Term used by Joell Ortiz before one of his verses, he describes it:
"I got so many meanings of yaowa, it's crazy. First, it's used as a term of endearment for dudes around my way. How you say, 'What up?' We say, 'Yaowa!' It came from my man Smash. Shout to Smash. He used to be really drunk
around the way. It's a distance between the buildings. He used to be saying,
'Yo, what up?' But he'd be so drunk, it sounded like he was saying, 'Yawhuhup?' He'd be twisted. I just
turned it into yaowa. Every time I get on a beat, I say, 'Yaowa,' before I rap on it. Then I started
playing around with it and turned it into meaning: 'you're actually one world away.' I be feeling like my flow is not of Earth. I zone out, become an alien with it. On another freestyle, I said, 'I'll put you in a hospital because my flow is so sick.' That's 'your ass on wild anesthetics.' I just be spazzin' out with the yaowa. But it's a term of endearment around my way."
-Joell Ortiz
