On August 11, 1973, Clive Campbell—aka DJ Kool Herc—and his sister Cindy organized a back-to-school party for mostly high-schoolers in the Bronx, bringing together the elements that would form the foundation of an art form, a culture, and a phenomenon: hip-hop.
On the occasion of hip-hop’s 50th anniversary, we set out to capture its trajectory from cultural mashup to source of global influence by highlighting the words essential to hip-hop—the words that have defined it and that have been defined by it.
How we compiled this list
We looked at hip-hop through several lenses, considering essential elements, historical milestones, influences, and analyses and rankings of artists, albums, and songs. We also performed our own data analysis of decades of hip-hop lyrics to identify prominent terms and trends, including the first instances of slang and other words in lyrics.
Of course, hip-hop transcends any attempt to neatly define it, and there were dozens of words that we weren’t able to include in the final 50. (We know hip-hop heads will tell us which ones we missed!) Like hip-hop itself, the final word list is a tapestry that represents multiple eras, facets, and flavors.
@dictionarycom The event now recognized as the birth of hip-hop happened 50 years ago, on August 11, 1973, in the Bronx! We selected 50 words that have defined hip-hop– and that have been defined by it. Words sourced from hip-hop history, culture, artists, albums, lyrics, and more! #hiphop50 #hiphopmusic #hiphopanniversary #music #language #vocab #vocabulary
DJ
The terms DJ and disc jockey predate hip-hop. However, DJing is known as one of the five main elements of hip-hop (along with MCing, graffiti, breakdancing, and knowledge). Jamaican-born DJ Kool Herc (“the Father of Hip-Hop”) is credited with innovating the techniques of hip-hop music when he used turntables and mixers to curate beats from soul and funk records in 1973. Herc moved his parties to NYC clubs and perfected his technique of blending unique tracks. DJs Grandmaster Flash and Afrika Bambaataa are also cited as pioneers of early hip-hop music and culture.
MC
In early hip-hop, the DJ was the main focus, and the person who accompanied the beats with rhymes and lyrics was called the MC (or emcee), short for master of ceremonies. As time passed, the MC would become the person to lead the crowd. MCing is also known as rapping, and rapper has become mostly a synonym for MC. Coke La Rock and Kurtis Blow are two of hip-hop’s earliest MCs.
DJing and MCing are two of the five main elements of hip-hop. Do you know the others?
rap
In casual use, the words rap and hip-hop are sometimes used interchangeably. More strictly speaking, rap is one part of hip-hop—but a central one. The word rap has been used in its current musical sense (as both a verb and a noun) since the 1970s, but derives from an earlier sense of rap meaning “an impressive verbal display,” which originated in the Black community by at least the 1950s.
turntable
What was so unique about Kool Herc’s beats? He wired up and used two record turntables and a technique he called the “Merry-Go-Round” to isolate the beats in tracks and spin them to create longer dance breaks. The art of using turntables in this manner to make hip-hop music is sometimes called turntablism.
beat
The beat is one of the most basic elements of hip-hop. Combine beats with a vocal track, and you’ve got a rap. One of hip-hop’s most famous early hits, “Rapper’s Delight” by the Sugarhill Gang, mentions the beat almost immediately: “Now what you hear is not a test: I’m rappin’ to the beat.”
lyric
Part of what makes hip-hop so enduringly compelling is that it has something to say, and the primary vehicle for these messages is the words—the lyrics. The range of lyricism within hip-hop is as varied as hip-hop itself, with lyrical styles ranging from raw to refined—sometimes even within the span of a single song. And the ideas and themes expressed through hip-hop lyricism are just as diverse.
rhyme
Rhymes are so strongly associated with hip-hop lyrics that the word rhyming can be synonymous with rapping. Many artists have pushed the boundaries of the poetry at the heart of hip-hop, with rappers like MF Doom and André 3000 creating wildly complex rhymes and rhyme schemes.
flow
A rapper’s flow is the pacing, rhythm, cadence, and vocal qualities of their delivery of the lyrics along to the beat (or even without it). Each rapper’s flow is unique, but a rapper may change their flow from one song to another or even at different points of a single track. There are countless variations of flow, from the beat-hugging bounce of old school MCs to the rapid-fire precision of Busta Rhymes to the dynamic pacing of Missy Elliot.
double entendre
Hip-hop artists’ tradition of pushing the limits of language have made them the foremost proliferators of advanced wordplay in modern times. One of hip-hop’s wordplay staples is the double entendre, a phrase or entire verse packed with a double meaning. Some of the most skilled wordsmiths have layered in four or even more potential meanings into a single line, with hip-hop fans often dissecting and debating potential interpretations.
