First off, I'd like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas (Eve and actual Christmas!)
Secondly, let's get to the topic at hand, now this post is very exciting for me as it combines two of my favourite things and two very important topics on my blog. Fashion and music. These are two very important things in my life and I thought it was only fitting to incorporate them both in a post for you guys! I truly believe that in order to be a successful artist your style has to stand out. It comes 2nd to your music of course (unless you're Lady Gaga) but in this post I'm going to be discussing the correlation between fashion and music.
Now as you may know I have a love of music and I have varying music tastes but hip-hop is something I have loved since I was younger (give thanks to my dad for that one!) and I still love to this day.
Joey BadA$$
One of my favourite hip-hop artists is Joey BadA$$, a 20 year old from Brooklyn, New York, who started becoming more well known this year. He is part of the music collective "Pro Era" and has in a very short space of time made a name for himself. I have seen him live twice, once at the music festival Wireless and again when he was performing in Roundhouse in November.
Joey recently was on his World Domination Tour, which is how I was lucky enough to see him live in London, he also travelled to places such as Australia and China, but this tour had to be cut short due to exhaustion (making me feel extremely lucky to see him as when I did his performance was amazing.)
Another thing that stands out about Joey, other than his ability to tell a story through his music is his fashion sense. I believe that fashion is a true form of expression and I think that many artists work very hard to create an aesthetic that is synonymous with their music.
Joey has described his style as "SWANK" in an interview with Crack Magazine. Now to us this may have no meaning but to Joey it means "elegant and unique style. Street sense with a little added spizazz."
As strange as this sounds I can understand it. At Wireless, Joey sported a black Pro Era jacket that whilst may not be to everyone's tastes I can still see a few people, including myself, wearing.
The back was emblazoned with Brooklyn Badmon 12" on it
I apologise for the poor quality of this picture, but when Joey was walking across the field I had to get a quick snap with my phone. I hate to admit it but I was fan-girling quite a bit. But yes back to the jacket, it incorporates the Pro Era symbol quite subtlety, replacing the "Y" in Brooklyn .
Pro Era
What is Pro Era?
Pro Era is a hip-hop collective of young rappers from New York, including Joey, CJ Fly, Kirk Knight and Nyck Caution (there are many more but these are some of the most well known) the group also includes some members who do not actually perform but act as hype men, promoters, photographers and directors.
Pro Era as a Brand
Pro Era isn't only about music, they also have their own line of fashion merchandise which includes; pins, socks, hats, hoodies and bombers. Some of these things are not only Pro Era but area actually focused around Joey BadA$$ as he is one of Pro Era's well known artists.
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After the World Domination Tour came to an end two bomber jackets were put on the Pro Era website, the one shown above and it is also available in black.
This shows some serious entrepreneurial skills on the part of the Pro Era team, they have branched out from being a group of wannabe rappers from New York to having a brand, and they're all under 25, so you have to admire the determination from such a young group.
Tyler, The Creator & Odd Future
Another young rapper who has been able to really make a name for himself is Tyler Gregory Okonma, better known as Tyler, The Creator. A rapper from Ladera Heights, California, he is the leader of the hip-hop collective Odd Future.
Now let me say how this is one of my favourite collectives to date as members include Frank Ocean, and Syd Da Kid (founder of the neo soul group "The Internet" a band which I love.)
Tyler started off as just a rapper but has a lot of involvement with every part of Odd Future, he has on almost every a track for every album that is created by members of the collective, he has directed music videos and created the album artwork for all the groups releases.
Tyler is a perfect example of an innovative artist, he was given a small platform yet he has managed to make it a huge one, and has gained the attention of some of bigger artists, including Jay Z, Kanye West and Pharrell Williams - all of these men have collaborated with Tyler on his most recent album Cherry Bomb. He has even formed friendships with many famous celebs such as Justin Bieber, the Jenner sisters and Cara Deleveigne.
Tyler has really struck whilst the iron is hot, Tyler has joined up with Vans to create the Vans Syndicate x Tyler the Creator vans.
He has also opened up an Odd Future merchandise section on the Odd Future website, both of these things have helped Odd Future gain some notability, as they are not exactly considered mainstream artists as they are an alternative hip-hop group.
They are now known well enough to be able to make large profits on their merchandise, as well as their music and they have even been able to create a music festival based solely around them. This is called Camp Flognaw Carnival and musical guests from last year included; Pharrell, Diplo and Earl Sweatshirt. You can click on the link to have a look at the Carnival last year.
Both these collectives are amazing to me, everyone involved is so young, yet so ambitious and in an extremely short space of time have managed to create loyal followings, and have taken advantage of all the opportunities given to them.
If you are a fan of any of the artists in these collectives, who are you a fan of? Would you purchase any of the merchandise on their stores?
Ren.
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