This is not meant to be a comprehensive guide to hip-hop slang and vocabulary. Such a thing would be impossible, especially because the culture is constantly producing new terms. This list will necessarily be out of date by the time you read it. My purpose is to introduce the most important musical terms, along with some more general slang for context.
808
The Roland TR-808 drum machine. A ubiquitous sound in hip-hop, often in sampled or emulated form. The 808 kick drum is rich in harmonics and clearly pitched, so it can be tuned to play basslines. “808” has become a metonym for any tuned synthesized kick drum.
Auto-Tune
Pitch-correction software made by Antares. The word “autotune” has become a metonym for pitch correction generally. While such software was intended for naturalistic-sounding pitch correction, rappers make conspicuous use of Auto-Tune’s ”zero retune speed” (instantaneous correction) setting to create unnatural pitch quantization.
Bars
Generically, rap lyrics. To say that an emcee has “got bars” means that they write or improvise especially well.
Beat
May refer to the rhythmic aspect of a song generally, to its drum/percussion parts, or to an entire instrumental track. In this last sense, a “beat” need not include any drums at all.
Beatbox
Verb: to create drums with one’s mouth. Was originally used as a noun: “the human beatbox.”
Bite
To steal or plagiarize. While sampling, quotation and interpolation are expected, it is not acceptable to covertly take an idea or style from another hip-hop artist. A producer who flips an unlicensed sample is admired, but if another producer then uses the sample sample in the same way, that is biting.
Boom bap
The predominant production style of East Coast rap in the 1980s and early 1990s, dominated by samples of acoustic drums. “Boom bap” is an onomatopoeia for the kick and snare respectively.
Break
An instrumental loop. Breaks are typically unaccompanied drum or percussion parts, e.g. the Amen break, a heavily-sampled drum solo from “Amen Brother” by The Winstons. However, breaks can include any sound, e.g. the iconic saxophone break from “Today” by Tom Scott that appears in “They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.)” by Pete Rock and CL Smooth.
Breakbeat
A looped sample of the drums-only section of a funk or soul record. “Breakdancing” is a hip-hop dance style that originally referred to dances performed to looped breakbeats.
Cypher
A circle of emcees who take turns freestyling (improvising) rap verses, in a spirit that combines competition and cooperation. In a successful cypher, freestyling is continual, with no pause between one participant and the next. Sometimes spelled “cipher.”
Diss
Short for “disrespect.” A diss track is a song that mocks and insults another rapper.
DJ
Short for Disk Jockey. May also refer to a turntablist specifically. There is broad overlap between the role of DJs and producers.
Emcee
A rap vocalist, from MC (Master of Ceremonies.) In the 1970s, emcees were side performers who accompanied DJs, hyped up the crowd, and improvised lines. In the 1980s, emcees became the focus, and DJs took on more of a background or behind the scenes role. Emcees are expected to write their own lyrics. While some rappers employ ghostwriters, this practice is not generally respected.
Flip
To creatively repurpose or alter a sample, especially in an unexpected way.
FL
Short for FL Studio, formerly known as Fruity Loops, a digital audio workstation (DAW) widely used in rap production. Other widely used DAWs include Logic, Ableton Live, Pro Tools, and Reason.
Flow
An emcee’s vocal style, usually referring more to rhythmic and pitch aspects than word choice. Can also refer specifically to a rhythmic figure or motif, e.g., the “Migos triplet flow.”
Freestyle
Improvised rap. Freestyles can include pre-written elements, and the word sometimes refers to written raps that are improvised-feeling (like impromptus in classical music.) But the most advanced freestyle is genuinely spontaneous, like a jazz solo.
Hip-Hop
A set of cultural forms, aesthetics and political orientations arising from American urban environments as experienced by poor and working-class people of color. Hip-hop manifests in numerous art forms, including rap music, breakdance, street art, street fashion, and poetry. Also spelled “hip hop” or “hiphop,” with varying capitalization.
Hook
A repeated song section between verses, functioning like the chorus of a pop song. However, in hip-hop, the hook need not be sung, and can even be an instrumental sample or scratch.
Jam
A deeply satisfying song: “This Dilla track is my jam.” Not used in the folk or jazz sense meaning to play informally or improvise.
Lab
Studio. Many rap lyrics reference being “in the lab.”
Mixtape
An unofficial album or collection of tracks, frequently released and disseminated through illicit means. Mixtapes were originally literal cassettes, but the term continues to be used for CDs, MP3 downloads, and streaming releases.
Nice
One of uncountably many hip-hop synonyms for “cool” or “skillful.”
Producer
The creator of a rap song’s instrumental track, usually completed before vocals are written or recorded. The producer may also supervise vocal recording, and edit or process vocals after the fact, in the manner of a traditional pop producer. Hip-hop producers create tracks using a combination of digital samples, synthesizers, and drum machines, most often using digital audio workstation software. Producers may also play instruments, record live performances, or scratch vinyl records.
Quantization
In production, to automatically correct the timing of MIDI and audio events so they align perfectly with the metronomic tempo grid. The rhythms of rap instrumentals are usually quantized, especially in trap. However, there is also an alternative style descending from the producer J Dilla known as “drunken drummer” that uses conspicuously unquantized rhythms.
