Entry · catalog no. 1037
slab
/ /slæb/ /SLAB
noun · Houston, Texas · 1990s
✓ Verified
1.
A customized car in the Houston style — usually an older American sedan on chrome wire wheels with protruding "swanga" spokes, wrapped in candy paint, trunk rigged to pop. The name spells out its spirit: Slow, Loud, And Bangin'.
“He pulled up in a fresh slab, elbows out, trunk swinging to the beat.”
Origin & Attribution
Houston, Texas, from the early 1980s onward, built in the city's Black neighborhoods and bound tight to DJ Screw and the chopped-and-screwed sound made to be heard cruising slow and low.
1980s
Style forms in Black Houston neighborhoods
1990s
Tied to DJ Screw and screw music
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
The South
Houston, Texas · 1990s
Spoken by
Houston Black speakers
$SLABThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Steady43 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
1983
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
Contribute your pronunciation
Citations & Sources
■
Slab (car) — cultural record
submitted
■
+ Cite a sourceHoustonia Magazine, "An In-Depth Look at Slab Culture in Houston" — reportage · 2021
submitted
See also