Music Slang
Music and hip-hop slang — the words coming out of rap, the studio, and the scene.
114 words
A read on whether a crowd, set or moment has the right energy.
Describing music or style with deep, earthy, irresistible groove and soul.
Impressive, tough, or excellent — especially music or a look.
Your home or place — where you live and chill.
An instrumental made to sound like a specific artist — and a meme format for 'this gives off ___ energy.'
Stealing somebody's rhymes, moves, or style and trying to pass it off as your own.
A stylish, confident woman who's sharp, sure of herself, and dressed to kill.
Lyrics, especially clever or hard-hitting ones — 'he's got bars.'
Your word is your unbreakable promise, a vow of total truth and honor.
Stylish, attractive, and effortlessly cool — looking good and knowing it.
Patois pronunciation of 'tune' — a track, especially a banger.
A weak, fake rapper with no skills, the kind of MC real ones eat alive on the mic.
Someone who resents your success instead of getting their own.
Rare, premium or deep-cut — coveted gear, art or music for true heads.
A fast heel-toe dance style ravers do to four-on-the-floor electronic beats.
A tune that's genuinely good — or a whole sound/aesthetic that's catching on.
The front barrier of a stage — and the prized spot pressed right against it.
Mature content — open to view.
To disrespect or insult someone — a put-down, often in a song.
Excellent, cool, and top-quality — a hip-hop term of high praise.
"Let's get it" — a hype ad-lib popularized by Lil Uzi Vert.
Those short shouts and tags a rapper layers behind the main vocal — 'skrrt,' 'yeah,' 'gang' and the like.
An encouragement to keep going, stay persistent, and ride out whatever comes.
So good it's almost wrong, the kind of skill that flips 'sick' into a compliment.
Internet-ironic term for the cartoonishly menacing, meme-driven side of drill culture.
Curvy, attractive, and fabulous — coined by Destiny's Child.
To party hard and go all-out at a show, rave or festival.
The biggest stage at a festival, with the top acts and the wildest production.
An invitation to dance and move your body freely on the floor.
To go all out, give it everything you got, whether on the mic, the floor, or in a battle.
The chaotic crowd zone where everyone slams together — now huge in rap shows too.
A cool greeting or acknowledgment meaning 'what's going on' or 'right on.'
The catchy, repeated part of a song — usually the chorus — that hooks you and gets stuck in your head.
A rhetorical check meaning 'do you understand and agree with this?'
Even more impressive, wild, or hard than 'mad' — a top-tier UK hype word.
An expression of strong agreement, approval, or encouragement.
An ongoing feud or grudge — in rap, a public conflict often played out through diss tracks.
An expression of agreement or 'I hear you' from 80s hip-hop culture.
The main act of a festival or show — the biggest name, usually closing the night.
A subgenre of hip-hop, or slang for a place where hustling happens.
To hang out and relax, or to drop a verse, depending on how you're using it.
Describing something so excellent it's beyond belief or comparison.
Wild, exciting, and amazing — so good it's out of control.
The slime-green, messy-confident party aesthetic from Charli XCX's 2024 album — chaotic, hedonistic, unbothered cool.
A large dance party with electronic music, often running all night.
Faking it, putting on a false front to seem tougher or richer.
The absolute best, the standout, the thing everybody's talking about.
Peace, Love, Unity, Respect — the unofficial moral code of rave and EDM culture.
Your tight friend from the neighborhood, your ride-or-die from way back.
To dance with full energy and joy, especially to funk or disco.
An absolutely fire track — a tune so good it sets the crowd off.
Back-to-back — two DJs sharing one set, trading tracks turn by turn.
A big dancehall party or rave — also a term for dancehall music itself.
Homemade beaded bracelets ravers trade as gifts and symbols of connection.
To rush in the instant gates open, sprinting to claim the rail or front spot.
Loud, lively, and full of energy — usually about music or a scene.
Mature content — open to view.
