nigga Afrika Islam"_ -- Ice-T (??? [??]).
_move on_
(v) To mess with. _"You move on the Ice and you're going to
sleep"_ -- Ice T (Ziplock).
_MPC-60_
(n) Akai MPC-60 turntable, Akai's answer to the SP-12, popular
especially in the early 90's.
_MPV_
(n) The Multi Purpose Vehicle, favored by groups because of
their large seating and cargo capacity. _"Dedicated to MPV's,
phat"_ -- Wu-Tang Clan (Can it be all so simple [??]).
_MVP_
(1) Most Valuable Poet (on the mic), compare Most Valuable
Player in team sports. As used by Big L in the song _"MVP"_.
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-- N --
_nappy dugout_
(n) Vagina. The dugout is the dug-in bench at the side of a
baseball field where players wait until they are up to play.
Nappy comes from hair napping up, sort of the way it it on the
way to dreading. The nappy dugout would be the dugout (small
enclave a few steps off the main field) that has nappy hair
(pubic hair). _"Giving up the nappy dugout"_ -- Ice Cube
(Giving up the nappy dugout [??]).
_nappy head_
(n) A head with dreading hair. _"Keep your heads nappy"_ --
Fugees (Nappy Heads [1994]).
_nathan_
1) (adj) Nothing; nobody. _"I ain't heard shit, I ain't heard
nathan"_ -- The Coup (Genocide & Juice [??]).
2) (n) _"Nathan's"_ is a brand of hot dog.
3) (n) Natural born pimp.
_Neighbourhood Family_
(n) South Central Blood set associated with Cypress Hill.
_newjack_
(adj) New. When referring to an idividual, implies that he
hasn't proven himself. _"He was a newjack hustler"_ -- Ice-T
(Newjack hustler [??]).
_nickel_
(n) Five, as in 1995. _"Everybody get in where ya fit in for
tha nine five, tha nine nickel"_ -- Method Man with Capleton
(Wings of the morning [??]).
_nigga_
(n) Curseword used originally by white people, taken over by
black people as a name to show their proudness, and take off
the edge; positive: _"my nigga"_: my friend. _I don't want to
be called yo nigga"_ -- Public Enemy (Yo nigga [??]).
_nina_
1) (n) [neenyah] Spanish for girl of 5 years or less. Chica is
a teenage girl.
2) (n) [neenah] 9mm. Mixture of correct Spanish pronounciation
of the i and NYC or Southern dialect ponounciation of the final
-er as -ah of the word _"niner"_. _Cuz if I got my nina then
you know I'm straight trippin'"_ -- Dr. Dre (The Chronic
[1992]).
_nino_
(n) Spanish term for godfather, as in Nino Brown.From the movie
_"The Godfather"_. Also Nino Brown in New Jack City.
_no diggety_
(interj) No doubt, no question.
_NOI_
(n) Nation Of Islam. _"Elijah is alive, Louis Farrakhan, NOI"_
-- Ice Cube (Enemy [1993]).
_nucker_
1) (n) A stupid person. Possible a combination of Numb
Skull/Fucker, or maybe derived from knuckle head.
2) Ones best friend. _"You call your nigger 'nucker'"_ --
Digital Underground (if it wasn't for the rapping [??]).
_nutt_
Good sex. _"Gimme that nutt"_ -- Eazy-E (It's on Dr. Dre 187 um
killa [1993]).
_nuttin'_
(n) Nothing. _"Nine times outta ten, she's givin' up nuttin'"_
-- N.W.A. (I ain't tha one [1988])
_Nyquil_
(n) Cold medicine that basically puts you to sleep, so you
won't stay up all night coughing. _"Knock ya out like Nyquil"_
-- Ice Cube(?)
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-- O --
_O_
(n) An ounce of marijuana.
_O-1-2_
(n) The O stands for Oakland, the 1-2 for a left-right
combination punch. _"Up in Oakland you might get the O-1-2"_ --
Father Dom (??? [??]).
_O.E._
(n) Short for Old English, a kind of malt liquor. _"Coolin' on
the corner with a bottle of O.E."_ -- Beastie Boys (Time to get
ill [1986]).
_O.G._
1) (n) Original gangster, which you become when you 'advertise'
a gang. People should talk about you and link your name with
the things you done in the past. This includes killings,
driveby shootings, spending time in jail, and living up to your
name. _"O.G. Original Gangster"_ -- Ice T. (Original Gangster
[1991]).
2) (adj) True; original.
3) (n) Someone who is true to the game, who never sold out.
_O.J._
1) (n) Reference to a big car: erstwhile football star and
all-around adman O.J. Simpson does Hertz commercials featuring
Ford and Lincoln Mercury cars. Used on Sugarhill Gang's
Rapper's Delight.
2) (n) To pull an O.J. on someone: to set someone up, to plant
evidence.
_O'Malley_
(n) An Irish name, pointing to the traditionally strong
represented Irish in the LAPD. _"Gonna put a slug in captain
O'Malley"_ -- Cypress Hill (We ain't goin' out like that
[1993]).
_one-time_
(n) Police officer. Refered to as one-time as you have one time
or one chance to get out of the situation alive. _"One-time
because it's my life on the line"_ -- Ice Cube (??? [??]).
_on swo_
(adv) Increasing in size, often used in prisons to describe a
weight lifter. _"My bank roll's on swo"_ -- Snoop Doggy Dogg
(??? [??]).
_oowop_
(n) An uzi semi-automatic gun.