breakdancing
Breakdancing, which originated in the 1970s, is a largely improvisational dance style known for its intricate footwork and competitive break battles. Also called breaking or b-boying/b-girling, it is another one of the main elements of hip-hop culture. The break in breakdancing refers to the breaks in hip-hop music.
graffiti
Similarly, graffiti art is also one of the elements thought to have formed hip-hop culture. Darry “Cornbread” McCray is credited as the first modern graffiti artist. He wrote his nickname across Philadelphia in the 1960s and inspired other artists to express themselves in the same way. Graffiti art had already reached NYC by 1973. Puerto Rican artist Lee Quinones is cited as one of the early pioneers of subway art.
mic
Let’s talk about tools. In hip-hop, song after song references the mic. It’s the MC’s instrument, after all, and rappers delight in boasting about their prowess with it (“BIG’s on the mic; call the undertaker,” raps Notorious B.I.G. on “Microphone Murderer”). The punctuating power move known as a mic drop (“the act of intentionally dropping one’s microphone at the end of a performance”) dates back to at least the 1980s, when comedians like Eddie Murphy would drop their mics at the end of a set.
scratching
Scratching is a turntable technique in which a DJ creates distinct sounds by moving vinyl records back and forth. According to DJ Grand Wizzard Theodore, he discovered the technique as a child when he accidentally scratched a record with a needle upon being startled by his mother. He liked the sound—and the rest is history.
mixtape
The word mixtape originally referred to a homemade compilation of tracks recorded from different albums (or the radio) onto a cassette tape. But the term was also eventually applied to song collections released by artists featuring tracks that are often more experimental or spontaneous than a meticulously produced album. Deployed by both mainstream and underground artists alike, mixtapes are strongly associated with hip-hop and represent its grassroots, collaborative legacy.
Mixtape vs. Album. Learn the difference!
beatboxing
To beatbox is to “simulate the sounds and rhythms of percussion instruments or a drum machine by using the mouth and voice.” It can be referred to as vocal percussion and is an art form in itself, with early pioneers including Doug E. Fresh, Rahzel, and Biz Markie.
bar
In music, the word bar refers to a span of beats. In hip-hop and other genres, a typical bar consists of four beats per measure, with 16 bars per verse. But the word bar also refers to the lyrics performed during that span of beats, and is now sometimes used in reference to lyrics (or lyrical verses) in general, so you’ll hear fans debating which bar is the best in a particular verse or song.
Black
Hip-hop wasn’t invented from scratch. It draws on a wealth of traditions from the Black community, including many different elements of music, dance, and culture. And Blackness itself has been a prominent theme throughout the history of hip-hop, evidenced not only in lyrics but in the names of albums (Public Enemy’s Fear of a Black Planet; Common’s Black America Again), songs (Nicki Minaj’s “Black Barbies”; Kendrick Lamar’s “Black Boy Fly”), and artists (Black Thought; Black Star).
soul
In the context of music, the word soul primarily refers to the genre of Black music popular during the 1960s and ’70s. The popularity of soul music gave rise to other terms describing Black culture, like soul brother and soul sister and soul food. Hip-hop has sampled soul music since its early days; DJ Kool Herc spun what one biographer described as “soul and funk bombs” at that legendary back-to-school jam. This was in contrast to the popular R&B and disco of the day.
Afrocentrism
Fashion designer Dapper Dan is credited with inspiring the surging popularity of Afrocentric styles (those “centered on Africa or on African-derived cultures”) in the ’80s and ’90s. Kente clothes and bright prints were celebrated and embraced by artists like Salt-N-Pepa and A Tribe Called Quest.
fresh
Speaking of fashion, in the 1980s fresh became a generic slang term of approval, like cool or sick. This is a word fundamental to hip-hop, as the fashion documentary Fresh Dressed (2015) chronicles. To be fresh is to be sharp and impeccably dressed. “Young people can create an aesthetic within the culture where other young people will look at them and go, ‘Man … I respect how he looks. He’s dignified,’” says Fresh Dressed director Sacha Jenkins, a former music editor at Vibe. “That’s what hip-hop did: it gave a lot of people an identity.”
b-boy/b-girl
The b in b-boy and b-girl comes from breakdancing, and the term was originally used to refer to the dancers themselves (and sometimes still does). LL Cool J popularized b-boy fashion in the ’80s and ’90s by wearing luxury streetwear, like his signature Kangol bucket hats, oversized chains, color-coordinated sneakers, and branded tracksuits.
battle
Hip-hop is a competitive genre—and legendary battles between rappers have resulted in classic tracks. Some of the earliest battles happened in the 1980s, as Big Daddy Kane noted in How to Rap: “(in) the ’80s, really your mentality is battle format … your focus was to have a hot rhyme in case you gotta battle someone.”
