Entry · catalog no. 4421
stop snitching
/ /stɑp ˈsnɪtʃɪŋ/ /stop SNICH-ing
phrase · United States · 2000s
✓ Verified
1.
A rule of conduct, and a slogan, against cooperating with law enforcement or naming people to the police. It is said as a warning or as a statement of loyalty to one's neighborhood. The paired saying "snitches get stitches" adds a threat of violence against anyone who does inform.
“"Nobody on the block will talk to the detectives. It's stop snitching out here."”
2.
By extension, the 2002–2007 campaign of T-shirts, DVDs and rap-world statements that made the slogan a national controversy and a courtroom issue.
“"The judge barred stop snitching shirts from the courtroom."”
Origin & Attribution
The slogan reached the public through Black urban communities and hip-hop culture in the early 2000s. T-shirts reading "Stop Snitching" were reported on Philadelphia streets in 2002, and the phrase became a national story in late 2004 when an underground DVD titled "Stop Snitching!" circulated out of Baltimore, made by Rodney Thomas (known as "Skinny Suge"). In 2007 the rapper Cam'ron said on 60 Minutes that he would not tell police about a serial killer living next door, and the phrase became shorthand for a wider debate. Prosecutors and some judges treated the slogan as witness intimidation, and Boston courts barred the shirts in 2004–2006; many residents, including crime victims' families, describe a code shaped by distrust of police and by real fear of retaliation, and Black communities have argued both for and against it. The attitude of silence has older roots in distrust between Black neighborhoods and law enforcement, but this entry documents the slogan and campaign, not a single coiner or a first-ever use of the idea.
2002
T-shirts reading "Stop Snitching" reported on Philadelphia streets
2004
Baltimore "Stop Snitching!" DVD circulates nationally
2007
Cam'ron's 60 Minutes interview brings the phrase back into national debate
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
Nationwide
United States · 2000s
Spoken by
Black urban communities and hip-hop audiences, with the slogan now known nationally
$STOPSNThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Steady24 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
2002
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
■
+ Cite a sourceWikipedia, Stop Snitchin' (accessed Oct 2026): Philadelphia T-shirts 2002; Baltimore DVD by Rodney Thomas 2004; Cam'ron on 60 Minutes 2007; Boston courtroom shirt bans 2004–2006
2002–2007
See also