street cred

street cred

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.

Antonym:
vanilla
According to Urban Dictionary, “vanilla” is a slang term that means “unexciting, normal, conventional, boring”. The term is often used to describe someone who is a basic consumer, mimicking the culture they endlessly scroll through as to indicate their (probably late) awareness of what’s trending. According to the algorithm behind Urban Thesaurus, the top 5 slang words for "vanilla" are: sell out, vagilla, cvs, voke, and stock.

***
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.
von White Jesus 28. August 2006

Words related to street cred:
nasty bastard, street cool, credibility, cred, ghetto, hood, respect, gangsta, awesome, credit, badass, hip, nerd, rap, sick, urban, bed, cred, burb cred ,farm cred, rep

Dictionary

Definition

Example Sentences
Word History
Entries Near

Show More

street-smart
adjective
Synonyms of street-smart
: STREETWISE


Example Sentences
Recent Examples on the Web
The comedy-drama series features Andi Barnes, an ambitious divorce lawyer, Danni King, a funny and fearless airport employee, Karen Mott, a street-smart hair salon owner, and Sabrina Hollins, a smart and stylish bank teller.
—Josie Howell | Jhowell@al.com, al, 26 July 2023
Based on the Sony video game franchise of the same name, Uncharted follows a street-smart twentysomething who teams up with a veteran treasure hunter to find Ferdinand Magellan's fortune.
—Stacey Grant, Seventeen, 23 June 2023
Reasons why a street-smart strategy is necessary to ensure that your authentic self is being heard.
—Jon Michail, Forbes, 16 Mar. 2023
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'street-smart.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.


Word History
First Known Use
1966, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of street-smart was in 1966
See more words from the same year

 
2. street cred

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 coke 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"

 
3. Street Cred
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*
von Deeebo 21. Oktober 2005
389 239

4. 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 album just because the rapper is gansta, then you are fucked 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


5. Street Cred
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-class 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."
von RuKast 12. Maerz 2007

6. street creds
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*
von Dr Fruitcake 7. August 2005

7. street cred

A term originated from upper middle class 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.
von tehhuh 24. Maerz 2008