Sacha Jenkins is a journalist I have heard of. I have two books that he
co-wrote, in fact: one about hip hop; the other about racism. Both are
hilarious. But there's more to Jenkins that cheap laughs, a mainstay of hip hop
journalism in the Nineties, he is a man that can speak with authority about hip
hop: old school, new school, true school, take you to school.
So, apparently there hasn't been a documentary made about hip hop
fashion. Well, there has now. Attire has always been an important part of hip
hop, from the olden days of early B' boys, to the designer brand-obsessed raps of
the Nineties, to idiotically-dressed pop figures, such as Kanye West and
Pharrell Williams. And this is where the film starts.
To start, I was confused. The opening credits, featured embedded
interviews with West, Williams and Sean 'Puffy' Combs, of whatever he goes by
these days. My expectations from the title and promotional literature I had
perused suggested that this would largely be a film about the 'fresh' Eighties,
with a 'where'd you get those?' outlook. Instead, I was seeing modern-day megastars
discussing their definitions of 'fresh.'
But then things arrive where I was expecting them to be. Starting off
with the days of slavery Jenkins does a quick tour of American history, most
specifically African-American history, starting with the ideas of 'Sunday best',
moving through various musical ages, before approaching the Seventies and the
advent of hip hop, and more importantly, its style borne of gang culture. He
then moves to the Eighties, and Dapper Dan's 'improved' Louis Vuitton styles that
features heavily on many a classic rap album cover.
But then, as with hip hop, we go mainstream as we enter the Nineties,
focusing on brands like Cross Colours and Karl Kani, as designers matched their
styles to rappers, ensuring that every item they wore heavily featured their
brand - something that rappers were only too happy to oblige with.
But things have moved very quickly here, and the vast majority of the
film is interviews with designers, and the hip hop figures that have
crossed-over into fashion. Business takes over, with discussions about how best
to market your brand / oneself. Sean Combs becomes a central figure of the
documentary, discussing his cross-over success, now more an entrepreneur than
rapper.
This focus disappoints for me. I was much more expecting an exploration
of kids' homemade styles, customising their gear to ensure they are fresher
than fresh. Instead, this is more an exploration of a small section of the fashion
industry, with lots of interviews with middle-aged business executives. It
seems that, with the help of Executive Producer Nas, Jenkins makes the most of
the interviews he got with some A-list names.
But this is Sacha Jenkins we're talking about here, and so all this
business talk is put into a context. Combs, with Sean John, has been a success
in 'hip hop fashion', but it seems a lot of his success is due to dropping the
hip hop associations. With its Nineties peak, hip hop dominated fashion, with
rappers in ads everywhere and big name designers following rappers. Rappers, in
turn, set up their own brands, most of which lived short lives. The major
labels will always be there, but their association with hip hop was a temporary
fad, with more conventional styles the new order of the day.
What
starts as innocent Eighties 'freshness' moves to Nineties 'ghetto fabulous' to
big money making. The times have changed, and with kids customising their gang
colours, owning one's rivals clothes was a sign of conquering their turf. But now,
kids get killed over coats of brands they can barely pronounce. Just like hip
hop, creative innocence has been lost to the quest for money, making this a hip
hop story through-and-through. Though maybe a little more of the old would have
made this a little more fresh.
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