Fashion
These are hip-hop's realest fashion styles
From bucket hats to full-body tattoos, hip-hop fashion changes like the wind. Here's our guide to some of the most pivotal and influential trends, including everyone from Run-D.M.C. to Lil Uzi Vert.
Hip-hop fashion has evolved at a rate of knots since the sound first emerged from New York City's Bronx neighbourhood in the middle of the 1970s. Its myriad styles have ranged from city to city, coast to coast, and scene to scene.
Our handy cut-out-and-keep guide to hip-hop trends focuses on those that have stood out most, those that have never gone away, and those that continue, from time to time, to make comebacks. Will Chance The Rapper's dungaree overalls and Post Malone's blend of facial tattoos and moustache stand the test of time like these have?
The b-boy years
The first hip-hop uniform was worn by rappers, DJs, breakdancers and graffiti artists alike. The early '80s b-boy look, which emerged on the east coast, comprised of Kangol bucket hats, chunky street-tuff gold chains and name-plate necklaces, shell-toe trainers with 'phat' laces, and black (sometimes leather) tracksuit tops.
Sportswear companies such as Le Coq Sportif, Adidas and a couple of other now-defunct brands ruled the streets. Run-D.M.C. probably wore it best, but The Fat Boys, Ultramagnetic MCs, Schoolly D, LL Cool J, Big Daddy Kane and many, many more also rocked the look.
The B-Boy years
© John Smisson
The black pride years
After a few twists and turns that took in an early gangster rap style inspired by Latin American gang culture and the preppy flower-power look of De La Soul, hip-hop fashion became entwined with a growing interest in black pride and socially conscious hip-hop.
Towards the end of the '80s hip-hop acts such as Public Enemy, Eric B And Rakim, Brand Nubian, Main Source, Queen Latifah, KRS-One, Salt-N-Pepa and more began celebrating their African heritage, as well as revisiting black nationalist movements such as the Black Panthers. Paramilitary fatigues mixed with the black nationalist colours of yellow, red, black and green, and even the jewellery took on meaning, with Salt-N-Pepa's gold door-knocker earrings connected to Africanism.
Black pride
© John Smisson
The ghetto fabulous years
Next came hip-hop's most ostentatious trend, which outstrips even the Courvoisier-guzzling bling period of the early '00s for flashiness. In a style that suggested extreme wealth, in the mid-'90s hip-hop's biggest stars started wearing increasingly extravagant attire.
Sean Combs (aka Puff Daddy, aka Puffy, aka P Diddy, aka Diddy, aka Love) turned the trend into something straight-up slick and called it ghetto fabulous, but he, Snoop Dogg, Notorious B.I.G. and 2-Pac began by mimicking the old-school gangster look of Al Capone and the prohibition era's most notorious. That means fedoras and bowler hats, double-breasted suits and alligator-skin shoes. Snappy.
Ghetto fabulous
© John Smisson
The baggy years
After the concepts and show-off years, hip-hop fashion simplified in the mid-to-late '90s. Out went suits and uniforms and in came low-slung baggy jeans, snapbacks, work boots, puffer jackets, Tommy Hilfiger threads and – a hip-hop perennial – sportswear.
The Wu-Tang Clan rocked this look, as did Gang Starr, Missy Elliot and others. Later on, Dirty South rappers such as Nelly and Ludacris would add do-rags and basketball tops, while female rappers Lil' Kim and Foxy Brown eschewed the baggy style altogether.
The baggy years
© John Smisson
The tattooed years
In the early 2000s, hip-hop fashion was all over the place. Kanye's preppy, collegiate style stood out to begin with, but it was only in the later years of the decade that hip-hop got its first uniform look of the 21st century and it mostly involved tattoos. Not just one. Soulja Boy, Wiz Khalifa, Lil Wayne, Tyga, Gucci Mane, Chief Keef, Lil Uzi Vert, Post Malone and more are covered in them. Gucci Mane's ice-cream cheek tattoo and Lil Wayne's eyelid and teardrop tattoos are the most famous.
With the ink taking centre stage, the threads are kept simple: baseball caps, trainers, piercings, hoodies, leather jackets, vests, big trousers. Health goth and (surreal) high fashion are changing the hip-hop look once again, which probably means that Chance The Rapper's dungaree overalls won't take off after all.
Tattoos
© John Smisson
