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’?”

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."

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.