_O.P.P._
1) (n) Other people's pussy.
2) (n) Other people's penis.
3) (n) Other people's property.
_oreo_
(n) Black person who wants to be white, or people of mixed
race. An oreo is a type of cookie black on the outside with
white cream filling inside. _"A message to the oreo cookie"_ --
Ice Cube (Turn off the radio [1990]).
_other level_
(n) A higher degree of consciousness satisfaction; beyond the
average. _"Grip it on that other level"_ -- Geto Boys (On that
other level [1992]).
_ox piece_
(n) Home-made type of gun that people make in the prisons. _"I
heared you blew a nigga with an ox for the phone piece"_ -- Nas
(One love)
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-- P --
_P_
1) (n) Partner, friend.
2) (n) Pussy. _"The P is free"_ -- BDP (The P is free) 3) (n)
Posse.
_pad_
(n) House, home, place where you live. _"It's like that and its
like this I took her to the pad and we started to kiss..."_ --
Eazy-E (Gimme that nutt [??]).
_paddle_
(n) Gun. _"Say why ya creep without a muthaphuckin paddle"_ --
Lady or Rage (Lyrical Gangbang [1992]).
_pancake_
(v) Hydraulics maneuver where a car goes from all wheels high
to all wheels low. _"Pancake, front-to-back, side-to-side, and
all that shit"_ -- Dr. Dre (Let me ride [1992]).
_papes/papers_
(n) Money. _"...and we're getting papers, three months later we
run our own caper"_ -- Boogie Down Productions (Love's gonna
getcha [1990]).
_parlaying_
(v) West coast slang for partying or having a good time. Comes
from the French word _"parler"_, which means talking.
_Pat Duke_
1) (n) Patty Duke, an old sitcom television show. _"On the
stoop doing the Pat Duke"_ -- Ol' Dirty Bastard (Don't you know
[1994]).
2) (n) A popular dance style from the late 80's.
_P-Dog_
(n) Paris. _"P-Dog comin' up, I'm staying low"_ -- Paris (The
devil made me do it).
_P-funk_
(n) Music of the George Clinton time period. Parliament
Funkadelic was a group in that era and it included such artists
as George Clinton and Bootsy Collins.
_peace_
1) (n) That's what rap is all about for all you mentally
challenged.
2) (interj) Farewell bidding.
_P.E._
(n) Public Enemy.
_peckerwood_
(n) Derogatory term for a white person.
_peeling_
(n) What comes off when peeling a cap. _"The bigger the cap,
the bigger the peelin'"_ -- Ice Cube (Steady mobbin' [1991])
Note that Cube is paraphrasing a Parliament line, where GC says
_"The bigger the headache, the bigger the pill"_, but the way
he says it, _"pill"_ comes out sounding like _peel"_.
_peeling caps_
(v) Killing someone by shooting him, shots to the head often
disfigure it in such a way that the cranium is _"peeled back"_.
_"One wrong move and your cap's peeled"_ -- Ice T. (O.G.
original gangster).
_peep_
(v) Check this out (as in peep this).
_peeps_
(n) People. _"To all my peeps who didn't make it"_ -- Nas (The
world is yours [1994]).
_pen_
(n) Penitentiary, jail. _"To all of my peoples in the pens,
keep ya head up"_ -- Lost Boyz (Lex Coupes, Beamaz and Benz's
[??]).
_Penelope_
(n) Police -- E-40 (???).
_pep_
(v) To beat someone up. _"I'm ready to pep ya"_.
_phat_
1) (adj) Great, addictive.
2) (adj) If a girl was phat, she had Plenty o' Hips And Thighs,
in other words PHysically ATtractive; old slang. Think 60's or
early 70's here. A bit more modern: Pussy, Hips And Tits.
_phat pocket_
(n) A person who has a lot of money
_pie_
(n) Vagina.
_piece_
1) (n) A firearm.
2) (n) A work of graffiti art (short for masterpiece).
3) (n) Sexual intercourse. _"I'm gonna go get me a piece."_
_pig_
(n) Police officer. _"pig"_ as a synonym for _policeman"_ has
been around for about two hundred years (according to
_"Partridge's Concise Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional
English"_). It did, however, disappear in the late nineteenth
century (or, as the dictionary says _"go underground"_ though
I'm not sure what they mean by that) and reappear in common
usage around 1960. I know that during Prohibition speakeasies
who had bribed the local police to not bother them were called
_"blind pigs"_ (The Blind Pig bar here in Ann Arbor actually
used to be such a place). I suspect that the term has been used
to mean any kind of unpleasant person since humans started
domesticating the things....
_pimp_
1) (n) Boss of prostitutes.
2) (v) To be a ladies man.
_PJ's_
(n) The Projects.
_plats_
(n) Dreadlocks.
_play_
1) (v) To go along with. _"I don't think so. Homey don't play
that"_ -- Homey the Clown in _"In Living Colour"_.
2) (v) To fool. _"You can't buy no relationship. You played
yourself."_ -- Ice-T (You played yourself [??]).
3) (n) Action.
_play ball_
(v) To play basketball. _"Got a pair that I wear when I'm
playin' ball"_ -- RUN-DMC (My Adidas).
_played out_
Old.
_player_
1) (n) Someone who is "true to the game", ie. someone who never
sold out. _"To Chuck, Flava and Griff... You're true players"_
-- Ice-T (M.V.P.'s).
2) (n) A kind of playboy, so a player is good at picking up
honeys.
3) (n) _"Players"_ is a black-oriented adult men's magazine.
