What Does Ops Mean In Rap? (Answered!)

Ops or opps in rap means “opposition”, used as a term for opposing gangs and gang members. It can more generally mean anyone that you might have beef with in the rap game. The general sense is of rivals, and this can mean a group of people or just a single person.

Ops is essentially a catch all term for one’s “enemies,” then, in rap.

This can naturally mean different things to a lot of different people, but in general, it means someone you are in opposition to in one way or another.

This could mean a mortal enemy, a playful beef, and everything in between.

Let’s find out more.

What does ops mean to rappers?

Ops is short for “opposition” in rap.

This can mean a lot of different things depending on the circumstances.

The best general definition is not much different from the word opposition itself. It refers to the people or groups you are in opposition to.

Naturally, that can still mean a lot of different things in different contexts.

One of the simplest ways to explain it is in terms of the beefs that often occur between rappers.

A beef is when two rappers have gotten into an argument or disagreement about something, or just dislike each other for whatever reason.

This can manifest in many ways, but mostly it just becomes a public back and forth where each will “dis” or insult the other, whether through a song or just through a public statement.

In this case, these two rappers would be each other’s “ops”.

These beefs are sometimes little more than marketing tactics, while at the same time, many of them are real and visceral arguments rappers have with one another.

On the other hand, the term is often used in the context of opposing, rival gangs.

Naturally, this has also been an aspect of American rap, however blown out of proportion it may have been by the media.

In any case, the term has often been used to talk about any member of an opposing rival gang, whether you have personal beef with them or not.

Take the Bloods and the Crips, for example.

These two gangs would refer to each other as “ops” because they are part of gangs with a deadly rivalry.

So, depending on the context, the term can be used in many very different ways.

It might be just meant to indicate you’re in little more than a public spat with another rapper, or it might indicate a deadly hatred you have for your rival gang members.

Where does ops come from in rap?

The term is quite old and dates back to at least the 1980s.

One of the oldest recorded uses we have of the term comes from LL Cool J’s song from 1985 called “Rock the Bells”.

Plainly, then, it dates back a long way, and we can safely assume that it predated this song by some time—LL Cool J was not introducing or coining the term at this point.

It may well have originated in gang culture in black communities in America, though it may also have been coined in rap first of all.

If nothing else, “ops” is much easier to rhyme than “opposition”!

In recent years, the term has become enormously more common.

Even until 2015, it was only used a handful of times in rap songs.

However, after this point, its usage exploded, particularly due to the influence of Chicago drill music.

Indeed, between 2012 and 2014, it was used almost exclusively in the Chicago scene.

It became much more popular from there, and started being used much more widely in rap music.

Who was the exact first person to use it, though, will probably never be known.

Which gangs use “ops”?

It of course depends on what you define as a “gang”.

The term has become highly loaded, often used as a racist dog whistle against black and minority people who are perceived as being more inclined towards life of crime.

Many, of course, do refer to themselves in this way, though—whether again that’s a marketing tactic or the reality of their situation.

As mentioned, the term was most common in the Chicago scene which did see an ongoing “gang” crisis for some years.

The Windy City rappers commonly used the term, and indeed many of these rappers would say the “ops” were often just people in their own neighborhoods.

What does ops mean in UK slang?

Ops is not as widely used in UK slang, but when it is, it has more or less precisely the same meaning.

Again, there is an important level of prejudice operating in the general public’s use of the term “gang”, but there are and have been gangs in London that use the term “ops” to describe opposing gang members and rivals.

Naturally, the term spread through American rap and was adopted by the British rap scene.

These kinds of rivalries are also a good marketing tactic in the UK, while at the same time they can also reflect some people’s lived reality.

Simply put, then, ops is a snappy term for someone you’re in beef with.

This could mean virtually anything within that definition, though typically it’s just about two rappers who have had a personal disagreement over something and so start releasing dis songs backwards and forwards.

On the other hand, it can certainly be a lot more serious than that and involve serious personal rivalries—it all depends on the context. 

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