No Cap

'no lie / for real / I'm not kidding' ('Cap' = a lie/exaggeration)

Origin

From African-American vernacular and hip-hop culture: the 'to cap' has been used there since the early 1900s for 'to exaggerate' or 'to lie', from which 'Cap' came to mean a made-up story/lie. Since the 1980s the expression spread in the hip-hop scene (including through Too Short and the Geto Boys) and entered German youth slang via online communication. 'No Cap' accordingly means 'no joke, no lie, for real' and stresses that something is meant seriously and truthfully.

Source

Building blocks

Words in this expression

Examples

  • No cap, das war das meines Lebens.

    No cap, that was the best concert of my life.