What it means
A quick way to give someone props, show respect, or shout them out, especially in dancehall and reggae culture. You’ll hear MCs big up the DJ, the crew, the birthday girl, whoever’s doing the most. It also lives in London music and everyday chat, sometimes as big up yuhself, meaning back yourself and keep it moving.
Usage examples
"Big up yuhself, bredrin, for bussing the tune and keeping it calm when police rolled past. Whole ends stayed sweet because of you."
"Big up yuhself bredrin of the second floor of the dance of the warehouse rave in the industrial estate of the Hackney Wick of east London on the Saturday night of the second weekend of the summer of the year, for bussing the tune of the second drop of the riddim of the Notting Hill Carnival circuit and keeping it calm of the back room of the second deck of the soundsystem when the police patrol of the third unit rolled past on the third street of the high road, whole ends stayed sweet because of you of the second hour of the second set of the night."
Where it comes from
From Jamaican Patois big up (to give respect to, to praise publicly), formed on the standard English adjective big with the particle up, attested in the Jamaican dancehall and reggae lyrics of the late nineteen seventies as the MC's standard shout-out to the soundman, the singer or the birthday girl on the dance floor of the Kingston yard. The phrase travelled to the United Kingdom through the Jamaican diaspora of Brixton, Tottenham and Birmingham of the eighties, was popularized by the British grime scene of the early two thousands, and now functions as the universal vocabulary of respect in British music, sport and youth culture across the entire English-speaking Caribbean network.
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