Re: the trip-hop/hip-hop thing

Elson Trinidad (elson@westworld.com)
Wed, 19 Jun 1996 18:04:42 -0700 (PDT)


On Wed, 19 Jun 1996, Jordan Feinman wrote:

> The first time I even heard the term "hip-hop" was from
> Naughty-by-Nature's "Hip-hop Hurray". Am I correct in assuming the term
> is quite new, relatively speaking?

It's quite new in the span of American history, but it must have
originated in the mid-late '70s. The first time I heard it was from The
Sugar Hill Gang's "Rapper's Delight" - 'A hip hop, a hippity...'

The 'Hip' originated from the beatnik-derived slang of the '50s-'60s and
still used today: "hip" meaning 'fashionable' or 'cool'- i.e. "That's so
hip," "What is hip?" etc.

The 'Hop' quite simply means 'dance' - i.e. "At the hop," "Sock Hop", etc.

Elson

-30-
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