Entry · catalog no. 2017
scrilla
/ ˈskrɪlə /SKRIL-uh
noun · Bay Area / West Coast · 1990s
✓ Verified
1.
Money.
“He's out here chasing scrilla, no days off.”
Origin & Attribution
1990s West Coast hip-hop slang for money, thick in Bay Area speech and spread by its rappers. The etymology is debated — likely built on "scratch" (money) with the "-illa" ending the Bay loved — but the term's life ran through Black California rap. Documented in Green's Dictionary of Slang.
1990s
Money slang in Bay Area / West Coast rap
1990s
Spread through West Coast hip-hop
now
Documented in Green's Dictionary of Slang
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
The West
Bay Area / West Coast · 1990s
Spoken by
West Coast Black rappers
$SCRILLThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Steady31 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
58/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
1995
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
@bayarea
Oakland, CA
@ladi
Los Angeles, CA
Contribute your pronunciation
Citations & Sources
■
Green's Dictionary of Slang — "scrilla, n." — reference
web
■
+ Cite a sourceWest Coast hip-hop lexicon (Rappin' 4-Tay, WC, E-40 era) — reference
web
See also