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Thug Slaughter Force - No Tight Clothes
This morning, I was checking out The Village Voice - apparently the only real source for hard hitting hip hop journalism these days - when I saw an article on a Brooklyn-based rap crew that seem to have taken Jeru the Damaja's denim-hating worldview and updated it for 2008. Mixing New York swagger with Snap music beats and an extra helping of homophobia, the "Thug Slaughter Force" released the above video, along with a line of t-shirts that are a sort of haute couture adaptation of the Stop Snitching logo, to promote their campaign against tight clothing. From the Village Voice article, TSF member Blanco the Don explains the "No Tight Clothing" movement:
"It basically boils down to: You are in a homosexual attire, and you are claiming to be something else. That's what I have a problem with - not the homosexualism. You're a front artist, and you're promoting homosexuality with your actions and dress code, but you're promoting gangster lifestyle with your lyrics. The two don't match up."
(Clearly Mr. Blanco has never heard of Omar Little.)
With lines like, "Even on the beach keep the Timbs on my feet / I don't wear no slippers unless I'm in the shower, cell 59 H block 4th Tower," there's certainly a whiff of CB4-style parody to the whole thing. After checking out the group's website, with its intro page consisting mainly of an image of two prop guns and a few wrapped candies masquerading as some sort of packaged drug, it's more likely that this is, in fact, a case of When Keeping It Real Goes Wrong. Either way, I couldn't help but be amused by how far over the top they went.
I'm not sure if this is more of a reaction to Jim Jones' fashion sensibilities or to the influence of the hipster dress code on rappers like Kanye West, but after watching the video I'm left with a few questions. Is it more of a hip hop fashion faux pas to rock tight pants than for a 150 pound man to wear a 6XL white tee that looks like his girlfriend's blouse? Do real gangsters sell t-shirts with slogans on them? And for that matter, do real gangsters take time out to critique the clothing of other men? I'll stick with my XXL Polo and my 38 jeans, circa '93, just to be on the safe side.
6/26/2007 08:10:01 PM posted by Fresh