also hip-hop, music style, first recorded 1982. Reduplication with vowel variation (as in tip-top, sing-song); OED reports use of hip hop with a sense of "successive hopping motion" dating back to 1670s. The term in its modern sense comes from its use in the early rap lyrics of the genre, notably Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five and The Sugarhill Gang in "Rapper's Delight."