The popularity of the hip flask turned out to be an example of how the lingo of the Prohibition era became the lingo of jazz. Among patrons in a club, if a person asked, “Are you hip?” they were asking if the person was carrying booze on them. Jazz musicians and their followers took the term and turned it into an existential statement. “Are you hip?” was a broader question about a person’s state of awareness. To be hip meant that you were in the know. And to be a hipster usually meant that you were a lover of jazz.
