Adults today, particularly parents or those working with today’s youth, often find themselves lost as to what the children and young adults are saying. Primarily this is due to the generational gaps in slang and subcultural movements of the different generations. This article seeks to clear some of this up by taking a closer look into one of the more popular sub cultures of today’s youth, the hyphy movement. This article also serves to help today’s youth understand some of the history and facts behind this movement as so few of them seem aware of its origins even though they participate. If you hear a child or adolescent mention runners (when no one is running), ghost riding, thizzing or thizz facing, going dumb, getting stupid or hyphy, stunna shades, flamboasting or the yay and you have absolutely no idea what they are saying or you are thinking to yourself that they are possessed, please read on. For those of you that know that hyphy is a type of music, I suggest that you read on as well.
It is true that hyphy is a type of music that started in the early 90’s but got little recognition. The term hyphy to represent the music was brought about by the San Francisco rapper Keak da Sneak who used it in his song ‘Cool’ in 1998. He says the word is one from his childhood. His mother also called him hyperactive and he started referring to it as hyphy. This is appropriate as the music is characterized by being upbeat and high in energy with a lot of base and pounding instrumentals. It became popular in the San Francisco bay area in the late 90’s when local rappers began to express their outrage and the ‘anti-realness’ of the music industry. As of 2003 hyphy music has become more of a part of main stream America rather than being limited to San Francisco and the surrounding areas.
When you hear today’s youth mention the above slang though it is not specifically because of the music. Hyphy has moved from music into an entire movement, one that is followed by the majority of today’s youth from 4th grade till the graduation of high school. Aside from the music, this hyphy culture puts a lot of focus on the use of alcohol, marijuana and Ecstasy, dancing and parties. The idea is to live without constraints and to be as social as possible. I would like to point out that not everyone involved with the hyphy movement does all or any of the above substances although it is far more common than not. The hyphy movement is also often wrongly refereed or compared to the crunk movement which is mostly observed by the youth in the south. The two are very dissimilar however as the crunk movement is more about aggression and smoother music as opposed to the sociability and more upbeat music of the hyphy music. The drug use is however similar.
To help you better understand I will translate the above most commonly used hyphy slang word/terms. A runner, also called a ripper, is a promiscuous girl. Ghost riding is one of the many car antics involved in the hyphy movement and the most popular. It involved playing hyphy music while the driver – and usually passengers- get out and dance along side the moving car or on its hood. This can also be called ghost ridin’ the whip due to the lyrics in a popular hyphy song in which the lyrics talk about the rapper ghost riding. Thizz is a pill, usually ecstasy. Thizzing means popping pills and thizz facing means that they already have. This is after a rapper whose lyrics are about taking ecstasy and making a thizz (gross) face like he smelled some piss. This is because crumpled faces are common when popping most pills as the affects kick in.
While being affected by a popped pill you can also be refereed to as ‘doing the thizzle dance,” also popularized by a hyphy rapper. Dancing to hyphy music involves over-exaggerated body movements and it is fast paced and supposed to look ridiculous. Originally the over-exaggerated body movements was referred to as ‘getting stupid,’ the fast pace was referred to as “getting hyphy’ and the ridiculous dancing was referred to as “going dumb.” However, now all three of them are used to refer to the dancing itself and there is no distinction. Stunna shades are over exaggerated aviator glasses that are meant to draw attention and look a bit ridiculous. People that smoke marijuana often wear sunglasses to hide their bloodshot and squinty eyes. Because marijuana is a big part of the hyphy subculture, they needed to find a way to make wearing sunglasses their own, hence the stunna shades which are often ever worn at night. In case you were wondering this is why they re-made Corey Heart’s song ‘I wear my sunglasses at night’ and you probably noticed that it no longer sounded similar at all aside from some of the key lyrics. Flamboasting simply means to show off. Similar to showboating. Lastly, the yay is the hyphy term for the bay area. Now that you know these terms, I don’t suggest using them or letting on that you know as the youth will only work to change the slang. You remember the rebellious generational feelings.
