How "Lit" Grew From 1920s Slang To Hip-Hop's Favorite Word

From Rae Sremmurd to Drake the term “lit” has been everywhere in hip-hop over the last decade. One of its earliest uses was on Nas “The Message” in 1996. While “lit” mentions in hip-hop remained relatively low in the early 2000s, it started spiking in the 2010s, with rappers like A$AP Rocky and especially Travis Scott peppering the term into many of their songs.