Pushin' P

About

Pushin' P, also written as Pushing P or Pushin' 🅿️, is a hip-hop slang term popularized in the January 2022 song "pushin P" performed by Gunna, Future and Young Thug. Around the time of the song's release, the term became prevalent in memes across Twitter and Instagram, mostly because of fans trying to figure out what the term meant or making puns using it. In essence, the term roughly means "pushing positivity" or "pushing playas."

Origin

Although the term "Pushin' P" had been used on Twitter as early as 2014,^[1] most of these early uses referred to an abbreviated form of "pushing pounds," in regards to selling marijuana. In 2017, Twitter^[2] user JayPerso used the term in a non-marijuana context being one of the first on the platform, earning 12 likes over the course of five years.

On December 29th, 2021, Gunna released a snippet of his new single, "pushin P," featuring rappers Future and Young Thug in anticipation of his new album DS4EVER. On YouTube,^[3] the snippet gained roughly 22,100 views over the course of three weeks (shown below). This inspired Twitter users like iamdenosavage1^[4] to post tweets referencing the phrase.

On January 4th, 2022, Gunna tweeted,^[5] "B4 I tell u….What u think Pushing 🅿️mean ????," earning roughly 27,400 likes over the course of two weeks (shown below, left). The next day, Gunna referenced the term in another tweet,^[6] earning 16,400 likes in the same amount of time (shown below, right). Both tweets generated hype and curiosity.

Spread

On January 5th, 2022, Gunna addressed the meaning of the phrase on Instagram Live. A screen recording of the Live was uploaded to YouTube^[7] on the same day by the channel thechillspottt (shown below). Over the course of two weeks, the video gained roughly 128,900 views and 3,300 likes.

Starting on January 6th, Twitter users started to use the term within their tweets. For instance, on January 6th, Twitter^[8] user BigPlayKae tweeted, "Only P y’all pushing is peion y’all niggaz ain’t no playas," receiving roughly 17,700 likes over the course of two weeks (shown below, left). On the same day, Twitter^[9] user DesignerThereal tweeted, "Bitch talking bout pushing p bitch you need to wash p," receiving seven likes in the same amount of time (shown below, right).

On January 7th, 2022, the single was officially released online. On platforms like YouTube,^[10] the official audio received roughly 2.7 million views and 70,000 likes over the course of 10 days (shown below, left). On January 12th, the official music video was posted to YouTube,^[11] gaining roughly 3.2 million views and 116,000 likes over five days (shown below, right).

After the music video's release, memes and tweets referencing the phrase appeared in abundance across platforms, mostly by users speculating about what the phrase meant or making puns with it. For instance, on January 8th, 2022, Twitter^[12] user gloless3x tweeted, "y’all boys is NOT pushin P 😭😭😭 y’all suckin D," earning 33,800 likes over the course of nine days (shown below, left). On January 11th, Twitter^[13] user onthisekgala tweeted a picture of a guy pushing on a parking sign, receiving roughly 3,900 likes for the tweet (shown below, right).

On January 14th, Gunna appeared on The Breakfast Club radio show. In the interview, he explained in more detail what the phrase meant, stating that "P" stands for "Playa," however, he still emphasized that it's not limited to just the word "Playa." A tweet from Twitter^[14] user c__ambition was posted on the same day that included the interview (shown below). It received roughly 2,100 likes over the course of three days.

Gunna explains what "P" means pic.twitter.com/urhFpvLszY

— C Ambition (@C__Ambition) January 14, 2022

More internet users posted content about the term going into the rest of January 2022, spreading to other platforms like TikTok. As an example, TikToker^[15] mr.goopie posted a video on January 13th that was a sketch about Gunna fans trying to explain what "Pushin' P" is. The video (shown below, left) received roughly 336,300 plays and 40,900 likes over the course of four days. On January 16th, TikToker^[16] 561dee posted a video that received roughly 2.2 million plays and 486,200 likes in one day (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References