_player hater_
(n) One who despises or speaks ill of another because he does
not have any game of his own.
_player's ball_
(n) A party for players. Outkast mentions it.
_play yourself_
(v) To reveal a weakness, as in poker when you played your
cards too early. _"No friends 'cause you dissed 'em too, no
money, no crew, you're through. You played yourself"_ -- Ice T.
(You played yourself)
_PO_
1) (n) Police officer, parole officer or probation officer.
_"dven pack my gatt when I go to see my P.O."_ -- Mobb Deep
(The infamous posse [??]).
2) (adj) Piece out.
3) (v) Pissed off, angry.
_P.O.D._
(n) Paid on delivery.
_point blank_
1) (adj) At close range.
2) (adj) Right now, right here, in your face. Used when someone
is trying to prove a point or something.
_po-po_
(n) The Police. _"Oh no, I think I see the po-po, but pow, I'm
outie 5-thou with my coke and a smile."_ -- Dru Down (Hoo Ride
[??]).
_pop_
(v) To shoot someone. _"I'm a pop a cap in him"_ -- Jules in
the movie _"Pulp Fiction"_
_posse_
(n) A group of people you hang out with. This doesn't
necessarily mean a gang. _"They got too, too, too much posse"_
-- Public Enemy (Too much posse [??])
_pot_
(n) See marihuana. _"Must have been drinking, 'cause this ain't
pot"_ -- Cypress Hill and Sonic Youth (Mary Jane [1993]).
_potna_
(n) Term to address a person, compare partner. _"What's now up
potna"_ -- Menace 2 Society.
_power U_
(n) Vagina. _"On top of that you got the good power U"_ --
Method Man & Mary J. Blige (You're all I need [1994]).
_primo_
1) (n) A joint laced with crack, west coast term. The east
coast equivalent is _"turbo"_. See also marihuana.
2) (n) Friend.
3) (n) Nickname for DJ Premier.
_Private Stock_
(n) A brand of malt liquor.
_project gold_
(n) Huge gold hoop earrings.
_props_
(n) An abbreviation of _"propers"_ or proper respects. A show
sits on physical and non-physical props. At an award ceremony
the winner gives props: _"And I would like to thank..."_.
_pruno_
(n) Wine that inmates make in prison.
_P.S.K._
(n) Park Side Killers, Philadelphia gang of which Schoolly D.
used to be a member. _"P.S.K., we're makin' that green"_ --
Schoolly D. (P.S.K. (what does it mean?)).
_psych_
1) (n) Dupe. Check out 70's basketball commentary. Dr. J and
especially Nate Archibald used to do dribbling moves to psych
out opponents. Psych as in psychological head trips they threw.
2) (interj) I duped you.
_puff lye_
(v) To smoke a medicinal herb, i.e. marihuana. _"Life's a bitch
and then you die, that's why we puff lye"_ -- NAS (Life's a
bitch and then you die [1994])
_pump_
1) (n) Pump of a pump-action shotgun _"Sawed off shotgun, hand
on the pump"_ -- Cypress Hill (Hand on the pump [1993])
2) To play music loud.
_punani_
1) (n) Vagina.
2) (n) Sex, this is used more commonly.
3) (n) A Jamaican dance, the art of moving your stomach and
behind on the dancefloor.
_punk_
(n) A stupid, usually irritating person.
_pussy_
(n) Vagina.
_puta/puto_
1) (n) Prostitute.
2) (n) Asshole. _"How you like me now, puto"_ -- Cypress Hill
(Locotes [??]).
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-- Q --
_quarter-O_
1) (n) Quarter ounce (= oz.) of weed.
2) (n) 40 oz. of beer.
_Q Vo_
(interj) Shout out, Chicano slang. The term comes from old
Mexican movies (musicales). _"Q Vo, a qui'stoy MC Kid Frost"_
-- Kid Frost (La Raza [1991]).
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-- R --
_rab_
(n) Short for rabbi. _"Told a rab get off the rag"_ -- Public
Enemy (Welcome to the Terrordome[1991])
_rat pack_
(n) A bum rush. _"Like some pussy, or in fact, a bum rush, but
we call it rat pack, on a nigga for nothing at all"_ -- N.W.A.
(Gangsta, gangsta [1988]).
_raw_
(adj) Showing the pure essence of pure hip hop.
_real McCoy_
1) (n) The orignal, not a fake. One real McCoy was a late 19th
century boxer who fought under the name Kid McCoy and was so
good that other fighters adopted the name, whereupon he had to
bill himself as _"the real McCoy"_. Or, it was Scotch whisky,
made by A. & M. MacKay of Glasgow. In the UK the saying is
_"the real MacKay"_. Another idea is that the expression came
from heroin originating from Macao (Dictionary of Cliches,
pg.215). Yet another explanation is the American scientist
Eligah McCoy, who had several inventions well known throughout
the African American community in America. If you owned
anything during those days, you wanted it to be _"the real
McCoy"_.
2) A 1967 Jazz CD by McCoy Tyner, a pianist.
_really doe_
(interj) Wrong spelling of _"Really though"_, used to emphasize
a point. Ice Cube (Really doe).
_red rum_
(n) Murder spelled backwards.
_reefer_
(n) See marihuana. (1920s-1960s) Marijuana wrapped in cigarette
paper, may be a variant of Mexican _"grefa"_ (Juba to Jive, pg.
380).
_reel to reel_
1) Really real.
2) Reality.
3) The big tape used for studio recording and the machine that
runs it.
