What’s Crackulatin? Much of the distinctiveness of Hip-Hop comes from its inventiveness with vocabulary. Examples of this include: Lil Jon’s popularization of his distinct yells of “ Okay, Yeah,” etc. and E-40’s coinage of new slang terms like “ What’s crackulatin’” for “What’s happenin’?”

E-40 Bay Area rapper from Vallejo, California Poster boy for the “Hyphy Movement”

 Pronunciation: "HIGH-fee" Function: adjective  Etymology: San Francisco Bay Area, shortened perhaps from English dialect "hyperactive"; other sources cite a combination of "hype" and "fly.“  Popularized by E-40 and the Federation's song "Hyphy" (2004); first known use on record by Keak Da Sneak in 1998 (on "Cool," from his LP Sneakacidle).  1 : dangerous and irrational: CRAZY; 2 : amusingly eccentric; without inhibition: GOOFY  Example: "They were getting hyphy up in the club Saturday night."

Lil Jon Hip-Hop artist from Atlanta, Georgia He is best known as a pioneer of the sub-genre of hip hop known as “Crunk"

 Folk etymology suggests the modern usage of crunk originated as a portmanteau of the words "crazy" and "drunk" or having been "cranked up" to a level of excitability at which one becomes "crunk".  Rapper Lil Jon defined crunk as a "state of heightened excitement".  Webster's Dictionary defines "crunk" as a "word of fluctuating meaning used during the 1990s in lyrics of the rap groups OutKast and Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz, a style of Southern rap music featuring repetitive chants and rapid dance rhythms.”

 Hip hop artists sometimes exploit regional pronunciation features to mark their distinctiveness.  They use multilayered totalizing expression, call and response, and signifying.

 Ten singles from each, chronologically going backward.  Compile a corpora of lyrics as well as the songs themselves.  Record and quantify new or “unique” terms, phrases, grammar, significations, “toasting” (self-bragging), regional words, etc.  Whoever has utilized/created more unique linguistic variations is deemed more innovative.