Entry · catalog no. 4309
choppa
/ /ˈtʃɑː.pə/ /CHOP-uh
noun · New Orleans; Southern United States · 2000s
✓ Verified
1.
An automatic weapon, most often an AK-47 or similar rifle. The name comes from the sound of rapid fire — a chopping, helicopter-like report. Standard in Southern rap and the street speech behind it.
“They keep a choppa in the trunk and hope they never need it.”
Origin & Attribution
Southern Black speech, cemented in New Orleans rap. B.G. of Cash Money made "chopper" and "Chopper City" a name for the city and its guns in the late 1990s; the local hit "Choppa Style" (2001) fixed the spelling and the swagger. The term spread through Southern and then national hip-hop.
1999
B.G. / Cash Money brand "Chopper City"
2001
"Choppa Style" becomes a New Orleans hit
2010s
Spreads through national hip-hop
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
The South
New Orleans; Southern United States · 2000s
Spoken by
Southern Black speakers; hip-hop
$CHOPPAThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Rising27 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
80/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
1999
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
@nolakid
New Orleans, LA
@htxdri
Houston, TX
Contribute your pronunciation
Citations & Sources
■
B.G., Chopper City in the Ghetto
1999
■
+ Cite a sourceChoppa, "Choppa Style" (Take Fo' Records)
2001
See also