_Remy Martin_
(n) A brand of cognac. _"I've got to get the chronic, some Remy
Martin, and my soda pop"_ -- Dr. Dre (Let me ride [1992]).
_represent_
(v) New big hip-hop word. Means just what you think it means.
_"Represent!"_ -- NAS (Represent [1994])
_ricket_
(n) Derogatory term for a member of the Crips, an L.A. gang.
_ride_
(n) A vehicle. _"So we rode in his ride"_ -- Ice-T (Bitches 2
[??]).
_rift_
(v) See step to.
_rip_
(v) Old street slang - to steal, stolen, to take agressively.
_road dog_
(n) A good friend, someone who you always hang out with. _"Yo
dick on hard, for fuckin' your road doggs"_ -- Dr. Dre (The
Chronic [1992]).
_rock_
1) (n) Crack.
2) (v) To have sexual intercourse.
3) (n) Biblical. Alcatraz, Jamaica...
4) (v) To wear, _"I was rocking my brand new Nikes"_.
_rock star_
(n) Crack addict
_rocket_
1) (n) A joint (see marihuana).
2) (v) To blast off into a high when smoking a joint.
_Rodney King_
1) (n) Rodney King was beaten up by police when he was placed
under arrest. The whole incident was videotaped, leading to the
infamous _"Rodney King trials"_, where the police officers were
under trial for assault and battering. The outcome of the trial
was not satisfactory to many people in LA, leading to the LA
riots of 1992.
2) (n) To pull a Rodney King: To initiate police brutality.
_"He'll probably pull me over and I laugh, pull a Rodney King
and I'll blast at his punk ass"_ -- Tupac (Souljah's Revenge
[1993]).
_roll_
1) (v) To hang with a given person or crowd. _"I'm rollin' with
the new jack crew"_ -- Ice-T (Newjack hustler [1991]).
2) (v) To roll on someone means to beat someone up.
3) (v) To roll a joint.
4) (v) To drive one's car in the neighborhood with a certain
style or finesse.
_roll up_
(v) To arrive on a scene.
_rollie_
(n) Rolling papers.
_Rolling 60's_
(n) Notorious South Central Crip set.
_R.T.D._
Rough, tough and dangerous: a bus that travels in the ghetto is
called because people are getting robbed or mugged on a regular
basis. The former name for the Los Angeles County Mass Transit
(Bus) was Rapid Transit District.
_ruff neck_
(n) A round the way guy that keeps it real and knows the
streets. _"Gotta what yo gotta get a ruff neck"_ -- MC Lyte
(Ruff neck [??]).
_rush_
1) (v) Bogard, physically assault.
2) (v) After taking drugs , one often gets a rush
_ruthless_
1) (adj) Tough, hard, stopping at nothing. _"Drop him in his
tracks so hip that I am ruthless"_ - Eazy-E (It's on Dr. Dre
187 um killa [1993])
2) (n) Ruthless Records is Eazy-E's record company.
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-- S --
_S1W_
(n) The Security of the First World; the military dancers on
stage with Public Enemy at their concerts.
_SA_
(n) Wrong spelling of the Mexican word ese, which means dude.
_"SA's cool, don't fuck with them boys"_ - Ice Cube (Really
Doe).
_sack chaser_
(n) Woman using a man for money.
_sagging deuce_
(n) A lowered Cadillac car.
_scarface_
A scarface is someone who is a gangster or models themselves on
the character of Tony Montana in the film _"Scarface"_(1983).
Scarface is one of the most influential films with regard to
hip-hop. Many of the samples used on rap albums are from
Scarface. Many phrases you hear used by rappers are copied
verbatim from Scarface. Examples include The Geto Boys album
(Geto Boys) the hook for _"Fuck Em' All"_ is sampled from
Scarface. The sample at the beginning of the Kool G Rap song
_"Fast Life"_ is from Scarface. The rapper Scarface took his
name from the film.
_scheme_
(v) To plan to do something to get someones money, most often
by cheating. _"And the girls that been scheming, gonna get
creamed when I"_ -- The Gravediggaz (Tonite is a special nite
[1995]).
_school_
(n) A specific era in hiphop history. There have been many
discussions about the difference between the _"Old School"_ and
the _New School"_. One accepted view was put to words in
alt.rap by Charles L. Isbell:
All of time can be divided pretty easily this way:
- Everything before _"Run DMC"_ (Run DMC [1984])
- Everything before _"It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us
Back"_ (Public Enemy [1988])
It gets harder after that, but _maybe_ you'd have to label
parallel movements with stuff like:
+ Everything before _"Straight Outta Compton"_ (NWA [1988]) and
_"Amerikkka's Most Wanted"_ (Ice Cube [1990]) for the West
Coast Gangsta Movement
+ Everything before _"3 Feet High And Rising"_ (De La Soul
[1989]) and _"Low End Theory"_ (A Tribe Called Quest [1991])
for the Jazz/Bohemian Movement
Others seem to think we're about to enter the Everything before
_"93 'Til Infinity"_ (Souls of Mischief [1993]) era for the
Ascendency of Hieroglyphics, but I'll reserve judgement on
that.
There are also several dark moments: MC Hammer ushered in the
HipPop Era and Vanilla _"No I really used to be rich; May I
take your order?"_ Ice ushered in something unspeakable (Snow,
if nothing else).
Hmmmmm, here's a way to pass the time: what are the key
moments/movements and what albums/artists best represent them?
