Entry · catalog no. 0442
drill
/ — /pending
noun · Midwest — Chicago, Illinois · 2026
✓ Verified
1.
A style of Chicago rap built on cold, low-slung beats and unvarnished reporting from the block; as a verb, to shoot.
“That whole tape is drill, straight off the South Side.”
Origin & Attribution
Named on record by Pac Man, a rapper from Chicago's Dro City, on his 2010 track "It's a Drill." He was killed that June, before the genre he named traveled. King Louie carried it, Young Chop gave it its sound, and Chief Keef took it national in 2012. Drill's later exports to London and Brooklyn all trace back to the South Side.
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
The Midwest
Midwest — Chicago, Illinois · 2026
Spoken by
Midwest — Chicago, Illinois
$DRILLThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Rising0 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
12/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
2026
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
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Chicago, IL
@detlex
Detroit, MI
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Citations & Sources
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"It's a Drill," Pac Man — track · 2010
submitted
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"I Don't Like," Chief Keef feat. Lil Reese — single · 2012
submitted
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+ Cite a sourceForrest Stuart, Ballad of the Bullet — ethnography · 2020
submitted
See also