Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. US black) to explain, to initiate into; thus hepped, hept, initiated, aware.

1909		F.H. Tillotson How I Became a Detective 86: Being ‘hept’ to anything is knowing about it before [...] One thief may say to his pal, ‘Are you hept?’.
1913		B.T. Harvey ‘Word-List From The Northwest’ in DN IV:i 28: put one hyp, v. phr. Put one ‘wise to’; to inform.
1916		J. Lait ‘The Gangster’s Elegy’ in Beef, Iron and Wine (1917) 243: Next day the Kid gets hepped to who it was pulled that there rod, an’ of course he sends ’im word that he’ll croak ’im.
1939		W. Winchell On Broadway 20 Aug. [synd. col.] Better hep your friends downtown in the Swing Sector and tell them not to be so clever.
1944		D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive 19: Uncle is hipping a whole lot of cats as to what to do when the action gets off the track.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 94/2: Hep up. 1. To become familiar with the customs and law of the under world; to teach such knowledge to another [...] 2. To learn, or to advise another of, any secret, furtive plan, or deed.
1958		Mad mag. May–June 20: How’d you make it here, hip me? and how come?
1968		N. Heard Howard Street 179: Lemme hip you girl – it’s because he ain’t got no whore to show.
1971		R.D. Pharr S.R.O. (1998) 193: ‘Nobody in the lobby’ll get hepped and follow me’.
1974		V.E. Smith Jones Men 210: I’m just trying to hip him to somethin’.
1984		(con. 1964–73) W. Terry Bloods (1985) 11: They hipped me to terms like ‘exploitation’ and ‘oppression.’.
1997		L. Pettiway Workin’ It 81: Kathy introduced me to the Avenue, and she hipped me to what prices were.
1999		Indep. Rev. 19 July 12: A guy [...] could have hipped me to that.

2. to inform, to tell about.

1907		Sun (NY) 18 Oct. 11/2: But they’re the best [p[players] I got or can get unless you [...] hep me to a few.
1934		J.L. Kuethe ‘Prison Parlance’ in AS IX:1 26: hip (or hep?). To give information.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 18: I was going to be a musician, a Negro musician, hipping the world about the blues.
1952		Kerouac letter 10 May in Charters I (1995) 346: I have no idea how it could have been possible for Hilda [...] to write, a month ago, a letter to Kell’s wife telling her I was coming to Mexico unless somebody in New York who knows my movements is hipping her.
1963		M. Braly Shake Him Till He Rattles (1964) 41: Why didn’t you blow, man? I hipped Fatha to you. He was waiting to dig you.
1974		V.E. Smith Jones Men 40: Somebody [...] hipped ’em the shit was coming in tonight.
1998		(con. 1986) G. Pelecanos Sweet Forever 252: Eddie Golden hipped me to it.
2000		P. Beatty Tuff 226: You ain’t never going to stop kids from having sex [...] What you need to do is be real with them. Hip them to the Astroglide.
2004		(con. 1960s-70s) T. Taylor Top Fellas 10/2: We were hooked, and took to grilling anyone [...] who was old enough to hip us to what this sharpie stuff was all about.

3. as interog., to understand.

1952

(con. 1948) G. Mandel Flee the Angry Strangers 32: So no talkin dirty-like; you hip?