diss
Originating as a shortening of disrespect and now mainstream as both a noun and a verb, the word diss was born as rap slang. Disses are as much a part of rap as boasts, with entire songs (diss tracks) devoted to insulting rivals and fueling ongoing beefs. Both diss tracks and rap battles follow in the time-honored Black tradition of verbal sparring known as the dozens (among other names).
crew
When solo rappers collaborate on an album as a group, they are known collectively as a crew. In 2012, Complex magazine ranked their top crew albums, with Wu-Tang Clan’s Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) unsurprisingly coming in at number one.
empowerment
Hip-hop is a cultural movement of empowerment that speaks to young people and entire communities alike. “I was a shy, nerdy, geeky kid, but hip-hop empowered me,” says Run DMC’s Darryl McDaniels. Today, McDaniels works to empower others by writing kids’ books and promoting foster care and adoption.
queen
Hip-hop has had many queens: from Queen Latifah (who released All Hail the Queen in 1989), to “Queen of Rap” Nicki Minaj (who recently broke the record for most #1 rap hits on the digital charts), to Queen Bey herself, Beyoncé (whose pop superstardom is inseparable from hip-hop culture).
freestyle
In the context of hip-hop, freestyle originally referred to rhymes that were “free of style”—not about one particular subject. During the ’90s, and particularly on the West Coast, freestyling became associated with improvised verses and rap battles.
dope
Studies have shown rappers have among the largest vocabularies in music and are even “more poetic” than Shakespeare. Eminem, GZA, and Aesop Rock use the largest set of unique words in their lyrics (6,000+)—one way to measure vocabulary size. The wordplay in hip-hop has led to new words and meanings—take dope, for example. Dope comes from the Dutch doop, which means “thick sauce” and was used in English in the early 1800s to refer to various types of gravy. By the 1900s, dope was slang for drugs, especially marijuana. Fast forward to the 1980s, and dope eventually came to mean “excellent,” as seen in the lyrics of Busy Bee and Grandmaster Flash.
word
The word word has been used as a slang interjection of affirmation since at least the early 1980s, and variations like word up are almost as old. The expression grew out of—and is still strongly associated with—old-school hip-hop, but is still current today, outlasting other slang terms that are now only used ironically or to evoke a certain era.
OG
The now-ubiquitous term OG is short for “original gangster,” a term that can be traced back to the gang culture of the 1970s. But it was popularized by O.G. Original Gangster, the 1991 album by Ice-T.
player
A lot of hip-hop is focused on “the game”—both the hip-hop game and the game of life. And the game has players—those who pursue, achieve, and maintain success. Of course, the word player also has some critical connotations in the context of materialism and relationships.
homie
Homie is thought to be short for homeboy, which can mean a close friend from the same neighborhood. But more generally, it just means a friend. And hip-hop often has a strong focus on identifying one’s true friends.
def
If you thought this word was dead, you’re right. This OG of hip-hop slang was “buried” in a mock funeral in 1993 by some members of Def Jam, one of the original hip-hop record labels, after it was accepted in conventional dictionaries and therefore deemed dead to hip-hop. But where did it come from? In Jamaica, def was originally an alteration of death, which likely influenced its use in hip-hop as slang for “excellent.”
keeping it real
Hip-hop magazine XXL defines keeping it real as “the act of staying true to one’s self or upbringing”—even in the midst of challenges or, conversely, attaining massive success.
swag
While swag is an old word with many different meanings, it has a very specific use in hip-hop: a bold, assured self-confidence and style. It was popularized by Jay-Z.
steez
You seein’ this steez? Originating in the 1980s, the word steez combines style and ease and is a unique, personal style pulled off with ease. But don’t take it from us: Kidd Creole rapped “I’m a lady’s man, I don’t have a lot of women hangin’ on my steez / Only one fine lady, that you better believe.”
miseducation
Lauryn Hill was stunned when her solo album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill received five Grammys in 1998. “This is hip-hop music,” she uttered in disbelief during her acceptance speech. Her groundbreaking album harkened back to Carter G. Woodson’s 1933 book The Mis-Education of the Negro and the critique that education fails the Black community—a theme that hip-hop lyrics frequently address.
knowledge
Sometimes cited as one of the five essential, foundational elements of hip-hop (along with MCing, DJing, breakdancing, and graffiti), knowledge is at the core of hip-hop expression. Hip-hop both creates and is driven forward by knowledge, including knowledge of political and social issues, history, cultural traditions, and, of course, vocabulary.
