No Cap / Cap

About

No Cap is a slang term used as an alternative to "no lie" to tell people you're serious about something and not lying. It's also used to express disbelief, similarly to "no way." The term "cap" on its own is used as an alternative to "lie," such as "that's cap" if to call someone out who is lying. It was popularized around 2017 in the Atlanta hip-hop scene and has been used in rap music since the mid-1980s.

Origin

The term "high capping" is a precursor to "no cap" meaning the same thing. It was first used in Willie D.'s 1989 rap song "Put The Fuckin' Gun Away" in the lyrics "put up the motherfucking steel and chill before that high cappin' shit get you killed" (shown below).^[1] Genius^[2] interviewed Willie D. about the origin of the term where he confirmed that it means the same as "no cap."

Spread

The term continued to appear in rap songs over the following decades, with "high capping" being shortened to "capping" over time. It started to appear in more and more mainstream songs throughout the 2010s, seeing a huge boost in usage in 2017 with raps from Atlanta rappers, like "No Cap" by Future and Young Thug (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References