How have they influenced the direction of rap? Making no value
judgements, I'd have to say that the four most influential
hiphop moments/movements are the ones I listed above and for
obvious reasons.
_Scooby Doo_
1) (n) The cartoon character.
2) (n) A blunt. _"Scooby Doo, where the fuck are you?"_ --
Cypress Hill (??? [??]).
3) The B-side on Lick a Shot (US).
_scope_
1) (v) Look at something. _"Scope that bitch"_
2) (v) Stare down someone.
_scrap a lick_
(v) As in _"can't scrap a lick"_, meaning, can't put up a
fight, has a poor fighting ability. From Dr. Dre (Fuck wit Dre
day).
_scratch_
(n) Money, loot. _"Scrilla scratch paper"_ -- E-40 (One love
[??]).
_screw_
(v) To play a hip-hop record at a slower speed, said to
accentuate the bass and facilitate mixes with ballads. Also
screw mixes, get my screw on. Originated in the late 80's, when
Fresh Records released 12" singles at 45 rpm. Many DJ's missed
the speed designation and mistakenly played it at the slower 33
rpm speed. Many listeners began to intentionally request those
records (esp. Mantronix's _"Fresh is the Word"_) at the slow
speed. Now done with CD players with variable pitch (or vinyl).
_scrilla_
(n) Money, loot. _"Scrilla scratch paper"_ -- E-40 (One love
[??]).
_sell out_
(n) Doing something purely for the financial gain, Selling your
soul. _"Should Ice Cube sell out? You say hell no!"_ -- Ice
Cube (When will they shoot? [??]).
_sense_
(n) An abbreviation of the word "sinsemellia", which is a form
o marihuana that has no seeds, because it is isolated from male
pollen during te blooming process. Instead of making seeds, the
marihuana plant makes more THC, hence this _"sense"_ is more
potent, and generally better than standard ganja.
_set_
1) (n) A denomination of one of the larger gangs, a set is not
necessarily friendly with other sets in the same gang. _"Baby
girl asked me what set am I claiming"_ - Sir MixaLot (Rapper's
Reputation)
2) (n) The group of songs in a concert by a specific performer.
_set tripping_
(v) Killing someone in your own gang, but who is in a different
set. i.e. a different street but in the same gang.
_shackles_
(n) Handcuffs.
_shank_
(n) A custom made knife as used in prisons, made from whatever
materials are available. _"You better grab your shank, cuz
ain't no fistfight"_ -- Dr. Dre (Lil' ghetto boy [??]).
_Shaton_
(n) Shaton or Shaitan is an Arabic word meaning _"devil"_. _"At
night the evil armies of Shaton don't play"_ -- Fugees (Family
business [1996]).
_sherm stick_
(n) Marijuana dipped in embalming fluid.
_shife_
(adj) See mark or newjack. A rookie or one who purports to be
more than he is. _"And he knew he was shife, he knew he was
hype"_ -- Bust Down (Nasty bitch (intro) [1993]).
_shimmy_
(n) See booty. _"Shimmy shimmy ya!"_ - Ol' Dirty Bastard
(Shimmy shimmy ya [1995]).
_sholda than show_
Surer than sure.
_shook one_
(n) Individual who acts like he is tough, but when things get
hectic or tense, he gets scared and acts like the punk he
really is. They have been shook up by the reality and are
labeled shook ones. _"Shook ones"_ -- Mobb Deep (Shook ones pt.
II [1995]).
_short (, short)_
(n) Vehicle.
_shorty_
1) (n) Little person.
2) (n) Female, like baby or honey. _"I got myself a shorty, I
got myself a forty"_ -- Wu-Tang Clan (Method Man).
3) (n) A seven ounce bottle of beer.
_shotty_
(n) Shotgun.
_show and prove_
(v) Demonstrate.
_show case_
(v) To carry out a fraud.
_siamese_
(n) A person who acts two-faced.
_sike_
See psych.
_simp_
1) (n) Derived from simpleton, used for rhyming with pimp.
_"Short baby I ain't no simp, but the nigga in the suit ain't
nothin' but a pimp"_ -- Too $hort (Cocktales [??]).
2) (v) To sing and pimp. From Boyz II Men (Simpin' ain't easy).
_sister_
(n) Woman of the same group; friend.
_skank_
(n) A scandalous woman.
_skirt_
(n) A female.
_skitzing_
(v) Acting bizarre or crazy, from schizophrenic.
_skunk_
(n) A particularly potent form of marihuana.
_skeezer_
(n) See freak. _"If you wanna know what a skeezer is, it's a
girl who's on my jock cause I'm in showbiz"_ -- LL Cool J. (???
[??]).
_skill_
(n) General ability; ability on the microphone.
_skins_
1) (n) The lips of the vagina. _"She likes to bend over and
then she spreads the skins"_ -- Brand Nubian (Slow down
[1990]).
2) (n) Condom.
3) (n) Rolling papers.
_slab_
1) (n) The ground; to lower a car to the slab: to lower down.
_"I'm breaking em down to the slab"_ -- Rage (The chronic
[1992]).
2) (n) Crack.
_slamming_
1) (adj) Dynamic.
2) (adj) Something really good/attractive. _"And may I say, may
I say, that, that outfit you got on is slammin'"_ -- L.L. Cool
J (MrGoodbar).
_slang_
(v) The act of selling drugs.
_slanted-back_
(n) A Caddillac Seville, because of the slanted trunk of the
earlier models.
_slap skins_
1) (v) Slapping hands together.
