Entry · catalog no. 5708

bout it

/ /baʊt ɪt/ /BOWT-it

adjective · New Orleans, Louisiana (U.S. South) · 1990s

✓ Verified

Describes a person, crew, or thing as fully committed, ready, and unafraid to back up their words with action — whether that means fighting, hustling, partying, or handling business. To say someone is 'bout it' is to vouch that they don't just talk, they follow through; to ask 'you bout it?' is a direct challenge or invitation to prove that commitment on the spot.

“Don't start nothing with him unless you're bout it, because he'll finish it.”

Origin & Attribution

Rooted in New Orleans street and rap vernacular of the early 1990s, popularized nationally by Percy Miller — Master P — and his label No Limit Records, based out of the Calliope Projects in Uptown New Orleans.

1995

TRU (Master P, Mia X, Silkk the Shocker) release "I'm Bout It, Bout It" on the album True, turning a New Orleans street phrase into a nationwide hip-hop catchphrase.

1997

Earliest crowd-sourced slang dictionary entries appear, submitted by users in Jackson, TN and Houston, TX, defining the phrase as being 'down for whatever.'

2011

Drake references the phrase in "The Motto," helping carry it into a new generation of mainstream rap.

Region of origin

West

Midwest

N.East

South

The South

New Orleans, Louisiana (U.S. South) · 1990s

Spoken by

Black Southern hip-hop communities, especially New Orleans street and rap culture, later adopted nationwide by Black you

$BOUTITThe Record · cultural traction

▲ Enduring

31 yrs

ahead of the mainstream

58/100

peak cultural energy

Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.

Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest

First used

1995

in the culture

Recorded here

2026

point of first record

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

@nolakid

New Orleans, LA

@htxdri

Houston, TX

Contribute your pronunciation

Citations & Sources

■

I'm Bout It, Bout It — TRU featuring Master P and Mia X, from the album True

song

■

Submitted by La T. from Houston, TX, USA on Nov 14 1997

user-submitted slang dictionary entry

■

Ask him if I'm 'bout it — 21 Savage, Bartier Cardi

song lyric reference

+ Cite a source