I don't know what was meant, but perhaps it was they were influenced by hip hop
and then their music reversed and influenced the hip hop community.
Overall I think there is some influence on hip hop when considering the band's songs and solo work.
See this article regarding once in a lifetime and the influence of afro-beat music causing a "human sample" effect on the song for the bass line and drum style. This is 1980, and hip hop was barely breaking into the mainstream: http://www.npr.org/2000/03/27/1072131/once-in-a-lifetime
Also consider the David Byrne/Brian Eno album "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts" from 1981 which is almost entirely composed of drum loops and samples, all done analog which had to be manually synced (before digital sequencing, etc). It's influence on sampling is huge. Whether it influence hip-hop significantly is debatable. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Life_in_the_Bush_of_Ghosts_(album)