Fashion killa: why are rappers at war with their stylists?
From Kanye to A$AP Rocky, the hip-hop world is turning its back on clothing advisers – but some believe it’s just a front
Rap beefs are nothing new, but the past few years have seen hip-hop stars apparently align on a new common enemy: their own stylists. In verse after verse, rappers are claiming that they no longer make use of professional clothes-pickers, implying that they are more than capable of going to the shops without special assistance.
The most notable entry in the anti-stylist movement is French Montana and Drake’s No Stylist, in which the pair claim that they have such sartorial wherewithal that they can wear “new Chanel, Saint Laurent, Gucci bag” without any need from outside advisers. The song, released in September last year, went platinum on the Billboard charts and has been streamed almost 150m times on YouTube.