Rap
As a genre, the most prominent musical expression of hip-hop culture. In casual language, “rap” and “hip-hop” are often used interchangeably. Rap’s main characteristics are a rhythmic speak-singing vocal style and beat-driven, electronically produced instrumentals. The word “rap” may also refer specifically to the speak-singing vocal technique. In this sense, rap long predates hip-hop, appearing in rock, R&B, blues, country, jazz, and other music styles descending from the African diaspora. It is a common misconception that rap is unpitched; pitch is an essential aspect of rap, though not a well-studied one. Emcees sometimes refer to themselves as “rap singers.”
Realness
Autobiographical truthfulness, hard-hitting observations, authentic expression. “Keeping it real” is a core hip-hop value.
Remix
An alternate version of a track, often created for a new audience or in a different style from the original. In hip-hop, the usual remix method is to take an existing isolated vocal track (acapella) and create a new instrumental backing for it. Technically, remixers must obtain permission from the holder of the original song’s copyright, but in practice, unauthorized remixes are a common way for producers to practice their craft, to promote themselves, and/or to express themselves creatively.
Rhyme
A rap lyric. Can be a verb as well; ”to rhyme” is to perform a rap verse.
Sample
An audio excerpt from an existing recording, repurposed in a new context. In the early years of hip-hop, producers freely sampled from copyrighted recordings without permission, but a series of lawsuits in the 1990s put an end to this practice in commercial releases. Nevertheless, sampling continues to be central to hip-hop aesthetics, especially at the underground level. In commercial releases, samples are usually either cleared, or replaced before release. It has become common for producers to use royalty-free sample libraries, but the ability to creatively repurpose (flip) an existing piece of culturally significant music remains a respected skill. In casual usage, it is common to use the word “sample” to also refer to a quotation or interpolation, but legally, they are quite different.
Sampler
A specialized computer that enables playback of short digital audio files via pads or piano-style keyboards. In the 1980s and 1990s, producers used standalone sampling units like the MPC or SP series. Today, producers more often use sampler functions in digital audio workstations like FL Studio or Ableton Live along with a MIDI controller.
School
In the hip-hop sense, a verb meaning to teach someone a lesson in a humiliating way.
Scratch
A method of performing with a turntable by manually moving a record back and forth under the needle. Scratching was more prominent in the early years of rap than it is currently, but it continues to be an important aspect of hip-hop aesthetics. Herbie Hancock’s “Rockit” was the first prominent commercial recording to feature turntable scratching.
Spit
To rap: “I’m going to spit a few bars on this track.”
Swing
To alternately lengthen and shorten each pair of tactus-level beats in a rhythm. In jazz and other African-American vernacular styles from before 1960, swing occurs at the eighth note level. However, in rap and other styles from after 1960, swing occurs at the sixteenth note level. Swing is sometimes described as “shuffle.” Most drum machines, samplers and quantization features in digital audio workstations support swing. An exaggerated swing feel was characteristic of 1980s rap; in more recent music, swing is applied subtly or not at all.
Trap
The most commercially prominent hip-hop subgenre as of this writing; some people consider it to be an entirely separate genre from the older “boom bap” style. Trap uses slow tempos with fine subdivisions, e.g. drum patterns made from thirty-second or even sixty-fourth notes, played on extensively processed drum machine sounds (most often the Roland TR-808, or an emulation of it). The trap vocal style is often casual or “mumbled” and jokey, with a flat and low-key affect, in contrast to the more technically ambitious and energetic style of boom bap emcees.
Type beat
An instrumental in the style of a popular artist or producer: “I found this Quavo-type beat on YouTube.”
Vibe
Originally a contraction of “vibration.” In the 1960s, it meant an instinctive feeling, mood, or atmosphere. In hip-hop contexts, a vibe is a heightened mental state shared among a group of people, fostered by music but also a function of strong social and emotional connection. Creating a vibe is a necessary precursor to successful music creation, and is the desired effect of the music on listeners and dancers. Can also be a verb: “vibing” means enjoying music or the company of others.
Wack
A somewhat dated term meaning fake, unskilled, inept or uncool. Also spelled “whack.”
Do you perhaps need ‘MPC’ and ‘SP’ as golden-age counterparts to ‘FL’? Both tend to come up a lot in talking about the making of older stuff. Also ‘engineer’, in the sense particularly of ‘who is the older man with the ponytail in all the studio photos?”
I’d also say that as a young hip-hop fan growing up in the UK pre-internet, it took me a while to figure out ‘beef’ and ‘props’.
This is tricky. I don’t want to show too much golden-age bias. I’m presuming that my readers have baseline knowledge of music production, otherwise it’s going to turn into an audio recording primer too and this dissertation is going to be long enough as it is. I’m torn about things like beef and props because I don’t want to talk about all the hip-hop slang, just the music-specific stuff, but those things come up in discussions of the music a lot.
Diss
Oh yes
Phat and dope if you’re doing late 80s and 90s. Mumble rap And what about the variations and ubiquitous uses of the various N words….?
Oh boy, the N word. I’m just going to assume my readers know what that is. I’m hesitant to be too golden-age-centric, but I will consider phat and dope.