hick-hop

[Benjamin Zimmer]

The term "hick-hop" is showing up frequently these days to describe the
country/rap fusion of performers like Bubba Sparxxx, Big & Rich, and
Cowboy Troy.  I see Grant Barrett's already spotted it:

http://www.doubletongued.org/citations.php/citations/hick_hop_1/

The earliest cites I can find are from 1993:

-----
1993 _Milwaukee Journal_ 17 Jun. D8 (Factiva) The band minus former WK
trombonist/motor-mouth Paul Finger and bassist Al Herzer bows Friday 6/18
at Shank with a sound its members have dubbed "countrified hip-hop" or
"jazzed hick-hop."
-----
1993 _Atlanta Constitution_ 20 Aug. B3 (Nexis) Guitarist Andy Hopkins
suggests the band's genre-blurring music be described as "hick-hop" or
"folk metal."
-----
1993 _Milwaukee Journal_ 4 Nov. 5 (Factiva) Citizen King, featuring former
members of the popular ska band Wild Kingdom, will open the local show at
8 p.m. with its energized brand of "countrified hick-hop."
-----

There have been other meanings of "hick hop" in the past.  It appears in
various N-Archive papers from the '40s as a blend of "hick" and "sock
hop", and a 1992 _Montreal Gazette_ article on "plane talk" defines it as
pilot slang for "a ride carrying passengers a few times around the field
for small sums of money" (also known as a "barf hop" or "flightseeing").


--Ben Zimmer