PYTs in leotards may head off to class to look like ballerinas, but donāt think rappers do the same. In hip hop, barre is a trippy cocktail of codeine cough syrup and Sprite. For twenty years, rap artists like C-Note, Jay-Z, Talib Kweli, and A$AP Mob have been spitting about āsip- sip- sipping on some sizzurp,ā or barre. So, put those leg-warmers away.
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When Drake raps āItās prolly cause Iām from the snow, with all my woes,ā heās not complaining about having 99 problems with his snow shovel.
is another way of saying āfriends.ā Other rappers hail their āwoes,ā and itās all good. In fact, knowing this should brighten up a lot rap songs you may (or may not) have heard. Like Fabolous, lyricizing about āridinā with my woes til the casket drop.ā Heās living it up YOLO-style with his crew, not suffering alone and in agony until he dies.
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Remember that time you tripped up the stairs and busted your nose in front of everyone? Yeah, thatās completely irrelevant here. When someone is tripping, theyāre either high on drugs (maybe tripping on barre), or considered crazy or stupid, or both high and stupid-crazy.
Future makes it pretty clear which of these he means on āIām Trippināā:
Smoked a whole pound of green, Iām trippinā, drunk a whole thing of lean, Iām trippinā.
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As lovers of all things linguistic, weād love to tell you the hottest new trend in hip hop is instructing listeners on punctuation.
Nah. Commas means ālots of money.ā If the number doesnāt have a comma in it, ScHoolboy Qās not interested. One commaās good, but two is killer. For Post Malone in āGo Flexā, itās either the p**** or the commasā (no beating around the bush). The little punctuation marks can motivate but for French Montana, āMore commas, more hatinā-ass problems.ā
The more money you make, the more people hate on and take advantage of you.
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Letās see, a normal stack of rubber bands would makeĢżno one excited. But in rap, rubber bands means youāre āf**king up the commas,ā or making that money.
One comma in the digits means youāve got an amazing rack, or $1,000 cash. For ease of transport, the rack is probably secured with a (a synonym of rack). In this world, a $100 bill isnāt worth anything ā¦ until thereās enough of them to put a rubber band around. Itās all about the Benjamins, as Sly Boogieās āCalifornia (Remix)ā suggests: āGettinā that rubber band money, and who cares if blood is on it?ā
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Maybe youāve got an image of a fresh pie cooling on the countertop. Chocolate-chip pecan. Steam rising. Ok, now imagine youāre about to sprinkle powdered sugar on top. Only instead of powdered sugar, itās cocaine.
In āTrap Queen,ā Fetty Wapās āin the kitchen cookinā piesā with his baby, but the confection is actually a kilo of cocaine getting cooked into crack. Fresh pies, get your fresh pies!
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Birdsong this is not, although has a lofty meaning in rap. In the early ā90s, UGK usedĢżtrill in a redefining way, to mean āauthentic.ā The duoās usage might be inspired by combining true and realāit’s a rap portmanteau!Ģż
This 1992 lyric shows how trill relates to legitimacy and credibility: āHeās tryinā to be trill, but I can see that yellow stripe down his back.ā Over 20 years later, ābeing trillā is still the rill dill. Jay-Z reminded everyone in 2013ās āTom Fordā toĢżākeep it trill, yāall know yāall canāt f*** around.ā
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You already know thereās no way rappers use mane in reference to the long hair spilling down the back of a horse or lion. Right? Good.
Mane is a dialectical pronunciation of man, common in southern regions of the US (especially ). We figured you already had mane down, but we wanted the chance to share how crazy it would be if you misunderstood the meaning:
āDrop the bass, horseās hair, the bass get lowerā (BeyoncĆ©, āPartitionā)
āIām the dope lionās locks, bitchesā¦ā (A$AP Rocky, āAngelsā)
āYou now rockinā with the best, pony ādo (J. Cole, āCanāt Get Enoughā)
And, we canāt forget rapper Gucci Horseyhead!
Before you blow that whistle …Ģżjust know what you may be in for. It could lead to death or sexual climax.
Sometimes, when the whistle pops in a rap song, it means āa gunā is being fired. Like in the 2002 Clipse song āGrindināā (featuring Pharrell Williams): āKids call me Mr. Sniffles, other hand on my nickel-plated whistle, one eye closed Iāll hit you.ā (Why Mr. Sniffles? Think back to ācooking piesā and connect that with the body part through which you breathe. There you go.)
On the other hand, in his titular song, Flo Rida uses whistle to allude to a different anatomical structure: āCan you blow my whistle, baby, whistle, baby? [ā¦] You just put your lips together andā blah blah blah, you get the idea!
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More than ever, rappers are using skirt in their lyrics, and not because they appreciate how the feminine item of clothing enhances a womanās assets (although that’s probably true).ĢżHip hop has latched onto ²õ°ģ¾±°ł³Łās use as a verb to mean āpass, avoid, or evadeā (as in āshe skirted the issueā). In rap, the word is commonly written as skrt or , and in that form, it’s like an imitation of what a vehicle sounds like as it screeches away (as if making a high-speed getaway from an illicit activity).
āSkrrt-skrrtingā requires having sick wheels, such as those possessed by Post Malone: āMy whip fast, my b!tch bad, I skrrt-skrrt, that coupe fast.ā
ScHoolboy Qās āengine make the tire go skrrt!ā And, in his “Lambo” (Lambergini), Travis Scott can apparently only pop one āskrrt,ā but in his Bentley truck, he can āskrrt, skrrt, skrrtā to his heartās content.
Of course, it would take rapper Lil Wayne to riff on both meanings of skirt: āMy girls and cars both skirt off.ā
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Check out some more Regional Rap Slang here!
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