2) (v) Having sex. Slapping skins, hitting skins, getting
skins, etc. Skins being the skin of the opposite sex.
_sleep [on]_
(v) Ignore.
(v) To be unaware or unprepared. You can creep up on someone
while they are _"sleeping"_ (even if they are awake).
_slipping_
1) (adj) On the downward trend, losing the edge. _"Cause you're
slipping!"_ -- Boogie Down Productions (You're slipping
[1988]).
2) (v) Not paying attention _"Yeah I caught that fool slippin'
and I smoked him"_ -- ?? (??? [??]).
_slob_
(n) Derogatory name for a member of the Bloods, an L.A. gang,
used by members of the Crips, another L.A. gang.
_slow your roll_
(interj) Slow down whatever you are doing. _"Slow ya roll like
your leg was broken"_ -- Kurupt (For my niggaz and my bitches
[1993]).
_smacked_
(adj) Under the influence of drugs.
_smashing_
(v) See slapping skins.
_smoke_
(v) Killing someone. _"Right then, I knew I had to smoke his
ass"_ -- N.W.A. (Gangsta gangsta [1988]).
_snap_
(n) a form of verbal jestering. Also French and English
speaking Africans especially in Dakar and Paris say 'oh snap'
in two contexts. 1) 'oh snap' if you get bagged on (snapped on)
and 2) meaning 'oh shit' as in 'I didn't know' or 'I forgot
something'.
_snaps_
(n) Money.
_sneakers_
(n) Sportswear shoes. _"I wear my sneakers but I'm not a sneak"_
-- RUN-DMC (My Adidas).
_snow_
(n) Cocaine.
_soggy indo_
(n) A joint (see marihuana) that has been dipped in PCP or
something.
_soldier_
(n) Non-OG gangbanger.
_SP-12_
(n) The E-MU SP-12 (or SP-1200), a high-end sampling drum
machine for rap music production. These pieces of equipment
came out around 1985 and 87 respectively. The SP-12 did not
have an internal disk drive, but EMU saw the problems since it
only worked with a Commodore diskdrive. So they made the next
model with an internal drive. Incidentally Ced-Gee of
Ultra-Magnetics was the first person in hip-hop to use this
machine which has become one of the most sought after pieces of
equipment to date. So much that EMU has reissued the SP-1200.
_"Just me, a mic, and an SP-12"_ -- Young MC (Album Filler).
_spliff_
(n) Jamaican marihuana cigarette, see marihuana.
_spray_
(v) Firing a round of bullets. _"Pulled out the uzi, cruised by
and sprayed him"_ -- Ice Cube (Gangsta's Fairytale).
_sprung_
1) (adj) Erected. _"Sprung, niggaz call her lips 'n lungs"_ --
Ice Cube (Check yo self [??]).
2) (adj) Obsessed with something.
3) (n) Released on bail by someone else.
_squab_
(n) Shortened form of _"to squabble"_; to fight, physicallly
confront. _"Quick to squab, always down for the job"_ -- E-40
featuring Suga T (Sprinkle me [??]).
_squash_
(v) To end, _Squash that beef_.
_squeeze the trigger_
(v) To shoot a gun. _"Yo homeboy,squeeze the trigger!"_ -- Ice
T. (squeeze the trigger) [198?]
_stab out_
(v) To leave.
_stake_
(v) Making money, often used in conjunction with paper, i.e.
_"stakin' paper"_.
_steel_
(n) Pistol. _"Finger on the trigger with my hand upon the
steel"_ --Cypress Hill (Hand on the pump [1993])
_step off_
(v) Back away from a confrontation.
_step to_
(v) Engage a confrontation. _"So don't step to me 'cause you
boys 'll get wacked"_ -- Ice-T (Power).
_step up_
(v) See step to.
_St. Ides_
(n) A specific brand of maly liquor. Ice Cube and Scarface have
done radio commercials for St. Ides. _"Gotta get tha
S-T-I-D-E-S, first of tha month"_ -- Bone Thugs-N-Harmony (???
[??]).
_stilo_
(n) Pronounced as _"steelo"_, is a term that like a lot of
other hip-hop terms originated in New York City. It is Spanish,
and it means style.
_stupid_
1) (adj) Creative.
2) (adv) Very. _"Evil's got the funky beat, a stupid dope loop"_
-- Ice-T (Fried chicken [1991]).
_straight_
(n) Okay.
_strap_
(n) A gun.
_strapped_
(adj) Strapped in: armed.
_strawberry_
Someone who willingly exchanges sexual services for drugs.
_"Strawberry, Strawberry is the neighbourhood ho"_ -- N.W.A.
(Dopeman [1988]).
_stroll_
1) (v) To be out on parole. _"27 years old, out on parole,
stroll."_ -- Dr. Dre (Lil' ghetto boy [??]).
2) To drive one's car.
_stunt_
1) (n) Sexual act.
2) (n) A person who performs stunts.
3) (n) To pull a stunt, to try something difficult.
_sucka_
(n) person easily duped.
_SWASS_
(n) Short for _"Some wild-ass silly shit"_.
_Swayze_
(n) I'm out of here, I'm ghost. From the movie _"Ghost"_ which
features the actor Patrick Swayze, used for example in a cut by
EPMD..
_sweat_
1) (vt) over-patronize.
2) (v) Worry, as in _"don't sweat it"_.
3) (v) Harrass or scrutinize. _"There's one or two narcs in the
area that's sweatin' me"_ -- Digital Underground (Sex packets).
_sweet_
(adj) Cool, dope, fresh.
