Hip Hop Popular Culture

1283 Words3 Pages

One of the most important inventions to come out of the 1970s was Hip Hop. Not just a musical direction but also a subculture. Hip hop culture originated in the African- American & Hispanic communities of the Bronx, NY seems to be cool. Historians of fashion have recognized that music and entertainment have a potential to impact what we wear . It is rather impossible to remove fashion from popular culture (StraÌhle). In this day and age, fashion is more about people styling themselves to express their individuality rather than flipping through magazines for the “latest” look. As many other genres of music, hip hop has been highly influential in fashion over the past years especially today. In the beginning stages of hip-hop in the 1970s, …show more content…

Since the early 1990's a new fashion style called 'Urban' began emerging and it quickly became a universal hit among teenagers and even among those young adults in their 20s and 30s. In the early 1990, baseball caps and neon-colored clothing had become popularized by rappers, for example Left Eye of TLC. Newer brand sneakers like Reebok, Nike, and Timberland were now becoming associated with the altering hip hop scene. After the release of Will Smith’s video “Summertime”, sports jerseys was quickly added to the new trends of hip hop fashion. By the late 1990s, gold jewelry had been replaced by using platinum in Hip Hop fashion. The rapper Juvenile was largely responsible for this trend, making artists and fans alike to follow suit in his pursuit. Permanent platinum teeth (grillz as they call them) had also became popular. With rise of the jewelry culture in the hip hop world, luxury brands like Gucci or Louis Vuitton, started making their strides into the hip hop …show more content…

With the rise of female rappers coming to the scene, high end designers took note of this and began adding dosages of hip hop to their collections. Once they started noticing the impact their music was having not only on their fans but the fashion world, many hip hop artists began starting their own fashion labels and clothing lines. Some example of such business revolution was Wu-Tang Clan (Wu-Wear), Russell Simmons (Phat Farm), Diddy (Sean John), Nelly (Apple Bottom Jeans). With the rise of rapper based clothing lines also came the rise of other prominent Hip Hop fashion companies such as Karl Kani, FUBU, Southpole and Ecko. They were making clothes they would wear for those who could not afford to buy the designer named brands (intended towards the lower

Open Document