Khia

About

Khia refers to a slang term that grew popular in internet stan communities in the early 2020s, used to refer to someone deemed to be outdated, irrelevant or flopping. The term refers to Khia, an American rapper and record producer best known for her 2002 track "My Neck, My Back (Lick It)." The etymology of the name "Khia" being used as a slang term can be traced back to a photo of a fan looking very excited to meet Khia, with the caption reading, "this biih was crying over meeting khia 😂😂😂." In 2023, Nicki Minaj fans popularized the use of the term "khia" as a stand-in for "nobody."

Origin

On November 26th, 2014, various X (then Twitter) users posted a photo of a young girl with her eyes closed and her hand over her mouth, standing next to rapper Khia. X^[1] user @BeckDeeMyG wrote, "This gotta be photoshopped. Ain't nobody crying when they meet Khia in 2014," gathering over 200 likes in ten years, while X^[2] user @legallydyme wrote, "Why is this Korean girl crying over meeting Khia?!! 😂😂😂😂😂," gathering over 8,000 likes in ten years.

The use of "Khia" as a slang term that represents someone as a "flop" or irrelevant, outdated artist is typically attributed to K-Pop and adjacent stan communities online. However, the earliest notable use of the term "khia" as an insult was on June 26th, 2023, with X^[3] user @JAESREVENGE writing, "Ice Spice had so many Khias in her face tonight.. 🤧😭💀." @JAESREVENGE's post gathered over 24,000 likes in a year.

Spread

Use of the term "khia" as a stand-in for "nobody" or "irrelevant" grew exponentially in 2023, with many early uses of the term being aimed at rapper Nicki Minaj. On July 19th, 2023 X^[4] user @DeedeeTheLeo made a post defending Minaj against people accusing her of doing "khia" collabs with lesser-known artists, gathering over 3,000 likes in a year.

On October 2nd, 2023, X^[5] user @melofknblonde posted a screenshot of Clairo's Spotify streams, jokingly calling her a "khia" and gathering over 2,000 likes in a year.

By March 16th, 2024, people began using the word "khia" both sincerely and ironically, as seen in a post by X^[6] user @itstheyonce, who wrote, "now who the fuck is this khia??" in response to a Google search result for an Animal Crossing character.

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References