_swerver_
(n) Car.
_swing_
(n) To have sexual intercourse (Grand Puba).
_swing low_
(n) To have oral sex (Kool Moe Dee).
_switch_
(n) Your average toggle switch. Low-riding drivers use them to
control the hydrolics or any other electrical device in their
cars. _"Rollin' in my fo' with sixteen switches"_ Dr. Dre --
(Let Me Ride).
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-- T --
_tag_
1) (n) A persons graffiti nickname.
2) (v) The act of writing graffiti on an object (tagging up).
_Tanqueray_
(n) A brand of distilled English Gin, used to make cocktail
drinks. It was recently popularized by several rap and also by
a very creative advertising campaign in the US, featuring and
elderly white man named Mr. Jenkins: _"Mr. Jenkins doesn't
understand all the Hip-hop lyrics at his friend's record
release party, but he understands gin and juice very clearly."_
is the line that was used. _"My homey Dr. Dre came through with
a gang of Tanqueray"_ -- Snoop Doggy Dogg (Gin and Juice [??]).
_tastey_
(n) A fly honey.
_tax_
1) (v) To rob. _"Stick up kids are out to tax"_ -- Gangstarr
(Just to get a rep [??]).
2) (v) To take away something after you kick a sucka's
ass._"and Ima tax that ass like the government"_ -- BDK (Pimpin
ain't easy).
3) (v) To dig into or estimate, _I'm gonna tax that ass_.
_Tec 9_
A 9mm semiautomatic or fully automatic gun made by Infratec.
_"Every kid's got a Tec 9 or a handgrenade"_ -- Ice-T (???
[??]).
_thang_
(n) Thing; _"your own thang"_: your own way.
_thai stick_
(n) See marihuana.
_three-wheel motion_
(n) Ride upon three wheels with a low rider car. You can see it
in videos for _"Ain't nuthin but a G thang"_ and _Today was a
good day"_ [1993]. One of the back corners of the car is really
close to the ground and the opposite corner is picked up off
the road.
_through_
(n) Drunk or high to the point of almost being unconscious.
_throw-up_
1) (n) A non-complex piece of graffiti usually involving only
two colors.
2) (n) To tag your graffiti on something ("Watch my back as I
throw up this tag").
_thump_
(v) To engage in a fistfight. _"Remember they used to thump,
but now they blast, right?"_ -- Dr. Dre (Lil' ghetto boy [??]).
_tical_
(n) See marihuana. _"Smoke a bag of tical"_ -- Method Man
(???).
_tight_
1) (adj) A state of mind, feeling really good at the moment.
Straight, legitimate, all-good.
2) (adj) Cool, dope, fresh.
_tip_
1) (n) Penis (Get off my tip).
2) (n) Q-Tip from a Tribe Called Quest
3) (n) The end, the fullest. _"To the tip!"_ -- Schoolly D.
(Mr. Big Dick).
_Tipper Gore_
Tipper, the wife of vice-president Al Gore, has become a
synonym for narrowmindedness. She had to do with the committee
that decides which CD's get the _"Parental advisory"_ stickers.
_"You gotta be high to believe that you can change the world
with a sticker on a record sleeve"_ -- Ice-T (Freedom of speech
/ Just watch what you say [1991]).
_Thompson_
(n) Tommy gun.
_toa_
(n) Gang pride/love (Polynesian/Maori).
_Tony Montana_
The character of Tony Montana in the film _"Scarface"_(1983).
_"1995 Tony Montana"_ -- Ice Cube (Summer Vacation [??]). >>
References to "Tony Montana" e.g. "1995 Tony Montana" - Ice
Cube in "Summer Vacation" are to the central character in
Scarface.
_toy_
1) (n) A poor or beginner graffiti artist.
2) (v) To purposefully write over another graffiti artists work
(toy someone out).
3) (n) A sucker.
4) (n) Short for Trouble On Your System.
_Tragniew Park Crips_
(n) Compton crip set, associated with MC Eiht. _"Tragniew Park
you say..."_ -- DJ Quik (Dollaz & Sense [1994]).
_trap_
(v) to sell drugs.
_tray eight_
(n) See 38.
_trick_
(n) Short for trick bitch. Derives from the turning tricks
action of oral sex/doggy style of a prostitute. Can be used to
acknowledge any sort of woman. More than often used as "slut",
but a replacement for "bitch" will work too.
_trill_
(adj) Rough, street-wise person; _"Trill ass nigga"_ --
Underground Kingz (The Southern way [1992], also on Too hard to
swallow [1994]).
_tripping_
1) (v) Literally making a misstep, figuratively doing something
wrong.
2) (v) Responding to the effects of narcotics.
3) (v) Freak for any reason. _"Don't start tripping, or we'll
go toe to toe"_ -- ??
_truck jewelry_
(n) big gold jewelry.
_true that_
(interj). See word is bond.
_TTP_
(n) Tree Top Piru, a notorious Compton Blood set, associated
with DJ Quik (addressed to MC Eiht) _"Westside Trees sprayin'
all tha fleas"_ -- DJ Quik (Dollaz+Sense [1995]).
_turbo_
(n) A joint laced with crack, east coast term. The west coast
equivalent is _"primo"_. See also marihuana.
_turn (it) out_
1) (v) To make records.
2) (v) To have sexual intercourse with.
_twenty sack_
(n) One gram of marihuana, which costs $20. See marihuana. From
Nas (NY state of mind).
_twisted_
(n) Drunk.
