Hip-Hop, Resistance, and Fashion: Sneakers As a Symbol of Cultural Resistance

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In the 21st century, Rap music and Hip-Hop culture are big business, and many top artists have multimillion-dollar endorsement deals with fashion labels, electronics manufacturers, and alcoholic beverages. In fact, many artists have started their own fashion lines and launched their own personal brands across a range of different industries. This was not always the case, however; Hip-Hop culture and the Rap music that exemplifies it began as an outsider subculture that gave a voice to marginalized ethnic and socioeconomic minorities.

Hip-Hop clothing fashion is a youth trend emerging in places where African-American youth generally live, such as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, and Detroit. Hip-Hop fashion has an important place in fashion history. 1970-1980 Hip-Hop is fashion in America with bright colored tracksuits, dark colored leather bomber jackets, sheepskin coats, athletic warm-up, hooded sweatshirts, sneakers, a comfortable , oversized and booth style of clothing.

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In the article “Popular Culture as Oppositional Culture: Rap as Resistance,” author Theresa Martinez argues that Rap music first arose as “music with a message of resistance, empowerment, and social critique” (197, p.265). Fashion has always been a central component of Hip-Hop culture, long before it was setting popular trends for the masses, Rap artists made fashion statements with the clothes, shoes, jewelry, and hats they wore. Among the most popular items for Rappers was, and still is, sneakers.

That has become a billion-dollar industry that affects almost every aspect of society. In terms of urban impact, sneakers have become the ultimate status symbol, especially because of the Adidas brand. They were the perfect shoes for B-boys due to their comfort and variety. It became even more popular brand by run DMC in 1986. From Run DMC’s song “My Adidas” all the way to the present day where big-name artists have their own shoe lines, sneakers have been the footwear of choice for a subculture of resistance like the early Hip-Hop movement.

A thorough history of Hop-Hop and Rap is beyond the scope of this discussion, though there are some key elements of that history that can help illustrate how it began and how sneakers quickly became important fashion accessories in this subculture of resistance. While historians may disagree on some of the details, the broad outline of Hip-Hop history starts in the Bronx, Queens, and other parts of the outer boroughs of New York City in the mid-1970s (Tanner, Asbridge and Wortley 2009). Early DJs like Kool DJ Herc and DJ Grandmaster Flash became known for their abilities to mix songs together on the turntables, creating long stretches of uninterrupted music that would keep people dancing for hours (Tanner, Asbridge and Wortley 2009). These DJs often led block parties and other outdoor events in the inner cities, and the culture that grew up around their music was something new and unique and quite different from the popular culture of mainstream American at the time.

Martinez (1997) described the rise of Hip-Hop as the rise of an oppositional culture that was knowingly and purposely different from the mainstream culture. The inner city poverty and socioeconomic segregation of the 1970s created institutional and structural impediments for many black people, while at the same time punishing them for not being part of the mainstream culture that rejected them (Tanner, Asbridge and Wortley 2009).

In a sense, the oppositional culture of Hip-Hop was an act of defiance, a resistance movement that embraced and celebrated the very people who were marginalized by mainstream culture. Hip-Hop culture and rap music were art forms that openly defied the idea that the white majority had a monopoly on popular culture; rather than fight to be a part of a culture that rejected them, Hip-Hop artists and rappers carved out their own unique culture (Tanner, Asbridge and Wortley 2009).

There were a number of fashion choices in the early years of Hip-Hop culture that helped make it identifiable, including track suits, Kangol hats, and oversized gold chains. But no fashion choice was more ubiquitous than a pair of white sneakers. Different rappers had different favorite brands; while Run DMC celebrated Adidas, other rappers wore brands such as Puma and Nike. For inner city kids, having a fresh, clean new pair of sneakers was a fashion statement and a status symbol (Rivas 2019). The wearers may not have had a fancy house or a new car, but sneakers were an outward sign that the owner could afford a pair of cool shoes (Moss 2015). Rappers wore their favorite brands on their record covers, and their fans showed their loyalty and signaled their inclusion in the subculture by wearing the same shoes. Sneakers also had a reputation as “felon shoes,” as they were good for sneaking around and running away from trouble (Chrisman-Campbell 2016). Wearing sneakers was also an outward act of defiance and signaled membership in a subculture that embraced its outsider status. If society was going to tell these young inner-city kids that they were perceived as criminals, then those same inner city kids were going to thumb their noses at society through their fashion choices.

In 2019 the classic running shoes of the 1980s no longer have the same cultural implications, and Hip-Hop is no longer a resistance subculture the way it once was. Like many other subcultures, Hip-Hop began as an underground, out-of-the-mainstream movement that eventually grew so large that it became the mainstream culture. Sneakers are, of course, more popular than ever, but they have been so widely adopted that any implications they once had a fashion choice of a resistance subculture are long gone. For a time, however, in the early years of Hip-Hop, wearing sneakers was an outward sign that the wearer was part of an oppositional subculture that celebrated and embraced its outsider status.

References

  1. Chrisman-Campbell, Kimberly. 2016. ‘The Long Political History Of The Sneaker’. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/12/sneakers-have-always-been-political-shoes/511628/.
  2. Martinez, Theresa A. 1997. ‘Popular Culture As Oppositional Culture: Rap As Resistance’. Sociological Perspectives 40 (2): 265-286. doi:10.2307/1389525.
  3. Moss, Hillary. 2015. ‘A History Of Hip-Hop And Fashion’. Nytimes.Com. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/25/t-magazine/nas-fresh-dressed-style.html.
  4. Rivas, Luis. 2019. ‘Hip-Hop Is Resistance Against The Inequalities In Society’. The Sundial. https://sundial.csun.edu/79161/opinions/hip-hop-is-resistance-against-the-inequalities-in-society/.
  5. Tanner, J., M. Asbridge, and S. Wortley. 2009. ‘Listening To Rap: Cultures Of Crime, Cultures Of Resistance’. Social Forces 88 (2): 693-722. doi:10.1353/sof.0.0271.

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