Cindy * – *

What is hip-hop? Is it a musical genre, a kind of art form, or a culture where people live in? DJ Quick (1997) believed that “Hip-hop is a way of life” when he said “hip-hop to me is how we express ourselves. It’s what’s deep down inside of us.” DJ Run expressed the same idea in an interview in 1997, saying Hip-hop “has to do with the way people dress, different language that they use… different movement, different hairstyles. It’s definitely a culture.” With its African cultural roots and its persistent efforts in elevating African-centered consciousness, hip-hop has become a compilation of the Afrocentric attitudes, values, beliefs, and experiences that shape the African Americans’ lives (Walker, 2001). However, given its sub-cultural nature, Hip-hop is not confined within the African American community. As hip-hop culture evolved, it incorporated a large global community, embracing all races, regions, classes, and religions.

Being consisted of various elements, namely, DJing, rapping, graffiti, b-boy and b-girl, and MC, hip-hop culture comprises a lot of features.  “Hip-hop assembled energetic music, passionate graffiti artists, acrobatic dancers, and skilled wordsmiths in to a unified aesthetic, each in its own way representing a passion for life and a commitment to individual and collective expression” (Emmett, 2006: 41). Accordingly, passion, self-expressiveness, creativity, and innovativeness have significantly shaped the way hip-hop presents itself to the public, in the realm of not only its music but also fashion.

Hip hop fashion epitomizes and upholds the features of hip hop culture by being deviant, out of mainstream, and well-recognizable. Viewing from Fleetwood’s perspective, the “subcultural authenticity” (p. 327) could not be overlooked, such an authenticity “imbues the subject with a mythic sense of virility, danger, and physicality” (p. 327). Yet hip-hop fashion is not composed of one style, rather it is an “essence of mixing” (Fleetwood, 2005: 327). Baggy clothes, sneakers, sheepskin and leather bomber jackets, brightly colored tracksuits, name belts, multiple rings, and heavy gold jewellery are among the most representative items. In their Flava in Ya Gear: Transgressive Politics and the Influence of Hip-Hop on Comtemporary Fashion, Chandler and Chandler-Smith noted that the crucial part of hip-hop fashion is its customization, which is to make the individual costume unique and identifiable. When the old style which was originated from the poor identity gradually lost its regime, the burgeoning trend began to take control; “recent hip-hop promotes high-end acquisition: the most expensive sneaker, twenty-four-karat jewelry, vintage clothes from previous fashion eras, and hair adornment” (Chandler & Chandler-Smith, 2005: 232).