abandonment of urban brands and the long lasting influence of luxury brands within Hip Hop culture, one can see that these outcomes are due to a sense of powerlessness that has been rooted within Hip Hop culture. This is important because as Hip Hop consumers abandoned their culture in search of status, they fell into an admiration of a white culture, disvaluing their own culture, which is what Hip Hop is meant to counteract. In today’s Hip Hop culture, luxury brands have a great amount of influence. Artists have emerged themselves in an adoration for these brands. In a study, it was found that “the rap genre had the highest [amount of] product mention with 65.44% of raps songs possessing mention” (S. Baksh-Mohammed and C. Callison 28).
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Artists wearing and rapping about luxury brands are showing of a level of success that they have managed to reach. Sociologist, Georg Simmel, argues that fashion serves as a method of serves to separate class, claiming that: “fashion on the one hand signifies union with those in the same class, the uniformity of a circle characterized by it, and, uno actu, the exclusion of all the other groups” (544). Fashion provides a way to distinguish social classes. In the case of Hip Hop, luxury brands are used to distinguish the new class that rappers have arrived at. Luxury brands serve as a physical differentiator. When A$AP Rocky claimed he wanted individuality in fashion, turning to luxury brands to find it, we can see that this sense of individuality can be looked at as a need of separation, separation of class through brands. This sense of separation is further articulated through the lyrics of these rappers. By wearing and saying brands like Versace or Gucci, rappers make it apparent, through clothing, that they have perpetrated an elite social …show more content…
By abandoning brands that celebrated Hip Hop culture, these artists also abandoned part of their culture. Urban brands catered to Hip Hop and allowed it to influence the greater world on their own terms. In an interview, Jay-Z revealed opinions on his luxurious lifestyle. When asked about his lifestyle choices like chartering a private plan, Jay-Z responded with: “I call it the Browning of America. There has to be more equal playing ' field. And we 're starting to see some changes. What myself, Puffy, Will Smith and Denzel are doing, it 's all new territory for [African Americans]” (Kitwana). While Jay-Z is correct about an uneven playing field in America, using luxury brands are counterproductive to the ‘browning of America.’ Jay-Z, who has a song titled after Tom Ford on his latest album, is apart of a movement that left behind urban brands. What is ironic about Jay-Z’s case, when looking at urban brands, is that he owns his own urban brand, Rocawear. By leaving behind urban brands and putting more emphasis on luxury brands, brown culture is also left behind. Brown culture is disregarded and made less valuable when artists leave behind urban brands for luxury brands. Buying luxury brands is buying into historically white culture, a culture that has regularly disregarded brown
Artists wearing and rapping about luxury brands are showing of a level of success that they have managed to reach. Sociologist, Georg Simmel, argues that fashion serves as a method of serves to separate class, claiming that: “fashion on the one hand signifies union with those in the same class, the uniformity of a circle characterized by it, and, uno actu, the exclusion of all the other groups” (544). Fashion provides a way to distinguish social classes. In the case of Hip Hop, luxury brands are used to distinguish the new class that rappers have arrived at. Luxury brands serve as a physical differentiator. When A$AP Rocky claimed he wanted individuality in fashion, turning to luxury brands to find it, we can see that this sense of individuality can be looked at as a need of separation, separation of class through brands. This sense of separation is further articulated through the lyrics of these rappers. By wearing and saying brands like Versace or Gucci, rappers make it apparent, through clothing, that they have perpetrated an elite social …show more content…
By abandoning brands that celebrated Hip Hop culture, these artists also abandoned part of their culture. Urban brands catered to Hip Hop and allowed it to influence the greater world on their own terms. In an interview, Jay-Z revealed opinions on his luxurious lifestyle. When asked about his lifestyle choices like chartering a private plan, Jay-Z responded with: “I call it the Browning of America. There has to be more equal playing ' field. And we 're starting to see some changes. What myself, Puffy, Will Smith and Denzel are doing, it 's all new territory for [African Americans]” (Kitwana). While Jay-Z is correct about an uneven playing field in America, using luxury brands are counterproductive to the ‘browning of America.’ Jay-Z, who has a song titled after Tom Ford on his latest album, is apart of a movement that left behind urban brands. What is ironic about Jay-Z’s case, when looking at urban brands, is that he owns his own urban brand, Rocawear. By leaving behind urban brands and putting more emphasis on luxury brands, brown culture is also left behind. Brown culture is disregarded and made less valuable when artists leave behind urban brands for luxury brands. Buying luxury brands is buying into historically white culture, a culture that has regularly disregarded brown