Sexy buppie (black yuppie) Kanye West (KAHN-yay) was predicted to be a rap flop in his polo shirts & Gucci loafers but wove suburban roots into rebellious music, won 3 Grammys on his first album in 2003 & now enjoys worldwide super-stardom.
Rap: A-G
- 1-2 checker
- A check on the mic before the show, also checking cell phone messages.
- 1200
- (Twelve-hundred), the favorite turntable for DeeJays, Technics SL 1200.
- 143
- Beeper code for "I love you".
- 1555
- Really poor quality living. Comes from the year of slaveship arrivals in US.
- 98 olds
- Largest, most luxurious GM car, rapper status symbol.
- aneki
- Sister.
- aniki
- Brother.
- bammer
- Bummer, terrible.
- b-boy
- Breakdancer, basketball player or a freestyle artist.
- beats & breaks
- DeeJay work.
- biter
- Someone who copies someone else's style, a faker.
- bling
- Bling-bling, money, riches (sound of cash, cash register, jewelry clanking).
- blix
- Guns. Singular is blick or a blickity.
- Boo-ya
- Explicative meaning fantastic, incredible, totally fine.
- bounce
- To leave.
- breakbeat
- The music as an energetic, well-sampled show for dancing.
- bubble
- To rise to the top of stardom.
- bust-a u
- Go in a totally opposite direction, U-turn.
- butter
- Very smooth meaning authentic, very good.
- cheeser
- Somebody after your money, an opportunist.
- chief rocker
- Old School word meaning the best rapper.
- cipher
- A jam session of deejays, rappers, dancers or graffiti writers.
- connoisseur
- A performer trained in fine arts, academic poet or musician.
- Conscious
- Genre of Rap dedicated to non-exploitation of others within the hip-hop culture, examination of Rap's emphasis on violence & raising awareness for the global cause of social justice.
- contact
- Working the mic close to the lips.
- cred
- Credibility, having true street-roots. Epitomized by rapper Nas.
- cronic
- Very strong weed, as opposed to stress which is very weak.
- DeeJay
- Also DJ, the performer mixing the music & scratchin' on the turntables.
- dipped
- Dressed in the latest fashions.
- dis
- Disrespect, also disrespezzy.
- DJ Kool Herc
- Performer gets credit for birthing the Hip-hop Generation along with the group Afrika Bambaataa.
- Dub
- Reggae root music/words. Major Canadian genre from Dancehall culture.
- dummin
- Acting stupid.
- EmCee
- Also MC, Master of Ceremonies, lead vocal performer or event leader.
- ends
- The money.
- fiend
- To freak out, crave or feel like acting hostile for something.
- gaffle
- To steal, comes from a stick-like tool used to control gamecocks.
- Gangsta
- From gangster, Rap genre that took the forefront by the 90's, content is street, honest, profane, emphasizes lifestyle of violence, personal/political anger, drug use and objectification of women.
- get busy
- To perform the song/rap.
- G-funk
- Gangsta rap with samples & music.
- Go Go
- Music out of the Wash. DC area with battle dances called Beat-yo-feet, typically conga, electric piano, drums.
- Grandmaster Flash
- (And the Furious Five) from the Bronx, get the ball rolling with recording the first socially conscious rap hit The Message in 1979.
- grind
- Dance move also called juke.
Rap: H-Z
- hawk
- A knife. Also a sharply cold wind.
- Heckler
- Not the jerk in the crowd, an assault weapon (the Heckler & Koch machine gun).
- Hip-hop
- Commonly used to mean the overall culture of Rap Music, rooted in Dancehall reggae underground of late 70's & the emergence of street Rap out of the Bronx.
- Hip-hop
- The music & the culture. Sometimes used interchangeably with "Rap" but rapping is the performing of the words.
- holla
- "See ya later", also "Call me later".
- hyphy
- Dancing crazy-like.
- Jay-Z
- The Ace MC-entrepreneur of Hip-hop culture & Rap promoter of the 90's to present.
- jiggy
- To dance, to feel rich & happy.
- Kurtis Blow
- His national debut on TV (1979) proved Hip-hop was here to stay.
- mash up
- A remix, bootlegged sampling, Plunderphonics; laying samples over top someone else's pre-recorded music.
- mosh
- Dance wildly. (Term came from punk music culture.)
- Old School
- First genre of Rap. Emphasis on block-party & extended Dancehall mixes. on the cut In charge of deejaying, also "cutting the wax".
- phat
- Fine, fully expressing rap attitude.
- player
- Person with status in the neighborhood, also a willy or a baller.
- props
- Not stage props, proper respect.
- Queen Latifah
- First significantly visible female rapper (1988) who challenged the male-dominated Rap network.
- Rap
- Performance of the words, music or not.
- re-up
- To purchase more of something, re-stock, as in CDs, food, drugs.
- set
- 1) The group of songs in the show. 2) A neighborhood sub-gang of the larger gang affiliation.
- shout out
- A dedication to a special someone inserted into a song.
- skell
- Person who looks sick, maybe drug-addicted. (Skeleton.)
- Snoop Dog
- Rapper invented a kind of "pig Latin" used in his lyrics by adding "izz" and "izzle" to words that regulates rhythm, corrects beat & forces rhymes, ingenious & entertaining.
- spittin'
-
- Rapping.
- step up
- Take a challenge to a battle.
- stunna
- A person who wows the people (usually by impressive shows of wealth.)
- Sugar Hill Gang
- Rap trio that enjoyed the first Hip-hop smash hit (1979).
- Sweat the technique
- Criticize the music or the artist.
- timbs
- Stands for Timberline Brand, popular hip-hop fashion boots.
- twurk
- To dance.
- Uptown
- Harlem, Washington Heights, Inwood, even South Bronx. In Canada, the Cote-Des-Neige area.
- walk you down
- To catch up with you in wealth or fame.
- whanksta
- A wannabe gangsta, also a white gangsta.
- whip
- The car.
- whodi
- Pronounced WHOA-dee or whoa-DAY. A friend from the hood, like homey.
- wigger
- Wannabe black or a white rapper.
- wile out
- Act crazy, not in a good way.
