Everywhere in the world, rap culture has evolved and expanded a lot. In old times, rappers were seen in a bad way, people would tend to be scared of them and fear the change of a new culture that would denounce the flaws of our society, our communities and that would sometimes be too much about some topics. Nowadays, rap music is the number one genre listened in France and rappers have almost as much influence as the leaders of our countries.
Rappers make a lot of money, are followed from all around the world and connecting with a piece of music or with a rapper that shares the same way of thinking than you has never been easier. Rap culture has literally conquered the world. But why is there such differences between rap in the US and rap in France, when talking about fashion and the acceptance of such a type of music? What’s the thing that makes it difficult to link fashion and rap here?
As a french woman and rap enthusiast, I wondered what people that really know either fashion or rap culture would have to say about that. Is it because rap music in France is worse than in the US? ‘To me, in quality, french rap is completely equal to US rap’, says Anis Rhali, a french journalist well known on TV and YouTube for his work around rap culture, basketball and street culture. ‘I don’t know many things about fashion but I’d say that here, it’s the same thing as cinema, the history of fashion in France is very old, so it’s like it’s protected, and not open to novelty, furthermore, the image of rap culture is very stereotyped’, he adds.
Is this why collaborations between the fashion world and french/european rappers is so hard to do? In the US, we have seen ASAP Rocky working for Dior or Snoop Dogg for Adidas, and I can assume that many more collaborations are on the way. Here, we can watch rappers such as Romeo Elvis or Caballero & JeanJass literally run after brands on social medias to get to have a paid collaboration. ‘I was offered huge collaborations by big luxury brands (nothing really shitty to be honest) but Lacoste is refusing to collaborate with me because I’m a rapper”, declared the Belgian rapper Romeo Elvis in 2018 on Twitter. The rapper was a known Lacoste lover, referring multiple times to the brand in his songs and putting crocodiles everywhere as an aesthetic in his video clips.
When it’s not fashion brands that are causing an issue for rappers, it’s the mentality of people in the country that becomes a problem. Indeed, while rap music is the first genre listened in France (thanks to millennials and Gen Z), other generations struggle to make room for this type of music. People stay very judgmental and don’t give it the place that it deserves in our culture. ‘All of the other generations gather their informations through TV and TV is the place where rap is depicted in a totally wrong way. I’m not surprised that people that don’t know about rap have issues trying to picture it as a good and inspiring thing’, said Anis Rhali. While some people keep a very narrow-minded state of mind on this topic, it’s no surprise that those same people would happen to run big luxury brands that would use street culture and rap culture as a marketing scheme and would appropriate street codes in their collections.
For people that think this way, the worst was yet to come. In the US, rappers such as Jaden Smith, Young Thug or ASAP Rocky started to wear skirts or dresses, and thankfully, the idea didn’t seem to cause issues in the country but was very much discussed in France. I approached the french Twitter account WrldRap, which is run by 5 guys and talks about all things rap, and asked for their opinion of the question of fluidity of genre in this quite traditional country that is France, and here is what they said: ‘It’s all about culture. In the US, rap culture is really appreciated for what it is whereas here rap culture is something that people don’t like to talk about, so here, the codes are and stay the same: you have to look street and remind of the blocks. Because of this, rappers are scared to evolve, they fear that it will be too disturbing. In the US, people don’t fear of doing their own thing. Back in the days, Kanye wore a dress and faced backlash when now, we’ve seen that he was just ahead of his time. Young Thug proved that he could wear a skirt and still be a “thug”. In the end, it’s just an issue of how people see things.’
If we see past those problems that make the connection between rap and fashion quite complicated, we can focus on other questions, such as: Is fashion the last thing that’s lacking in french rap now? Is the style of a rapper giving him more legitimacy? Is style allowing rappers to be more recognizable and to create their own universe/ identity? Are rappers that are launching their own brands doing it for their love of fashion or as a marketing strategy? And are brands starting to get into streetwear because they find it truly interesting or simply to follow younger generations and secure a market?
Firstly, we know a rapper because of his music, and then, yes, his style comes in the way and gives him a universe, an identity that makes him recognizable and his fans can identify to his world more easily. But be careful, your legitimacy might fly away if you say in your songs that you dress in luxury brands and that we discover that in fact, you’re buying clothes from charity shops ; ‘When you’re a public personality, you better stand up to what you say or do. The magic of rap music is that you can flirt with this definition by making some things bigger than what they are but you have to be careful’, adds Anis Rhali.
Concerning the fact that fashion might be the last thing lacking in french rap now, the answers stay the same for our two contributors, what’s lacking is for rap to be considered as the art that it is here.
What could be better than linking two arts? Fashion is an art, it’s undeniable. But rap is also an art. And if you love both, you might want to rethink your consumerist habits, because you could be getting two birds, one stone. Rappers such as 50 Cent, Kanye West, Pusha T, P-Diddy or Booba, Rohff and La Fouine for french enthusiats, are offering music, and clothes. However, are they doing it for a true love of fashion or is it just a marketing strategy? Yes, having some kind of merch is a way to get a regular income that will go directly in your own pocket, but with all the concerns that have emerged about the realness of celebrities and their work, we’ve seen singers come up with real brands, showing love for the fashion world and also a real work behind all of it. A vision is created and marketed.
But what about luxury brands that get into streetwear? Is it motivated by love or by opportunism? ‘A bit of both’, said WrldRap ; ‘They have this need to try new things because otherwise, fashion houses can face bankrupt if they don’t follow what people want. For some brands, they might just actually like the new rends and may be genuinely interested in them. But the thing is, you’ll always see the difference when a brand is making something by passion and when they are forced to do it.’
In the end, where is fashion in rap culture in France now? Will France ever reach the level of education around the rap world that they have in the United-States? As Anis Rhali said, ‘rap has been invented in the USA. So, at this point, if you make rap music it means that you will have American DNA in your music. But besides that, rap in itself is a big sponge that gets inspired by a ton of different things so when you outline rap inspirations, it’s just outlining that it is rap, because the concept of rap is that it can get inspired by everything.’ Is that why fashion tends to be more and more interested in street culture? Fashion is also inspired by everything, so why not by this? Fashion is also just a big sponge, waiting for the next inspiration, and has the ability to go through the storm of controversies to push on what they believe in.