This became a metaphor for someone displaying in some way that they think they’re better than others.įlex came into mainstream popularity in 2014 thanks to hip-hop due’s Rae Sremmurd’s “No Flex Zone.” The song refrains: “No flex zone, No flex zone / They know better, they know better.” This no flex zone is apparently a space where you can be true to yourself, not feeling compelled to show off, judge, and put others down, i.e., hating on people and being fake.įlex was further popularized by Rich Homie’s Quan’s 2015 song, “Flex (Ooh Ooh Ooh)” which features the lyrics: “Cause I got a check, n*ggas wanna flex / Ain’t gotta flex but I got it, ooohh.”įlex also gained prominence in spring 2018 through its frequent use by Lil Tay, a young Canadian internet celebrity who called herself “the youngest flexer of the century.” Later that fall, the expression weird flex, but OK -a snarky response to when someone boasts about something considered odd or embarrassing-went viral. Meet Fleex, a French startup that was formally named Flexlab.The company wants to make it easier to give some cash to your employees so that they can spend it on a desk, an external monitor, some computer peripherals, a nice chair, etc.
Rapper Ice Cube notably used it in his 1992 song, “It Was a Good Day”: “Saw the police and they rolled right past me / No flexin’, didn’t even look in a n*gga’s direction as I ran the intersection.”įlex comes from flexing one’s muscles, i.e., to show how physically strong you are, or, originally, how you are ready for a fight. Fleex lets you allocate a monthly budget for work from home equipment. The term flex has been used as Black slang for “showing courage” or “showing off” since the 1990s.