Frequently Asked Questions
What does "blick" mean?
In hip-hop and drill slang, a blick is a firearm, usually a handgun. "Blicky" is the common diminutive. It's the term this wiki is named after.
Is drill music the same as the verb "to drill"?
They share roots. Drill is a rap subgenre from Chicago, later reshaped in the UK and Brooklyn; as a verb, "to drill" means to attack a rival. The music took its name from that confrontational vocabulary. See the history page.
Why do the same words mean different things?
Because slang travels between cities and scenes and shifts as it goes. A term can start in Chicago, get reworked in London, and resurface in Brooklyn meaning something slightly different. Our glossary notes these differences instead of pretending each word has one fixed meaning.
Does Blicks Wiki endorse violence or crime?
No. It is an educational reference. It documents how words are used in music and culture so that listeners, parents, teachers, journalists, and researchers can understand lyrics. Documenting a term is not endorsing anything it may reference.
Can I suggest a term or a correction?
Yes — that's welcome. Use the contact page. Slang moves fast and we'd rather be corrected than wrong.
Are the lyrics examples real?
We describe usage patterns rather than reproducing copyrighted lyrics. For line-by-line annotations of specific songs, sites like Genius are the right tool; we focus on what the vocabulary means across the scene.
What's the difference between a blick, a stick, and a choppa?
Roughly: a blick is usually a handgun, a stick is usually a longer firearm like a rifle, and a choppa is specifically an automatic or rapid-firing rifle. In practice artists use them loosely and for rhyme, so context and region matter more than any strict rule.
Why is so much UK slang from Jamaican Patois?
Because of migration and cultural exchange. The Windrush generation and subsequent Caribbean communities shaped London's multicultural dialect, and that dialect — sometimes called Multicultural London English — became the native tongue of grime and then drill. Words like wagwan, peng, skeng, and duppy are Patois in origin.
Is this the same as Urban Dictionary or Genius?
Different tools for different jobs. Urban Dictionary is open user submissions with no editing. Genius annotates specific song lyrics line by line. Blicks Wiki sits between them: a curated, edited glossary focused on what terms mean across the scene, with honest notes on regional and historical variation. For a specific song's meaning, Genius is better; for understanding the vocabulary itself, this is built for that.
Do these words appear outside music?
Increasingly, yes — that is the whole crossover dynamic described on our culture page. Terms like sus, drip, and no cap are now general internet English, often used by people with no connection to the scenes that coined them.
Should lyrics be used as evidence in court?
This is genuinely contested and we do not pretend to settle it. Prosecutors argue lyrics can show intent or knowledge; artists, academics, and free-expression groups argue that treating creative work as confession criminalises art and disproportionately targets Black creators, since no one submits country-song murder ballads as evidence. Several US states have moved to limit the practice. Our narrow role is to explain what the vocabulary means and to note, clearly, that it is often persona and genre convention rather than literal fact — see the culture page.
How often is this glossary updated?
Continuously, but deliberately. We date-stamp changes and add terms only once we are confident about them, rather than chasing every new coinage. Slang appears faster than any reference can responsibly verify it, so we would rather be a little behind and accurate than current and wrong. Suggestions and corrections through the contact page are the fastest way to get a term reviewed.