Flashy, expensive jewelry — the sparkle of chains, rings, and diamonds.
To grab the microphone and command the crowd with serious skill and energy.
Overreacting, acting irrational, or saying something wild.
Your carefully planned festival outfit — usually bold, glittery and built for dancing.
Hyped, rowdy, and turnt — the energy of Southern 2000s rap.
A party where everyone dances to music through wireless headphones, not speakers.
Money, cash, paper — a tasty 2000s word for it.
Your day-one girl from the block, the female counterpart to your homeboy.
Excellent, top quality, the highest grade, flipped from drug slang into pure praise.
A tall decorated pole crews raise at festivals to find each other in the crowd.
The portable stereo you hauled on your shoulder to bring the party with you.
The screech of tires — an ad-lib for hype, swerving off, or making a getaway.
Top-tier near-flawless diamonds — the clarity grade rappers name-drop to flex how clean their ice is.
An instrumental or beat — Jamaican-derived word that runs through UK street music.
To dance hard, party with abandon, or fully commit to having a good time.
A dark, menacing rap subgenre built on sliding 808s and cold, deadpan flows.
A breezy goodbye meaning 'see you later' or 'until next time.'
A phony, untrustworthy person who talks a big game but never backs it up.
To release new music — and as a noun, the moment a beat kicks in and the song explodes.
The involuntary scrunched-up face you make when a heavy bass drop hits.
To genuinely know what you're talking about — to have real knowledge or taste on a subject.
Dancing to the breaks with footwork, spins, and freezes, the raw original form of breakdancing.
Smooth, sharp, and impressively stylish — or smoothly cunning.
To start dancing, get moving, or do something the right way with energy.
Impressively hard, skilful, and ruthless — high praise for a verse or beat.
A glowing light stick waved at raves — and a whole performance art of doing so.
The moment a track's tension breaks and the bass and beat slam back in.
The smooth pitch-bend of an 808 bass — the production move that defines UK drill.
Describing someone strikingly attractive, stylish, and alluring.
Pointing finger-guns in the air to salute a hard tune — UK rave appreciation.
A vibe-first rap style with slurred, hard-to-catch lyrics — often a dig, sometimes just a description.
A circle of rappers taking turns freestyling, each one passing the mic and trying to outdo the last.
Late-night reckless energy — going hard, on a track or in the streets.
An unreleased or unidentified track in a DJ set that fans scramble to name.
To celebrate loudly — and the upward two-palm gesture that goes with it.
Mature content — open to view.
An affirmation meaning 'excellent,' 'agreed,' or 'we're cool.'
Clean, new, and sharp, the look of somebody stepping out flawless head to toe.
The wobbly, heavy low-end of bass music — and the music itself.
Money, cash, or earnings — the dough you work for.
Rapping off the top of your head — or, confusingly, just a loosely-themed track.
To rap, especially to deliver bars with skill — 'spit a verse' means lay down some rhymes.
Cool and excellent — or, flipped, annoyed and mad.
Excellent, the best, top-tier, the word that named a whole record label.
A break-boy who lived for the breaks, throwing down on cardboard with footwork and freezes.
An explosive shout of excitement meaning something is fantastic or thrilling.
To dance, especially loose and free to funky music — or to head out fast.
'For sure' in Snoop Dogg's signature -izzle talk.
An all-purpose 'I agree, for real, truth' — agreement and acknowledgment in one syllable.
Removable jeweled mouthpieces — gold, silver, or diamond caps you snap over your teeth.
A DJ or artist's full performance — the run of tracks they play in their slot.
When a tune goes so hard the DJ spins it straight back from the top.
Hits even better in a certain context — a comparative form of something that "slaps."
Kicking back totally relaxed and unbothered, cool with no worries at all.
An ironic reversal meaning extremely good, impressive, or tough.
Bad, lame, or low-quality — the opposite of dope.
A genuinely great, catchy song — if a track is a bop, it goes hard and you can't stop playing it.