Gen Z Revives Tae Bo With Billy Blanks

What does “OG” mean in English slang?

Near the end of this interview, the host asks fitness pioneer Billy Blanks: “Isn’t it cool that you could show your daughters that you were an OG?” OG started as “original gangster,” slang from Los Angeles gang culture in the 1970s. It has since broadened far beyond gangs: today it usually means someone who was there first and is respected for it.

Hip-hop spread the word through the 1980s and 90s (Ice-T’s 1991 album “O.G. Original Gangster” is a famous example), and its meaning kept widening. Now people call a favourite teacher, an old restaurant or the first version of a video game “the OG.” Here it’s a compliment for making Tae Bo huge in the 1990s: “you were TikTok before TikTok was cool,” as the host puts it.