adjective Music Slang

Ill

/ɪl/ · adjective · slang

So good it's almost wrong, the kind of skill that flips 'sick' into a compliment.

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Definitions

1

Wild, crazy, or out of control in a bold and admirable way.

“Things got ill on the dance floor once the DJ dropped that break.”
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2

Tough, mean, or aggressive in attitude or delivery.

“He had that ill look like he was ready to throw down.”
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3

Excellent, impressive, or extraordinarily skilled, used as high praise.

“His verse was ill, nobody in the cipher could touch it.”
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Ill In A Sentence

That scratch routine was straight ill, the crowd went nuts.
She wrote some ill rhymes for a sixteen-year-old.
The whole tape is ill from start to finish.

Origin & Usage

An inversion of the literal 'sick' or 'bad', it became hip-hop praise in the late 70s and 80s, where taking a negative word and flipping it to mean excellent was a signature move of the culture.

Variants illin'ill-assillest
Tags #hip-hop#old-school#1980s#vintage#praise#skill

People Also Ask

What does ill mean in slang?

In hip-hop slang it means excellent, impressive, or extraordinarily skilled, a flipped negative used as praise.

Where did ill come from?

From 70s-80s hip-hop, part of a tradition of reversing negative words; 'ill' came to mean great rather than unwell.

What does illest mean?

Illest is the superlative, meaning the very best, the most skilled or impressive of all.

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