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-- U --
_uncle L._
(n) L.L. Cool J. _"Like uncle L. said, I'm rippin' up shows"_
-- Public Enemy (Shut 'em down).
_uncle tom_
1) (n) A black man who wants to be white. From the book Uncle
Tom's Cabin.
2) A tattle-taler; a person who befriends another only to
deceive him, usually in the workplace.
_up north trip_
Being sent to jail. _"Up north trip"_ -- Mobb Deep (?? [??]).
_USG_
(n) United States Ghettos (Onyx).
_uzi_
(n) Israeli semi-automatic gun. _"Hold it, rock! Miuzi weighs a
ton"_ -- Public Enemy (Miuzi weighs a ton).
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-- V --
_vacuum lungs_
(n) Taking a deep smoke. _"Cause fools be havin' them vacuum
lungs"_ -- The Luniz (I've got 5 on it [??]).
_vato_
(n) East LA hispanic slang, meaning homeboy. _"Vato, cholo,
call us what you will"_ -- Kid Frost (La Raza [1990]).
_Vegas_
(n) High quality speaker units mabe by Cerwin-Vega, used in car
and hi-fi systems. _"Going to school with the Vegas on my
earlobe"_ -- Da Luniz (I got 5 on it [1995]).
_Versace_
(n) Clothing label. _"I stay laced cuz my body got Versace
taste"_ -- Monifa (I miss you (come back home) [1995]).
_vexed_
(v) Very angry.
_VMB_
(n) Video Music Box, a NYC hip-hop video music show.
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-- W --
_wack_
1) (adj) Negative: crazy or weird. Mostly this is meant
2) (v) To kill someone. _"So don't step to me 'cause you
boys'll get wacked"_ -- Ice-T (Power).
_watching Andy Griffith_
(v) refers to masturbating. Martin Lawrence (You so crazy).
_wax_
1) (n) Record album(s). _"And we put it on wax, it's the new
style"_ -- Beastie Boys (The New Style [1986]).
2) (v) Synonym to tax as in _"wax his ass"_ from the black
popular _"mop up the floor with your ass"_.
3) (adj) Describing refinement as in 'waxed, buffed and
simonized' from the Mister Magic radio show.
4) (v) To have sexual intercourse. _"Wax that ass"_ -- Ice Cube
(Get off my dick [??]).
5) (v) To make a car appear very shiny.
_WBLS_
(n) One of the original hip-hop stations in New York City.
_"BLS, 97, KISS, bounce to this"_ -- Craig Mack (??? [??]).
_wet_
1) (v) Kill someone. As in wet from blood when someone is
sprayed. _"Now I gotta wetcha"_ -- Ice Cube (I'm gonna wetcha)
2) (v) Excite a female.
_WHBI-FM (105.9)_
(n) The first radio station in New York that had a hip-hop show
(Mr. Magic, the Awesome Two, Afrika Izlam). The station later
changed its call letters to WNWK-FM.
_wheels of steel_
(n) Turntables. _"My DJ Code Money on the wheels of steel"_ --
Schoolly D. (Gucci time).
_who ride_
1) (v) To get buckwild. _"The darkside where the real G's who
ride"_ -- Macadoshish from Thug Life (Don't get twisted [1994])
2) (n) The who ride is the act of getting wild and crazy, like
a riot or an assassination, or any wild activity.
_wigger_
(n) A derogatory term for white people usually used by white
people.
_wilding_
(adj) Having sexual intercourse. Wilding was a term not used
until the Central park jogger attack in 1989. The victim in
this case was raped, and, upon being questioned, kids in the
neighborhood of the attackers had said that they had done the
_"Wild Thing"_ (after the Tone Loc release). Misinterpreted by
reporters not accustomed to the slurred speech of the
attackers, the term wilding was born out of the NYC media's
lust for a catch phrase. (Info from: "Black Studies, Rap and
the Academy" by Houston Baker Jr.)
_wild thing_
(n) Sexual intercourse. _"Hey you two, I was once like you and
I loved to do the wild thing"_ -- Tone Loc (Wild thing).
_Willy_
1) (n) Penis.
2) (n) Someone with money or status in the neighbourhood, a
player or bawler.
_wood_
(n) Erected penis. _"Delivering the wood"_ stands for having
sexual intercourse.
_word_
(n) Biblical (John1:1). _"logos"_: truth.
_word is bond_
(interj) Saying this means that what you are saying is
absolutely correct, and you do not have to put up money to
prove it, you just say it. The term originates from the
financial markets where hirstorically traders woul tell each
other _"my word is bond"_, i.e. my word is good enough, you
don't need it in writing. _"Cause I'm frontin' in my ride, and
my word is bond"_ -- LL Cool J (The boomin' system [1990]).
_wreck_
1) (v) To accomplish something.
2) (v) To destroy or break up. _"All they wanted to do is wreck
and flex"_ Public Enemy (Burn Hollywood, burn [1990]).
3) (v) To show great freestyling skills.
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-- Y --
_y'all_
(n) Short for _"you all"_. Also sometimes used for _you"_,
singular.
_yo_
1) (n) You.
2) (pos) Your.
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-- Z --
_zig zags_
Rolling papers. _"Send some gin and a pack of zig zags"_ --
Snoop Doggy Dogg (Pump pump)
_zooted_
(adj) Smoked out on weed. _"I want to get zooted, nigga"_ --
Total Devastation (??? [1993]).
_zootie_
(n) A joint laced with crack.
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(c) 1992-1996 Patrick Atoon and Niels Janssen
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