Entry · catalog no. 4193
gully
/ /ˈɡʌli/ /GUH-lee
adjective · northeast · 1990s
✓ Verified
1.
Rough, hardcore, street-built — authentic in a way that comes from the gutter, not from polish. Said of people and of moves.
“He came up gully, so none of this shakes him.”
Origin & Attribution
New York hip-hop of the early 1990s, from "gully" as the gutter — the streets at their rawest. Onyx put it on wax in 1993, rapping "thugged out, grimey, go hard, gully." The word carries a Jamaican-New York charge, at home where the two scenes meet, and it prizes what's street-built over what's cleaned up for show.
1993
Onyx records 'gully' on 'Bang 2 Dis'
2000s
'Get gully' spreads through hip-hop
today
Standard slang for tough and street-authentic
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
Nationwide
northeast · 1990s
Spoken by
New York hip-hop; Jamaican-American communities
$GULLYThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Steady33 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
52/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
1993
in the culture
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
@auntiereg
Atlanta, GA
@deltasoul
Memphis, TN
Contribute your pronunciation
Citations & Sources
■
"Bang 2 Dis" — Onyx — song · 1993
researched
■
+ Cite a sourceThe Right Rhymes — "gully" — Hip-Hop dictionary — reference
researched
See also