Entry · catalog no. 7739

drip

/ /drɪp/ /DRIP

noun · Houston's South Side; the Screwed Up Click · 1990s

✓ Verified

A stylish, expensive, head-turning look — the clothes, the jewelry, the whole presentation. Originally the image of diamonds and chains "dripping" off a person.

“The whole fit was drip from the shoes up.”

Origin & Attribution

The earliest datable use of drip for style is Houston, 1996. Lil' Keke opened his verse on DJ Screw's "Pimp Tha Pen" with "I'm draped up and dripped out" — a line so completely absorbed into Texas that clubs still finish it for him. The image is straightforward: wealth and adornment running off a person, jewelry and fabric as liquid. The word stayed regional for nearly twenty years, then Sauce Walka's sauce-and-drip vocabulary carried it out of Houston in 2014, Atlanta took it up through Gunna and Young Thug, and by 2018 it was on the pop charts. The Atlanta and Jersey City origin claims are both honestly made; neither is supported by an attestation as early as the Screw tape.

1996

Lil' Keke opens "Pimp Tha Pen" with I'm draped up and dripped out — the earliest datable attestation

2014

Sauce Walka, also of Houston, builds an entire vocabulary of sauce and drip and carries it out of the city

2018

Cardi B's "Drip" and Lil Baby and Gunna's "Drip Too Hard" carry the word into the Billboard top five

Region of origin

West

Midwest

N.East

South

The South

Houston's South Side; the Screwed Up Click · 1990s

Spoken by

Houston rappers and their listeners; later Atlanta rappers, and fashion-minded teenagers everywhere

$DRIPThe Record · cultural traction

▲ Steady

30 yrs

ahead of the mainstream

90/100

peak cultural energy

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

Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest

First used

1996

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

■

Green's Dictionary of Slang, "drip, n." sense 4

historical slang dictionary

■

DJ Screw featuring Lil' Keke, "Pimp Tha Pen," from 3 'N the Mornin' Part Two, 1996

Screw tape

■

Dictionary.com Slang Dictionary, "drip," 2018

dictionary entry

■

Lil Baby and Gunna, "Drip Too Hard," 2018 (#4 Billboard Hot 100)

rap single

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