It used to bother A$AP Nast every time he walked outside and saw a million people dressed like him. Now, the Harlem native is used to it and understands that when you have something good, people are going to follow that.
In a recent interview with XXL, Nast explains how his crew's fashion sense in hip-hop is unprecedented and how he believes they were born to do this. He also talks about being inspired by Tupac and wearing Karl Kani and Tommy Hilfiger back in the day. With A$AP Mob's debut album L.O.R.D. on the way, both Nast and his squad can expect a whole bunch of more copycats. Check out more excerpts from the interview below.
On rapping being his first choice: "Rapping was more of a hobby for me back in the day. I look at myself more in the fashion tip than the rapping tip, but at the same time rapping is what put me out there and it’s what people appreciate from me more, so I gotta do more of that right now."
On the throwback jerseys and vintage gear from his 1990s inspired “Trillmatic” video:
"At this store in the city called Mr. Throwback. I went there the day before we shot the video and met Mike who runs the store—real cool guy—and I asked him if I could borrow wild shit for the video. He agreed, and the next morning I picked up a whole bunch of shit and you know we swagged it out real ’90s shit. I really wanted to take people back to that era from the song to the clothing with the visual."
On clothing brands he wore back in the day:
"Definitely Nike. I wore a lot of Karl Kani, Tommy Hilfiger, Nautica and Polo of course."
On rappers who influenced his style:
"Definitely Pac. I always got along with Pac’s swag."
On starting his own clothing line in the future:
"I don’t know about a clothing line, maybe some collabs, but you can definitely expect some pieces from me in the near future."
On A$AP Mob's influence in hip-hop and people dressing up like A$AP Mob members:
"The proof is in the pudding. From the minute that we joined this industry we came through with that swag. We didn’t give a fuck, we just had that attitude, but when you look at our transition into the industry it was a complete shift. Now you got rappers that are gang banging doing this and that and they wearing what we wearing, but back in the days it wasn’t cool to dress like us. We were in the hood and niggas was looking at us like we were gay, but how was it possible that we were gay? We were fucking the baddest bitches and we were on the scene a lot, so it couldn’t be that. We just didn’t give a fuck. Nobody in the rap scene and from the hood came out on some fashion shit like we did. We were born to do this. I walk outside every day and I see a million muthafuckas that look like A$AP niggas. I don’t hate it though. At one period we were trippin’ as to why niggas was biting our style, but we learned through the process of us doing what we do that when you have something good people are going to follow that. Now we just embrace it for what it is."
[via XXL]
