Entry · catalog no. 9464

got it out the mud

/ /ˈɡɑt ɪt aʊt ðə mʌd/ /GOT-it-owt-thuh-MUHD

idiom · phrase · U.S. South (Louisiana, Georgia, Florida trap scenes) with early adoption in Sout · 2010s

✓ Verified

A statement of pride that whatever you have — money, status, a car, a family, a way out — was built entirely from scratch, with no safety net, no connections, and no help from anybody. It marks success as self-made and hard-won, coming from conditions of poverty, street life, or struggle rather than privilege. It doubles as a credibility claim: the speaker is not to be doubted or corrected on the subject because they lived the hardship that produced the result.

“He pulled up in a paid-off truck and told the block, 'I got it out the mud, don't nobody question me.'”

Origin & Attribution

The phrase draws on the older Black Southern image of the 'mud' as the lowest, dirtiest ground — the projects, the trenches, the bottom of the economic ladder — and 'getting it out' as the labor of pulling yourself and your fortune up from that ground. It took shape inside Southern hip-hop and trap-adjacent Black vernacular in the early-to-mid 2010s before spreading nationally through mixtapes and streaming-era rap.

2014

Kevin Gates releases "Out the Mud," using the phrase as a framing device for his rise from hardship in Baton Rouge.

2015

First Urban Dictionary entries for "out the mud" and "get it out the mud" appear, codifying the phrase for wider internet audiences.

2016

The phrase spreads through major rap releases, including Future's "Purple Reign" and "Digital Dash," and DJ Khaled's "I Got the Keys," cementing it as a hook and ad-lib staple.

Region of origin

West

Midwest

N.East

South

The South

U.S. South (Louisiana, Georgia, Florida trap scenes) with early adoption in Sout · 2010s

Spoken by

Black Southern and Midwest rappers and their listeners; adopted broadly by Black American youth culture and later by mai

$GOTITOThe Record · cultural traction

▲ Steady

12 yrs

ahead of the mainstream

78/100

peak cultural energy

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

Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest

First used

2014

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

■

Released in 2014, "Out the Mud" reflects a period in hip-hop where artists were increasingly sharing their personal narratives and struggles

song/commentary (Kevin Gates, "Out the Mud")

■

"That brand new Mulsanne had to get it out the mud"

song (Future, "Purple Reign")

■

"See how we came from the mud and the bottom, we did it we did it, we did it"

song (Future, "Digital Dash")

■

"All my niggas from the mud damn near, All my niggas millionaires"

song (DJ Khaled, "I Got the Keys")

■

"Got it out the mud, there's nothin' you can tell me, yeah"

song (Roddy Ricch, "The Box," 2019)

+ Cite a source

Also spelled

out the mud