HILLS: Throughout 2019, we’ve seen lyrical trends come and go but a few have stood out
and dominated the charts.
HILLS: While most of this slang has been around a long time, we picked three of the phrases
we’ve covered this year: “no cap,” “slatt,” and “wipe his nose” to see which one ultimately
dominated hip-hop in 2019.
HILLS: First up, we’ve got “no cap.”
OFFSET: First off, "cap" mean bullshit, lies.
So when you put the "no cap," it's like, I'm dead serious.
HILLS: Genius covered the origin of the phrase back in March, with the help of linguistics
professor Dr. Sharese King from the University of Chicago.
Dr. King explained the phrase comes from the African American tradition of playing the
dozens, or basically yo mama jokes.
DR. KING: In linguistics, we would talk about playing 'the dozens' as a kind of speech act.
It's this art form in which you have sort of two people dueling over you know who basically
can 'roast' the other person the best.
HILLS: While alternate versions of the phrase, like “high capping” have been around in
hip-hop since at least the mid-80s, the modern day colloquial term found its first lyrical
mention in 2011 from Chief Keef associate Gino Marley on “Just In Case.”
DR. KING: Specifically 'capping', if that's Southern term, probably was able to reach wider audiences
when it came through music, right?
Because music is a way in which we are able to transport a lot of different lexical items.
HILLS: Since then, it’s become one of the most popular phrases in hip-hop.
And in 2019, it was said on more than 270 different tracks.
HILLS: On the other hand, the phrase “wipe his nose,” which usually means you’re
tryna run up on somebody, also shot up in popularity this year.
NLE CHOPPA: In Memphis a lot of times we’ll be like wipe his nose or something and you
know usually when you wipe your nose you’ll probably have a cold or something so I just
played with the words on that one too.
HILLS: Of course, colloquially the phrase has been around much longer.
Its earliest lyrical mentions in hip-hop go back to 2014, from Atlanta rapper Young Thug.
HILLS: Five years later, it’s seen a rapid increase in popularity, and in 2019,
"wipe his nose” appeared in more than 50 different songs.
HILLS: Finally, “slattt,” or “slime love all the time,” was all over the place
in 2019.
HILLS: The term was popularized, once again, by Young Thug and his clique, and first appeared
on early cuts like his 2013 track “Some More.”
YOUNG THUG: I felt like when I was coming into the game it would be good to use slime
because everybody would be like, Wow.
And it’s a new term.
Sometimes I try to keep it slime.
So sometimes in the music I’ll say something that’s slimy.
HILLS: These days, “slatt” is also heavily associated with fellow ATLien Playboi Carti,
especially on his debut studio album, ‘Die Lit.’
HILLS: But this year, it’s clocked in on more than 280 different songs.
HILLS: But overall, by the numbers, it looks like “slatt” is hip-hop’s favorite phrase of the year.
HILLS: 2019 has seen plenty of different slang trends, and we can only imagine what's
up next for 2020.
HILLS: I’m Hillary with Genius News bringing you the meaning and the knowledge behind the music.