But why are all rappers obsessed with Gucci?
Each year it is the same catchphrase: when the classifications of the brands most referenced by rappers are published, Gucci is systematically arrogating or almost first place.
Better still, when last year Genius compiled ten years of texts to designer the most popular brand of the decade, Gucci came out on top with 12,282 mentions (!), Clearing on the post the Nike and Mercedes Benz jugns.
It is true that without even getting into the details of the figures, this result seems to fall under the meaning, as soon as the Italian house spontaneously spontaneously came to the quantity of rhymes to its glory.
It is future who boasts of having slept with the Go of another in Gucci tapping on Thought It was a dlock… It is 2chainz who solemnly claims to be buried in a Gucci store on Birthday Song… it's chiefKeef who lists the Gucci counterfeits in the top of the things he does not like on the remix of I Don't Like… It is Lil Pump who repeats frantically 54 times Gucci in two minutes and four seconds on Gucci Gang… C'Is Lil Nas X who parades in Cowboy Gucci hat on Old Town Road ... It was the migos who have completely recorded a piece entitled the mug ...
The list is endless.
A scent of aristocracy, a zest of eccentricity
Obviously such an omnipresence is partly explained by the way in which the name sounds in the ear (two very short and very musical syllables) and the ease with which it is possible to place it in a verse - where to quote Yves Saint LaurentOr Louis Vuitton is already more technical.
However, this is not the only reason, or even the main reason.
The unconditional love that rappers have in Gucci is indeed due to the very identity of the brand.Or to put it more precisely, in the double identity of the brand, as Gucci plays both the card of respectability and that of audacity, not to say ostentation, two variables to which rappers are extremely sensitive.
Small company created in the early 1920s in northern Italy, Gucci was a basis specializing in leather goods intended for extremely easy customers.It was then necessary to wait until 1953 that its first shop opened its doors on American soil, before in the 60s and 70s attacked the image of the general public.On the one hand, on the one hand, the advent of the famous GG logo, and on the other, the diversification of its offer: products all positioned on the premium niche (watches, scarves, travel accessories, car dressing, etc.).
[Yes, there was a time when the luxury industry did not generate the vast majority of its turnover by refurging the vulgar merch ...]
This is how hip hop begins to grow in the second part of the 80s, rappers naturally set their sights on Gucci, both for his side "ancestor to the king" and for his immediately recognizable side.
To be displayed in red and green, it is in the same way as wearing jewelry or driving a big car, signifying its material success in the eyes of others.
And then Dapper Dan arrived.
Born Daniel Day, he opened the Dan's Boutique in 1982 in 1982 in 1982, a new kind of clothing store he personalized with streetwear pieces with the monograms of the most prestigious luxury brands - Versace, Vuitton, Chanel, Fendi, and of course Gucci, the most requested of all.
"It was enough for me to have the fabric.From there, I could do what I wanted, "he explained in 2015 in the Documentary Fresh Dressed."I kicked everything that designers did not have.I made it more black.At the time, everything I wanted was to serve my community.I never imagined the impact of my creations.»»
This new offer quickly attracts a very "new money" new clientele made up of rappers (Big Daddy Kane, Krs-One ...), athletes (Mike Tyson, the basketball player Walter Berry ...) and, Crack epidemic requires, dealers (Alpo Martinez, Azie Faison…).
Thread by needle, some of its Gucci signal parts are found in the spotlight like the red tracksuit of LL Cool J above, or the sets carried by Eric B and Rakim in 1988 on the famous pocket of thePaid in full album below.
Cow love
Despite this sincere craze, at Gucci we pretend that all this did not exist.
No recognition, no deal, no partnership, for many years the world of luxury snobbies as best he can, not to say mistake, the world of rap.
This status quo will last three long decades.
While in the early 2000s, the lines were timidly starting to move (see Kanye West or A $ AP Rocky who is now seen in public with creators), it was not until 2017 that the click occurs.
In May 2017, during the parade of the 2018 collection, Alessandro Michele, the creative director of Gucci, presents a fur coat with disproportionate sleeve volume which is reminiscent of a similar model created by Dapper Dan in 1989 for the sprinters DianaDixon.
Judge rather:
Immediately accused of plagiarism on the networks and in the press, before the outcry aroused, Gucci then operates a 180 ° turn.
The following year, the brand joined forces with Dan to inaugurate Dapper Dan of Harlem, its new luxury store in Harlem, then collaborates with it in the process on the A/W17 collection which resumed the formula that made its reputation.
This esteem success is not enough to reset the meters to zero.
Invited this same year in the Queen Radio Minaj show on Apple Music, Swae Lee did not hide his bitterness as for Gucci's ingratitude, summarizing the general feeling of the environment.
“I have been guccci for three years.I may have spent more than $ 200,000 at home.All the rappers I know have done the same.Well, they don't show us any signs of love.We participate in boosting their value, but they don't even send us a pair of socks.Nothing, not even a reduction.»»
Suddenly when in early 2019 Gucci markets a turtleneck for women with the false airs of "Black Face", some rappers like T.I. or Soulja Boy take very bad things.
[Or pretend to take the thing very badly to stage yourself, it is according to.]
If it is frankly very unlikely that Gucci sawing himself knowingly to spawn with this kind of taboo, the fact remains that the brand ends up "apologizing profoundly", before there again, take a step towards theurban culture.
Like a kind of evidence, Gucci then recruits in its ranks ... Gucci Mane!
Revenue from his excesses of conduct and his differences with the law, not content with becoming the first rapper in history signed by Gucci, friend Radric Delantic Davis finds himself at the center of his new promotion campaign.
Admittedly, even if the one concedes, "it is not as if Gucci needed him", and even if the opportunism of the approach is obvious, the event is size.
Who knows, the obsession of rappers for Gucci is perhaps only in his early days?
