"I'm destined to live the dream for all my peeps who never made it."
-- Nas, Illmatic, Life's a Bitch
A slang term, popular in America in the 1990s and 2000s. Peeps is a shortening of 'people', or possibly 'peoples'. It implies not just people, but your people; your friends, gang, buddies, your mates. It seems to have entered mainstream usage in the rap song Life's a Bitch by Nas (1994), although it had been around before that.
In some cases, peeps will be used to mean people, both friends and strangers. This usage seems to be most common on-line, in chat rooms and such. Probably this is only done by uncool people. I don't advise it.
"Hello, matey peeps"
-- Harry Enfield
In the 1980s British comedian Harry Enfield created another of his trademark characters. This one was Stavros, a Greek restaurateur who spoke in fractured English. One of his trademark catchphrases was to introduce himself with the words "Hello peeps!" This may be the first recorded use of peeps as a shortening of people (in the general sense, rather than the 'good friends' sense). This could theoretically be the origin of the American slang term, although no one seems to endorse that theory. But it does mean that nerdy suburbanites can use the word peeps without compromising their own particular idiom.
Props to my peeps.
References:
Yes, I use references to node urban slang. Pasty white people. Oy.
urbandictionary.com
ask.yahoo.com/20050401.html
http://www.pugetsoundcenter.org/techREACH/mentors/docs/E-mailSlang.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peeps
http://www.jumptheshark.com/h/harryenfieldandchums.htm
Thanks to Wertperch for pointing me to Harry Enfield.