Who Is Shawty?

A better question might actually be…WHAT is a shawty?

The online Urban dictionary lists 8 pages with 52 user suggested entries of what a Shawty is.

The list of options vary from anyone who is short in height, younger or a close friend/ family member, to describing a small pit-bull type dog, to the length of a guy’s small penis.

The most commonly agreed upon description is a what a guy calls his girlfriend, hang out chick or friend-with-benefits who is usually an attractive young woman who comes from a ghetto/ gangster background and is probably of African American ancestry.

Going by the gangster rap songs which are increasingly referring to girls who the rappers want to sleep with or are currently sleeping with, I have a theory on what shawty means.

The trend for the last 10 year or so has been for places or people with long names to get abbreviations.

Kentucky Fried Chicken went to KFC

Jennifer Lopez became J-Lo

You use a GPS…not a Global Positioning System

You say TGIF instead of Thank God It’s Friday

And the ATM was once an Automated Teller Machine

Blame it on convenience, laziness or perhaps in some cases, a desire to conceal the true meaning of something. KFC for instance, may not want to constantly remind an increasingly health conscious nation with the longer version of their name that they’re known mostly for their unhealthy Southern Deep Fried Food.

In a country where everything and everyone is getting an abbreviation, maybe it’s not such a stretch that the gangster community came up with a new title for their FWB (friends with benefits.)

Where ever the term originated, I believe based upon who’s using the word and who is NOT using the word is very telling. I could only find two songs where a female singer referred to herself as “Shawty” One was Lil Mama Feat. Christ Brown. “Shawty Get Loose”

So here’s what rap songs tell us about “Shawty” girls:

• They’re good looking girls with bangin' bodies

• They’re sexually open-minded, freaky, on the slutty side

• They don’t expect a real relationship

• She might be a girlfriend, but she’s definitely NOT a wife

• A guy can have a girlfriend but also a Shawty on the side

• Buying alcohol and spending money on them gets them to do sexual favors or get laid

• Their name, interests and personal information aren’t important

• She might be someone to regularly have sex with, or could be a one night stand


So. Going by the heavily sexual songs that use the word and the “open relationship” with hot and sexy women they’re talking about, I’m gonna say the term Shawty came from the expression that the girl is a “Sure thing.” That is… if you show her attention and catch her eye, there is a pretty sure chance she’ll have wild un-inhibited sex with you whenever and where ever you want.

So a “Sure thing” pronounced “Shore Thang”, shortened to “Shore T” just needs to be spelled and pronounced with gangster slang. And there you get "Shawty.”

I have to admit that the term sounds better than other words that describe this kind of female. And the girls seem to find the title less offensive too.

So in conclusion: a Shawty is a girl for the moment. Someone you bang but don’t marry and have kids with. An attractive, slutty girl who doesn’t get heart-felt love and doesn’t get a relationship but will still: “put out”.

And according to Terius "The-Dream" you should tip her.








The other female artist who referred to herself as a Shawty was Trina in "Shawty Say". She had a somewhat different idea of what kind of "reltionship" they were supposed to have, but HIS behavior was very consistent with the way for a man treats a Shawty.