What does “Five Percenter” mean?

A member or follower of the Five-Percent Nation, also called the Nation of Gods and Earths, founded in Harlem in 1964.

Entry · catalog no. 9634

Five Percenter

/ /ˈfaɪv pərˈsɛntər/ /FYV per-SEN-ter

noun · Harlem, New York City · 1960s

✓ Verified

A person who follows the teachings of the Five-Percent Nation, a Black American movement founded in Harlem in 1964 by Clarence 13X. Members call Black men "Gods" and Black women "Earths," and use a system of lessons called Supreme Mathematics and the Supreme Alphabet. Many hip hop slang words, among them "break it down," "dropping science" and "word is bond," are tied to the movement's influence on the music.

“Half of the rhymes on that record are Five Percenter lessons if you know how to hear them.”

Origin & Attribution

Founded in 1964 in Harlem by Clarence 13X (Clarence Edward Smith, also known as Allah the Father), a former student minister of the Nation of Islam. The name comes from the teaching that ten percent of people know the truth and keep the masses ignorant, eighty-five percent are misled, and five percent know and teach the truth. The movement's language moved into hip hop through artists such as Rakim, Brand Nubian, Wu-Tang Clan and Nas, which carried it far past its original membership.

1964

Clarence 13X founds the group in Harlem.

1969

Clarence 13X is killed in Harlem; the movement continues under his students.

1987

Hip hop acts including Rakim bring Five Percent language to a mass audience.

Region of origin

West

Midwest

N.East

South

The Northeast

Harlem, New York City · 1960s

Spoken by

Members of the Nation of Gods and Earths; hip hop artists and fans

$FIVEPEThe Record · cultural traction

▲ Steady

23 yrs

ahead of the mainstream

35/100

peak cultural energy

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

Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest

First used

1964

in the culture

Recorded here

2026

point of first record

Mainstream crossover

1987

search interest spikes

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

@bxgriot

The Bronx, NY

@phillyanne

Philadelphia, PA

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Citations & Sources

■

Britannica, "Five Percent Nation"

reference, accessed 2026

■

Rakim (Eric B. & Rakim), Paid in Full (Island/4th & B'way, 1987)

album, 1987

■

Wu-Tang Clan, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) (Loud/RCA, 1993)

album, 1993

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