Complex News Tests New Yorkers on ‘Dub,’ ‘Sturdy,’ ‘TP,’ and ‘Dayroom’

Complex News hit the streets of New York City to see how well locals know some of the city’s current slang.

In a new segment hosted by Izzy Izzo, New Yorkers were put to the test on four terms: “dub,” “sturdy,” “TP,” and “dayroom.” While some participants seemed confident in their answers, others offered wildly different interpretations.

First up was “dub,” which one person initially connected to a “w” — a win — before another respondent correctly explained that it’s used when something is rejected or finished.

“This energetic bond is, like, done. Like, please leave me alone,” they said. “Oh, it’s a dub. Get out of here. It’s a dub.”

The conversation became more animated when Izzo asked about “sturdy,” a term closely associated with a style of dancing that grew out of the city’s drill rap scene.

“You can dance while you’re sturdy, right?” one participant said, before showing off some moves.

Another person went in a completely different direction, using the traditional definition of the word.

“The English textbooks say stability,” they explained. “You’re basically financially stable, the family’s stable. You’re stable in all ways.”

Things became considerably more mysterious with “TP.”

Participants threw out guesses including “teleport” and “type piece,” but it turns out to simply mean being low-key or keeping something quiet.

“People say TP, you go like this. Shh! Hold it down, you heard?” one respondent revealed. “Everything is confidential. We can’t disclose the information.

The host agreed, but offered a caveat.

“There’s multiple definitions,” Izzy said. “If you know, you know. You might be drinking TP right now.”

The final term was “dayroom,” a word that seems to have started as jail slang, as it’s frequently used to describe the common area where prisoners congregate when not in their cells.

The word seems to have mutated from its original context to meaning something closer to “crazy” or “off.” This TikTok from DJ Yungstar63 is a good primer.

When Izzy asked bystanders about it, he got a range of responses. One participant took the word literally, calling it “a place where you chill out,” before joking, “I don’t know, bro, ’cause I only make night moves.”

Eventually, someone got it right.

“They’re not really right in the head, and the math ain’t mathin’,” the person explained. “The mathematics on what they’re saying ain’t right.”

They continued, “They just say a lot of, like, bull. You a bozo. You day room, gang.”

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