Hip Hop Cluture

[NottiCorp]

Hey their everyone...I was talkin to my roomate a couple of days ago and we had a discussion about why the hip hop clothing industry is becoming so popular during the 21st century among suburban kids ....now why do you guys think this is happening, and how can we (as entrepreneur's) capitalize off of the trend/ new movement

Notti

[ackerman7]

It all depends on what you are trying to accomplish. Are you looking to start a business?

[henderson]

he is looking to capitalize off of the trend

[artdrops]

Keep your ear to the street and immerse yourself with the culture and hip hop styles. The nature of this trend requires you to know what will be hot and what's not. I design urban tees but I always check to see what the latest breakthrough trend is mostly by asking the young urbanites sporting the gear.
Take surveys if you have to because their is definitely room for growth to capitalize off of in this industry.
They wear it because it's cool just like the stop snitchin tees. Yes it send a bad message but it caught on as a trend. The same thing can happen with any new freash idea, just relate to the urbanites and the suburbanites will follow.

[MsNadi]

So sad - you have NO idea what you're talking about.

Snop Snitching didn't catch on as a trend and it started on the west coast with the Bloods - as a way to threaten other bloods to avoid cooperation with the police after the LAPD launched a countywide effort to reduce gang violence in the area that INVOLVED cooperating with known and existing gang members.

Hip hop as an industry requires a little more creativity and an understanding of the industry itself. Yes, it's an industry that's "grounded" to the communities and the neighborhoods that most of these folks come from. BUT its also HUGELY dictated by office politics and record labels. The question is how do you balance that.

If you're going the apparel root - my take would be to really get your apparel down, decide who the target audience, WITHIN hip hop would be and then start sending it to these people, free of charge. Case in point - throwback jerseys. These were sent to Nelly for his "Air Force Ones" video ($400 jerseys FOR FREE) and look what happened.

Right now, hip hop is rooted in the idea that "you don't know nothing about this ______" in other words, they're playing a game of exclusivity with EACH other. You've got to tap into that if you're looking to go the apparel root.

[letsbeef]

I am currently in the hip hop market and am finding that it is clearly a growing market. It is a hard market to capalize on as many of them are trendsetters and you must keep up with what is going on in the urban market.
Check out www.letsbeef.com and www.rocbattle.com to see how I have targetted this market effectively.

[artdrops]

[QUOTE=MsNadi]So sad - you have NO idea what you're talking about.

Snop Snitching didn't catch on as a trend and it started on the west coast with the Bloods - as a way to threaten other bloods to avoid cooperation with the police after the LAPD launched a countywide effort to reduce gang violence in the area that INVOLVED cooperating with known and existing gang members.[QUOTE]

You are so wrong. It started with an apparel store owner. Not with a gang. The store owner was interviewed on television. He himself stated that he did not think it would catch on like it did. The shirt dealt with a known topic of neighborhood residents snitching on local dealers, gang bangers and such and was their way warning those who snitched that there would be backlash if they snitched on them or anyone they knew. But let's get one thing straight, I do not condone the wearing or distribution of the shirts or any message alike.
But you really need to know the true story.

Oh, and by the way when something like that travels from one side of the country to the other that is definately a trend. Not a good trend, but no less a trend amongst the like of them.

[MsNadi]

LOL...and the news is always an accurate portrayal of hip hop music and culture?

Right. Ok.

What color are the "stop snitchin" shirts? And what color is the writing?

[artdrops]

LOL...and the news is always an accurate portrayal of hip hop music and culture?

Right. Ok.

What color are the "stop snitchin" shirts? And what color is the writing?

What color is a stop sign and what color are the letters. I was researching and this was started on the EAST coast. Do some research and then we can talk.

[artdrops]

The shirts also became a warning, a meaning to those among them. In other words the feds would knowingly release cons back into a communtity for the purpose of snitching on their cohearts and top dogs running the criminal activities in the specific neighborhoods.

[MsNadi]

I'm not going to argue with you because it's fruitless. Maybe BOTH of OUR sources are accurate and correct. Either way, we're proving the same point - that the hip hop industry, whether positive or negative, can be a lucrative business outlet. And like any LARGE scale industry, it's fickle (tastes change quickly and there really is little rhyme of reason as to why one idea is successful and another is not).

[artdrops]

I'm not going to argue with you because it's fruitless. Maybe BOTH of OUR sources are accurate and correct. Either way, we're proving the same point - that the hip hop industry, whether positive or negative, can be a lucrative business outlet. And like any LARGE scale industry, it's fickle (tastes change quickly and there really is little rhyme of reason as to why one idea is successful and another is not).

Yes, I certainly agree.

[NottiCorp]

My main question or concern for this topic was that why is the hip-hop clothing culture becoming so popular within the suburban kids, and it seems like everyone here answered it pretty well so thanks...second of all i am personally creating a clothing line for the surf/skate demographic mainly because i love to surf and i like to skate...now is their any advice that anyone here could give me on the surf/skate culture meaning do u guys think its in now? or worth my time? or anything of that nature.....thanks for everyone's help

[MsNadi]

My main question or concern for this topic was that why is the hip-hop clothing culture becoming so popular within the suburban kids, and it seems like everyone here answered it pretty well so thanks...second of all i am personally creating a clothing line for the surf/skate demographic mainly because i love to surf and i like to skate...now is their any advice that anyone here could give me on the surf/skate culture meaning do u guys think its in now? or worth my time? or anything of that nature.....thanks for everyone's help

Even within the surf skate realm you'll see a huge amount of crossover between the two. No one has accurately been able to explain why hip hop has been so successful amongst suburban kids, who by and large, can not relate to the "reality" (or so-called) of many hip hop artists. This held true a lot more in the 80's and 90's than it does today - considering more and more hip hop artists of today are suburban kids themselves (i.e. Ludacris, Lil John etc).

You'll also notice that while some brands stick, many have little lasting power within the community. Same witin the skate community. I've always wondered why some brands are still considered "cool" five years later, while others that were huge at one point become "delisted" so to speak.

[NottiCorp]

For example..........