Hip Hop Fashion and Culture

The Lifestyle

• Based on capitalism and the popularity of the “bling bling” lifestyle in rap music
• Focusing on symbols of wealth and status like money, jewelry, cars and clothing.
• The “bling bling” has its immediate roots in the enormously commercially successful mid-to-late nineties work (specifically, music videos) to Puff Daddy and Bad Boy Records as well as Master P’s No Limit Records.
• The term was coined in 1999 by Cash Money Records artist Lil Wayne “Bling bling"

Media

Effects of the Media

• People live in an age where the media greatly impacts and influences people’s thoughts around the world.  People’s ideas are heavily inspired by movies, books, articles, but one form of mass communication that deeply influences people around the world in particular is hip hop music.  One person that helps describe the phenomenon of how hip hop spread rapidly around the world and diffusion of Global Culture is Orlando Patterson, a sociology professor at Harvard University. 
• Professor Patterson argues that mass communication is controlled by the wealthy, government and businesses in the Third World nations and countries around the world. 
• As a result, Paterson believes that mass communication created a global hip hop scene.
• As a result, the youth absorbed and are influenced by the American hip hop scene and start their own form of hip hop
• Patterson believes that revitalization of hip hop music will occur around the world as traditional values are mixed with American hip hop musical forms
• As a result, a global exchange process occurs that brings oyuth around the world to listen to a common musical form known as hip hop
• National Geographic recognizes hip hop as “the world’s favourite youth culture” in which “just about every country on the planet seems to have developed its own local rap scene.

Mid 1990s to late 1990s fashion

Gangsta Style

·   Hip hop fashion had taken on significant influence from the dress styles of street thugs and prison inmates. 

·   The style of sagging ones pants or wearing them baggy and low without a belt, was also style that originated in prisons.

·   This style of fashionm along with associated hand signs and territorial or “homeboy” mentality was adopted by African-American youth in Los Angeles initially and later by the hip hop community.

·   Hip hop artists such as Dr Dre, Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube and Beastie Boys all owre and referenced Ben Davis workwear in videos and songs.  This was a staple clothing brand amongst true gang/skate/hip hop/custom culture

·   On the West Coast, members of the hip hop community looked back to the gangsters of the 1930s and the 1940s for inspiration.  (think of Scarface, like double breasted suits, silk shirts and alligator shoes)

·   On the East Coast, “ghetto fabulous”  fashion (termed by Sean Combs) was on the rise.  Combs, Notorious B.I.G, Faith Evans, Russell Simmons

The Rise of Hip Hop

• The rise of hip hop n the late-1990s, primarily the work of Sean Combs, known locally around New York at that time as the "Shiny Suit Man" brought elements such as loud, flashy PVC aviator inspired suits and platinum jewelry to the forefront of hip hop in an effort to add a new vivid dimension of color and flash to the videos produced as a marketing tool.
• Combs, who started his own Sean John clothing line, and clothing manufacturers such as Karl Kani and FUBU brought hip hop fashion to the mainstream, resulting in a multi-million dollar hip hop fashion industry.
• There was a resurgence of traditional African-American hairstyles such as cornrows and afros, as well as the Caesars
• Caesars and cornrows are maintained by wearing a do-rag over the head during periods of sleeping and home activity to prevent the hair from being      displaced or tossled. Do-rags soon became popular hip hop fashion items in their own right.
• The "hip-pop" era also saw the split between male and female hip hop fashion, which had previously been more or less similar.
• Women in hip hop had emulated the male tough-guy fashions such as baggy jeans, "Loc" sunglasses, tough looks and heavy workboots; many, such as      Da Brat accomplished this with little more than some lip gloss and a bit of make-up to make the industrial work pants and work boots feminine.
• The female performers who completely turned the tide such as Lil Kim and Foxy Brown popularized glamorous, high-fashion feminine hip hop styles, such as Kimora Lee Simmons fashion line of Baby Phat.  While Lauryn Hill and Eve popularized more conservative styles that still maintained both a distinctly feminine and distinctly hip hop feel.Modern Hip hop Fashion
  • After the influx of the hip-pop influence, hip hop fashion became less based in actual street wear and more in an idealization of such.
  • Hip hop clothing is often produced by popular and successful designers, who charge significant amounts for their products.
  • In the 1990s and the 2000s, many hip hop artists and executives started their own fashion labels and clothing lines
  • Wu-Tang Clan (Wu Wear), Russell Simmons (Phat Farm), Kimora Lee Simmons (Baby Phat), Diddy (Sean John), Apple Bottom Jeans (Nelly), Damon Dash and Jay Z (Rocawear), 50 Cent (G-Unit) Eminem (Shady Limited), 2 Pac (Makaveli) and OutKast (OutKast Clothing)
  • Other prominent hip hop fashion companies have included Karl Kani and FUBU, Ecko, Dickies, Girbaud, Enyce, Famous Stars and Straps, Bape, LRG, Timberland Boots and Akademiks
  • According to many, hip hop fashion has become much more mainstream, possibly due to the popular acceptance of hip hop culture.
  • Today, arguably more so than in the past, the music goes with the fashion; one does not exist without the other.
  • Present-day hip hop fashion is not simply limited to one particular group of people but to anyone who has decided to identify with the culture.
  • Today, hip hop fashion is worn by a significant percentage of young people around the world. There are now a significant number of retailers that are dedicated to the sale of hip hop inspired fashions such as Dr.Jays.
  • Recent trends in hip hop fashion have geared toward a tighter, hipster-inspired style of dressing (so-called "prep-hop"), which is coming to include items such as Nike Dunks, Nike Air Force 1 (shoe), polo shirts (often worn with a popped collar), sportcoats, woven button shirts, large ornamental belt buckles, cufflinks, skull and skeleton decorations, elaborately decorated zip up hoodies, trucker hats (such as Von Dutch), fitted caps (New Era Cap Company), tighter fitting “vintage style” t-shirts with short sleeves (Dangerous Elite), Lumberjack button ups or plaid designed shirts, Snow Inspired fashions (Kooter Brown) and tighter denim jeans. 
  • Short length t-shirts have become involved in recent trends because of wanting to expose decorated belts like Jim Jones.
  • In some circles, the baggy style has faded away.
  • Like Kayne West, sporting colourful fitted prep-hop and hipster inspired clothing and tighter fitting skater influenced styles, like Pharrell
  • Commentators from both inside and outside of the hip-hop community have criticized the cost of many of the accouterments of hip hop fashion. Chuck D of Public Enemy  summarized the mentality of some low-income youths as "Man, I work at McDonald's, but in order for me to feel good about myself I got to get a gold chain or I got to get a fly car in order to impress a sister or whatever."