| Afro-American words
| English meaning
|
| b-boy
| (n) From “break boy”; one who breakdances.
|
| baller
| 1) (n) Ballplayer, someone who is good at playing basketball, and has moved up to earning a lot of money and getting a lot of girls from that.
2) (n) Someone who has established himself in the hood, who is making much money.
|
| bank
| (n) Money.
|
| berry
| (n) A police car. The red lights on old cop cars looked like a berry on top of an ice cream.
|
| black book
| 1) (n) A small book carried by graffiti artists for others to do work in.
2) (n) A book to carry phone numbers in.
3) (n) The Bible.
|
| brother
| 1) (n) Man of the same group; friend. In the Bible you will read “brethren”, which is used in the same meaning.
2) (n) African-American male.
|
| cool
| (adj) Okay as in “good” or “good idea”.
|
| devil
| (n) An enemy, usually white people.
|
| JPT
| (n) Japanese People Time; being early or on time.
|
| sister
| (n) Woman of the same group; friend.
|
| smoke
| 1) (v) Killing someone.
2) (v) To get smoked: to get under the influence of drugs.
|
| stilo
| (n) Pronounced as [steelo], is a term that like a lot of other hip-hop terms originated in New York City. It is Spanish, and it means style.
|
| tax
| (v) To rob.
|
| thang
| (n) Thing; “your own thang”: your own way.
|
| toy
| 1) (n) A poor or beginner graffiti artist.
2) (v) To purposefully write over another graffiti artists work (toy someone out).
|
| uncle tom
| 1) (n) A black man who wants to be white.
2) (n) A tattle; a person who befriends another only to deceive him, usually in the workplace.
|
| word is bond
| (interj) Saying this means that what you are saying is absolutely correct, and you do not have to put up money to prove it, you just say it. The term originates from the financial markets where historically traders would tell each other “my word is bond”, i.e. my word is good enough, you don’t need it in writing.
|
| yo
| 1) (n)You.
2) (n)Your.
3) (interj) To catch attention, as in “Yo! What’s up?”
|
