N.O.R.E. Coins New Slang, ‘Riggadellia’

While slangologists like E-40 and Ghostface are often celebrated for creating their own brand of vernacular, Capone-N-Noreaga rapper N.O.R.E. has gone largely overlooked, despite creating some of New York's most hilarious jargon.

From "full steezie" to "flagrino" and "slime," N.O.R.E. has coined some of hip-hop's best turns of phrase, and is truly a king of street talk. The BoomBox recently sat down with the Lefrak, Queens rapper, and quizzed him on the new words he's running with.

"Slime is so big in New York right now. I don't know if you know, but I made up slime in 2001. But let me big up to Harlem for keeping slime's legacy alive," N.O.R.E. said, referring to the term of endearment he created almost a decade ago, recently popularized by Cam'ron protege Vado.

"Big up to Vado. I just seen an interview and they was like, 'So what's up with the slime s--?' He said 'I been sayin' it since 2001 when N.O.R.E. and them was sayin' it.' So I respect the fact that he knew that I made up that slang, and he's running with it. He has all permission, do what you want to do."

With a new solo album on the horizon, N.O.R.E.'s still on the run, eating, coming up with all kinds of terminology. "Right now I'm on that riggadellia," he explained. "Riggadellia is when it's the realest thing in life, and it's nothing anything could get realer than. So I'm on that right now, I'm on that riggadellia. But I'm definitely keeping the slime going too. Big up to everybody who using it too."

As for his older street slang, N.O.R.E. insists that phrases like "off the yelzebub" stay in rotation. "Off the yelzebub,' of course I can't lie, that's slang. That's old but you can't even front, everywhere you go, still people say 'off the yelzebub.' We got a couple a new ones coming but, that riggadellia is ringin' off right now."

Capone-N-Noreaga's 'The War Report 2' is in stores now. Look out for N.O.R.E.'s new album, 'S.U.P.E.R.T.H.U.G.,' coming soon. Noriggedellia.