One of the coolest aspects of any music culture is the way a secret code develops among its loyal fans. There was a time when everybody was wearing their jeans backwards or rocking oversized white tee’s of course. There are dance moves that dominate for a year and go viral, or, back in the day, became a defining, unifying activity for a whole city. This isn’t unique to hip-hop either; we all have the same image come to mind for punk rock fans, for example. These little inherited pieces of our identity make fandom more communal and gives it the feel of a special movement – something that you’re proud to be apart of, where you can make a friend just by identifying their clothes or hair or slang.
One of the most prevalent fandom fads in hip-hop today, is simply the way we speak. There was a time when slang was a fully regional factor in hip-hop, but the internet has broken down many barriers in the way geography functions with music today. So while it isn’t a new trend for fans of certain artists to use the same niche words, it is new that these lexicons can be almost entirely unique to a single artist, rather than just everybody in Philly saying jawn, or everybody in Miami saying jit.
It seems that the internet has only made the absurdity and variety of slang greater than ever, to the point that an outsider, or even another hip-hop fan who simply isn’t up on one artist, might be completely unable to tell what you’re saying. You might also notice that the craziest terms come from artists in the rage, plugg, or generally upbeat, alternative subgenres, which means you’ve got swathes of white kids in Vlone talking like this – and there’s nothing inherently wrong with that. It gives young hip-hop fans who can’t relate to their favorite artists in some ways a path into the community and something that draws them away from suburban hell. It can be still be cringe though.
Perhaps the most obvious artist to recently develop a code like this is Yeat. His unique look adds a certain mystique (until you see under the turban…), so the energy he lets off when spouting off about the Tonka become infectious and tempting to replicate yourself. Who could resist calling somebody twizzy after listening to “Flawless” together? Yeat’s gibberish runs so deep that he sounded completely in his element on the Minions soundtrack of all things.
An even more extreme take on this could be plugg rapper Fulcrum, who you might know as Damien Luck. It might be surprising that he makes such genuinely good hip-hop when you only know him for hotboxing the Best Buy bathroom, but his songwriting is fun and motivation distilled. What’s really special about his music though, is the way he’s incorporated the cult language he developed on his other platforms: penjamin, faded than a hoe, obliviated, holy tits, yodie land, and the list goes on. Not only are these just hilarious in context, but if you’re a fan of Fulcrum and you ever hear somebody say one of these, you’ve got an instant connection with them.
Most ridiculous of all hip-hop lexicons today, however, has to be Sematary and the Haunted Mound. As if the blown out, bizzaro world Drain Gang sound wasn’t enough already, he had to incorporate not only some knock off black metal aesthetics, but also outdated fashion and box cutters? The “occult serial killer in True Religion niche” was one you might not have realized you needed, but it’s pretty funny. I’m sure there are some weird goth kids in high school trying to replicate this. Just goes to show how there’s a hip-hop community for everybody these days.