Lil' Kim, Lil Wayne, Lil Xan — why hip hop is all about the lil artists, and what it means

Hip hop is having a lil moment.

This week, Australian fans can catch shows by Lil Dicky, the comedic rapper, and Lil Xan, the prescription-drug-inspired 21-year-old from California, who will appear at Splendour In The Grass.

In fact, according to data from Spotify, artists with the prefix lil — and there are 8,000 of them on that platform alone — are finding huge audiences at the moment.

The streaming service said in May that 33 of the top 1,000 songs on its charts in 2018 were from lil artists, a 100 per cent increase on the previous year.

And while veteran Lil Wayne tops the list of lils on Spotify, others in the top 10 — Lil Xan, Lil Uzi Vert, and the late Lil Peep — have broken out in just the past few years.

What is going on here?

The answer to that question provides an insight not just into trends in hip hop, but also how the world's most popular genre plays with language, identity and hierarchy.

"Back in the day it was used by people that were coming up under someone," said Hau Latukefu, host of triple j's Hip Hop Show.

"If they were your OG [original gangster], if they brought you up on the streets, you were like the second version of them."

Case in point: Lil Bow Wow.

Real name Shad Gregory Moss, Bow Wow was given his stage name as a young rapper by Snoop Dogg, that lanky elder statesman of hip hop. That explains the canine connection.

"Just say I took someone up under my wing," Latukefu said. "He would come up as Lil Hau."

The word lil, a shortening of little, first appeared in the 1800s.

"It's in the form of a child's nursery rhyme — lil boy bear, lil gal bear," ABC language researcher (and rap fan) Tiger Webb said.

"Some of those, honestly, you could transpose to hip hop names right now."

But the way it is being used in hip hop — to denote lineage — appears to be novel, Webb says.

Hip hop plays with language that extends to stage names

These are rarely static.

"Producers and rappers will have many unofficial monikers as well," Webb said.

Chance The Rapper sometimes refers to himself as Lil Chano from 79th, a shout-out to the section of Chicago from which he hails.

Jay-Z is sometimes Hova, from Jehovah, meaning God. Puff Daddy became P Diddy. Kanye West used to go by Yeezy, and now uses Ye.

This suggests that, like names, identities can be fluid.

"There is change at play and constant turbulence about how these monikers are used within the rap subculture," Webb said.

It's worth mentioning not all use of the lil prefix is a reference to a mentor or predecessor.

There doesn't seem to have been a Big Peep to Gustav Elijah Ahr's Lil Peep, the rising star who died aged 21 last year.

Lil Xan, the moniker used by Diego Leanos, is a reference to the prescription drug Xanax, to which he was at one point addicted.

So, is this about trends?

Yes. Both Latukefu and Webb say that's part of it.

The word love, as part of a name, was big for a time (Y-Love). Yung/Young is big (Young Thug), the dollar sign as "S" is big (A$AP Rocky, Ty Dolla $ign), as are names that reference hip hop's current fascination with prescription drugs.

This means Swedish singer Yung Lean gets double points. (Lean is slang for a cough-syrup-based drink used as a party drug.)

"Maybe for a while it was people with numbers in their names: 50 Cent, 2 Chainz, 2 Pistols, 6lack," Webb said.

Trends come and go, though.

Bow Wow dropped the lil in the early 2000s partly because, he told MTV News at the time, the lil was getting too big.

"It's all these lil cats," he said of other rappers using the moniker. "Forget it."

Does that mean lil's days are numbered?

We could be at "peak lil", Webb said — which itself could be a rap name.