ghetto fabulous

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From ghetto +‎ fabulous. In the first sense perhaps influenced and popularized by rapper Mystikal's hip-hop song and album Ghetto Fabulous (1998).

Pronunciation

  • Audio (General Australian):(file)
  • Audio (Northern California):(file)

Adjective

ghetto fabulous (comparative more ghetto fabulous, superlative most ghetto fabulous)

  1. (slang) Wealthy, but of ghetto roots and ethic.
  2. (rare, African-American Vernacular slang) Authentic, keeping it real.[1]

Usage notes

  • The term ghetto fabulous is used with a wide range of connotations, as the ghetto ethic may be associated with authenticity, with machismo, with lack of class, with a combination of these, or with other traits. (See the "Quotations" section below for some example's of the term's use.) As a result, the term is perhaps best avoided in contexts where the perceived connotation might not be the one intended.

Quotations

  • For quotations using this term, see Citations:ghetto fabulous.

References

  1. ^ "Ghetto fabulous" in Geneva Smitherman, Black Talk: Words and Phrases from the Hood to the Amen Corner, Houghton Mifflin Books (2000), →ISBN, page 145: "Describes a person or thing that is authentic, the height of something, according to the authentic, natural, ‘keepin-it-real’ standards of Blackness that are believed to exist in ghetto communities. Also ghetto fab."