The reigning Streamer of the Year winner and new Complex cover star Kai Cenat appeared on 360 with Speedy Morman, where he breaks down how he came up with his signature word "rizz."
"Okay so look, rizz came from me and my group of friends," Kai says at the 35:35 mark below. "Me and my friends used to always say it, and stuff like that. And I definitely [popularized] it on my stream."
(Here Kai and Speedy get into a hilarious digression about another word: "popularized." Which, it turns out, is not "populized" or "poprulized.")
Kai continues, "And when I would say it on stream and stuff, a lot, it started going crazy, you feel what I'm saying? Then it went crazy internationally, everybody say it now, it's just in people's vocabulary. And that's what it is."
As for where the actual word came from, 21-year-old Cenat explains that rizz was a product of his group of friends' shared vernacular.
"It's just from like, us being at home, like just talking. ... One person said it, and then another person said it, and then I said it on my Twitch," Kai says.
He adds that "rizz just meant game," before clarifying it's not "short for charisma," contrary to what others have said.
As discussed in an article by Complex's Eric Skelton, rizz blew up in 2022, as the word began popping up all over social media, to the point where NBA insider Shams Charania was called a “Rizz God” during a live interview.
It isn't the first time Kai Cenat has shed light on how he popularized the term. Last year the viral sensation explained the definition during an episode of No Jumper.
“Rizz is when you’re talking to a girl, and at first, shit is not going your way. It’s looking bad for you, until you spit game and you’re rizzing them up to where shit starts to go your way,” he shared. “You’re so slick with your words and what you’re saying, to where the girl is like, ‘OK, yeah, who is this?!’ After shit goes your way, you’re like, ‘Yeah, I rizzed her up. I’ve got mad rizz.’”
