Courtesy of VIBE.com
When Lil Wayne grabbed a crotch-full of cheetah print jeggings during his 2011 MTV VMA performance, slander ensued. A disparaging Jim Jones tweeted: “Real men don’t wear spandex,” the Twitter account @Waynes_Jeggings hatched and blogs mocked the Young Money captain’s “gay” jeans x leggings. Seven days later, when Tha Carter IVdebuted with 964,000 copies, it was Weezy and his tighties that had the last laugh. Chuckling right beside him are his gender-bending peers like Kanye West and Lil B, artists locked on dismantling hip-hop style norms in the name of artistic expression. But will they ever be allowed to play dress up in peace?
While their antics may not sway staunch traditionalists, seeing influential rappers abandoning the Timbs and triple-XL dress code is already opening minds—skinny’s the new baggy. Long before the best rapper alive was squeezing into lady pants, Pharrell was converting rap fans from drooping denims to Japanese hipster couturiers. Outkast’s eccentric half, Andre 3000 shamelessly flaunted wigs and high-waist gauchos, and Cee-Lo was man enough to pose in four wedding dresses in Gnarls Barkley’s Odd Couple promos. Yeezy upped the men-in-skirts count earlier this year, stunning fans every night of his and Jay-Z’s Watch The Throne tour by sporting a knee-length Givenchy kilt. Prior, the hip-haute clotheshorse closed last year’s Coachella Festival modeling an Italian women’s blouse. Both ensembles made blog headlines, but it was Kanye’s praised performance that made the lasting impression, proving that talent trumps a flowy shirt any day.