Benjamins
In 1997, Puff Daddy told us “it’s all about the Benjamins, baby,” popularizing a slang term for $100 bills based on the name of the man whose face appears on them—Benjamin Franklin. It’s one of the many slang terms that hip-hop has propelled to become established in the popular lexicon.
bling
Bling is now established as both an adjective (“flashy; ostentatious”) and a noun (“expensive and flashy jewelry, clothing, or other possessions”). The related phrase bling bling was popularized in the late 1990s by Lil Wayne, Juvenile, and the Hot Boys.
struggle
It’s not surprising that the word struggle itself is ranked highly on lyrical analyses of hip-hop as one of the most frequently used words. The very nature of hip-hop is based on personal experiences and narratives of not just surviving but thriving amidst racism, poverty, and other forms of adversity.
“And still I rise, so keep your head up,
And make your mind strong
It’s a struggle every day, but you gotta hold on.”
—“Hold On Be Strong” by Tupac (referencing the Maya Angelou poem “And Still I Rise”)
thug life
Thug life is a term indelibly linked with Tupac Shakur, who popularized it as a way of referring to a determined and resilient attitude to succeed in spite of racism and injustice. The reclaimed use of the word thug by Black people is intended to spotlight and counter the stereotypes embedded in its use as a racist slur.
GOAT
In sports, legends like LeBron James, Michael Jordan, and Serena Williams are often referred to as the G.O.A.T.—the “Greatest Of All Time.” We can attribute the term G.O.A.T. to the actual G.O.A.T. himself: Muhammad Ali. But by 2000, the term had become popular enough in the rap scene that LL Cool J named his album G.O.A.T.—The Greatest Of All Time. It’s now common for rap fans and outlets to debate who is rap’s G.O.A.T., with the likes of Jay-Z, Tupac, and the Notorious B.I.G. often topping lists.
love
Benjamins and bling aside, the true focus of hip-hop is often love. In 2017, the site The Pudding released a study of the words most common (and unique) to hip-hop, based on 26 million words from hip-hop lyrics. It revealed love as one of the most repeated words in lyrics, finding that it is almost four times more likely to appear in hip-hop lyrics than other music genres.
renegade
It’s the 2020s, and hip-hop dances have gone viral. On Instagram, Dubsmash, and TikTok, dance challenges set to popular songs have racked up millions of views. One of the first was Renegade, a dance choreographed to K-Camp’s “Lottery” by 14-year-old Jalaiah Harmon.
culture
Hip-hop is more than a musical genre—it’s a culture. Early on, hip-hop coalesced around the shared beliefs and traditions of the communities of the Black and Latino artists who shaped it. Russell Simmons says in his book Life and Def, “I see hip-hop culture as the new American mainstream. We don’t change for you; you adapt to us.” Hip-hop has since grown beyond the US to become part of global culture.
skrrt
Whether you’re singing along to trap rappers or making a quick getaway, skrrt is onomatopoeia for the sound of tires screeching. It’s been around since at least the 1990s.
stan
A blend of stalker and fan, the term stan describes an “overly enthusiastic fan, especially of a celebrity.” This term is linked to Eminem’s 2000 song “Stan.”
okurrr
Okurrr is a fun, sassy, and trilled way of saying OK and a catchphrase of rapper Cardi B. It originates in drag culture and was notably featured on RuPaul’s Drag Race. Not sure how to pronounce it? According to Cardi B, it should sound like “a cold pigeon in New York City.”
movement
What started as an underground movement in the late 1970s is now a global phenomenon that continues to influence music, entertainment, fashion, sports, business, language, and so many other aspects of life. And hip-hop gives a voice to artists advocating for change, making it a social and political movement. What will the next 50 years of hip-hop bring? The sky’s the limit.
🎧 Retro (and future retro) slang
Hip-hop is among the most prolific generators and popularizers of slang. Some terms that emerge from hip-hop take decades to enter the mainstream (where they are then often mistaken as “new”), while others catch fire instantly but then flame out due to overuse. Here are five examples that serve as reference points of cultural eras and moments.
phat
The first records of phat—a respelling of fat—come from around 1960. It came to be used as a synonym for cool and as a positive descriptor of attractiveness, especially applied to women, leading to (unsupported) theories that the word stands for “Pretty Hot And Tempting,” among other creative phrases.
da bomb
Da bomb is a compliment; it means something is “the best.” Kriss Kross released “Da Bomb” in 1993, and now the phrase is remembered as a relic of that era.
fo’ shizzle
You might assume the credit for this one goes entirely to Snoop Dogg, who popularized the phrase with his 2000 single “Snoop Dogg (What’s My Name Pt. 2).” But E-40 is actually cited as first using -izzle as a suffix in 1996.
jiggy
Remember “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It,” Will Smith’s 1997 hit? Jiggy actually dates back to the 1920s and may be related to jig (“dance”).
pushin’ P
Popularized by the 2022 song “pushin P” by rappers Gunna, Future, and Young Thug, the phrase has many interpretations, but typically means something similar to keeping it real. A person who remains true to their friends while also living a luxury lifestyle would be said to be pushin’ p.
