Entry · catalog no. 0028
sittin sideways
/ ˈsɪtɪn ˈsaɪdweɪz /SIT-in SYD-wayz
phr. · Houston, Texas · 1990s
✓ Verified
1.
Riding leaned across the seat toward the passenger side, one hand at the top of the wheel, moving slow. The posture belongs to Houston slab culture and is inseparable from it: the car is meant to be looked at, so the driver sits in a way that lets the looking happen. Often used as shorthand for the whole condition — slow, high, unbothered, and being seen.
“Sunday night on Almeda, everybody sittin sideways.”
Origin & Attribution
Houston, out of the Third Ward slab culture of the 1980s and the Screwed Up Click tapes that documented it. The phrase is Big Pokey's, ad-libbed on DJ Screw's freestyle tape recorded June 27, 1996 — the session that became known simply as June 27 — alongside Big Moe, Yungstar, Key-C and Haircut Joe. Paul Wall built "Sittin' Sidewayz" around the line with Big Pokey on it in 2005.
1980s
Slab culture takes shape in Houston's Third Ward — candy paint, swangas, trunk speakers
1996
Big Pokey delivers the line on DJ Screw's June 27 freestyle tape, recorded June 27
2005
Paul Wall's "Sittin' Sidewayz" featuring Big Pokey carries it out of Houston
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
The South
Houston, Texas · 1990s
Spoken by
Black Houston — Third Ward, the Screwed Up Click, and slab riders across the city
$SITTINThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Steady30 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
60/100
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
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
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Citations & Sources
■
June 27 freestyle — DJ Screw, featuring Big Pokey, Big Moe, Yungstar, Key-C and Haircut Joe, recorded June 27, 1996
audio · mixtape
■
+ Cite a source"Sittin' Sidewayz" — Paul Wall feat. Big Pokey, The People's Champ, Swishahouse/Atlantic, released August 20, 2005
audio · album track
See also