Question 1

What does “dab” mean?

Accepted Answer

A celebratory dance move in which the head drops into the crook of one bent arm while the other arm extends outward, usually done as a flex or a taunt.

Question 2

Where does “dab” come from?

Accepted Answer

The move was popularized through Atlanta's hip-hop scene in the mid 2010s, where press in August 2015 described it as a regional Southern ad-lib turned club and street gesture. Who invented it is disputed: Quality Control artists credited Atlanta rapper Skippa Da Flippa, and the Migos, who first claimed it, later named him as well; other claims, including one tying it to cannabis-concentrate culture, were rejected by other rappers. A similar arm pose appears earlier in Japanese television and in Janet Jackson videos, so the archive records the dab as a named Atlanta Black dance and gesture, not as the invention of a single person. The national moment came in November 2015, when Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton's end-zone dab drew criticism and then imitation by talk-show hosts and politicians, flattening it into a generic youth meme while its Atlanta source went unnamed.