Entry · catalog no. 0711
biting
/ /ˈbaɪtɪŋ/ /BY-ting
verb · New York City · 1980s
✓ Verified
1.
Copying another artist's rhymes, style, or moves and passing them off as your own. The founding crime of hip hop's moral code — in the early cipher you could get slapped up for it.
“That whole flow is bit — I heard the original at the park jam two summers ago.”
Origin & Attribution
From the founding hip hop scene of the late-1970s Bronx, where rhymes were property and copying was theft. The accusation is as old as recorded rap: Grandmaster Caz's book of rhymes going uncredited on 'Rapper's Delight' (1979) made biting the culture's original sin, and MC Shan pressed the charge on wax with 'Beat Biter' (1986).
1979
Big Bank Hank raps Grandmaster Caz's uncredited rhymes on 'Rapper's Delight'
1986
MC Shan releases 'Beat Biter' aimed at LL Cool J
1987
Kool Moe Dee publicly charges LL Cool J with biting his flow
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
The Northeast
New York City · 1980s
Spoken by
Hip hop artists and heads, from the Bronx outward
$BITINGThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Steady48 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
76/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
1978
in the culture
Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.
Hear it spoken
By region — how it actually sounds
@bxgriot
The Bronx, NY
@phillyanne
Philadelphia, PA
Contribute your pronunciation
Citations & Sources
■
MC Shan, 'Beat Biter' — 1986
song · verified
■
+ Cite a sourceSugarhill Gang 'Rapper's Delight' / Grandmaster Caz episode — 1979
documented history
See also