street cred

not jessica
“i have so much street cred” – jessica
“jessica do you even know what that means?”
“yeah it means swag.”
commanding a level of respect in an urban environment due to experience in or knowledge of issues affecting those environments
he’s been thru it all. his street cred is undeniable.
a series of points you gain within the 12-30 black year old community in order to gain respect:

5 point- born black
5 point- born in a single parent home
10 points- born poor
50 points- sold ‘hard’ drugs.. crack, cocaine, heroin
65 points- been shot and survived
75 points- been shot multiple times and survived
70 points- gang member of crips or bloods
65 points- been to prison
40 points- been to jail
20 points- have at least 10 tattoos
20 points- kicked out of high school or dropped out
20 points- 16 years old and have a baby mama
-75 points- born rich
-50 points- speak proper english
-60 points- have white friends
-5 points- born white
-95 points- born in a safe neighborhood
-100 points- no criminal record
-40 points- live with both parents
-35 points- smile when someone takes your photo
-60 points- straight a student
-2000 points- born in utah, maine, new hampshire, montana or arizona.
“i waz crip cuz, in prison bout 8 years pushing c-ke but check out them look gunshot wounds i got yo”

“damm you got street cred yo! you rap?”
—-

“i’m from maine and got a 4.0 from harvard. my parents are both on the fortune 500 list and are still together”-

“man, you are wack you don’t got now street cred you sucker”
1. your “coolness” factor
2. imaginary “points” you get when you do something cool
1. oh snap, i just punched that guy in the face—plus 1 street cred-
2. oh snap, you just got punched in the face—minus 1 street cred-
short for street credibility
(n)- repsect from urban communities. usually something essential for making it big in the rap world. it is wrongly percieved as being a straight up gansta or committing crimes. street cred is something one can earn, even a rich kid or suburb-dweller. if you have went through a tough childhood or life but have worked hard to make something of yourself (like me), then you can earn street cred, even if you are not from the streets. if ghetto kids like a rap artist who started out rich, but rapped about important things in life and is simply a good rapper, then that rapper has street cred. if you buy a rap alb-m just because the rapper is gansta, then you are f-cked up.
a funny thing is, most street rappers are not that great, some of the greatest lyricists of all time were not always from ‘tha ghetto’
non-ghetto/street rappers who have earned street cred:
the streets to some extent
kanye west
run-dmc
rakim one of the greatest lyricists, who cares if he is street?
vanilla ice not really, he lied about it
ja rule he was not straight up gangsta, but has still earned much street cred, which was unfortunately lost
a term mainly used by whites to make them sound more black. typically used to sound more thuggish, like they are from the streets when really they are most likely from a middle-cl-ss suburb family and have maybe smoked pot. most likely the worst they have done is they got caught with a fake id. caution: people who claim to have ‘street cred’ probably have not spent any time on the street other than doing shopping downtown.

also, people who try to pretend like they know how to live on the streets to sound cool obviously have not lived on the streets and probably have some issues.
“ya, i got street cred. i once knew a black guy who went to jail.”
“living on the streets is dope, yo. i know, because i have street cred.”
the word creds, or ‘credentials’, is another way of referring to one’s rep, or ‘reputation’. thus, street creds means one’s reputation on the street, or ghetto.
gangsta: y’all best get out’ my way. i got street creds.
foo’: yowza!
-gangsta proceeds to beat up foo’ and steal his pocket money-
a term originated from upper middle cl-ss and corporate america to try to establish an achievement system on any act that sounds or seems “urban” or “ghetto” that they ultimately don’t understand or have had no real life experience in.
“street cred?” when was the last time someone from the ghetto actually used that term? there is a more common term used in the ghetto– it’s called respect.

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