Denzel Curry is one of the hottest names out of Florida’s constantly growing rap scene. The 23-year-old has had one of the biggest years of his career in 2018: He dropped his critically acclaimed third studio album TA13OO, the Miami Heat’s home player introductions are set to his track “Switch It Up,” and most recently he has been tapped by Foot Locker to appear in this month’s “Home and Away” campaign. As his rap career continues to evolve, his personal style does as well.
“I recently just got into shoes. When I was coming up, all I was rocking was dirty ass Vans. I didn’t have any other shoes to my name that I liked like that,” Curry says. “I’m sponsored by Nike and stuff. If shoes are brought to my attention, and I like them, I’m going to rock them for a long time.”
Rappers getting their own shoes has become common in today’s sneaker space with names like Kanye West and Travis Scott leading the charge as two of the most notable collaborators. “[Kanye and Travis] are giving us a piece of their vision, a piece of their world. That’s why I like what they’re doing,” Curry says. “It’s a different form of art.”
The “Clout Cobain” emcee has even imagined what it would look like if he was given the opportunity to collaborate on his own shoe. His design would harp on personal creativity and expression.
“It would just be a black shoe that you would be able to draw on. Whatever you feel on the inside, you would be able to put on the outside. That would grow into you creating your own style,” Curry says. “I was the type of kid that wrote all over my shoes. I ended up fucking up my shoes, but I was that type of kid.”
With Foot Locker’s “Home and Away” campaign, Curry was given the opportunity to represent his home city of Miami in a new way with sneakers. The collection celebrates three major cities: Miami, Atlanta, and Houston. Each city’s respective culture is highlighted on a different silhouette. Miami’s is a white-based Nike Air Max Plus/97 covered in colorful graphics reminiscent of the art seen around the streets of South Beach.
“Miami is known for its raw and raunchy shit, its beautiful beaches, its women, just a life of luxury, but also the hardcore lifestyle when you go across the bridge. You see the other side of the beach. It’s really known for being a melting pot of culture,” Curry says. “Our city has a lot of things. It isn’t just the beach. We have a lot of historic moments that don’t get captured.”
Each “Home” version from Foot Locker’s “Home and Away” collection with Nike is currently available at stores in each city and footlocker.com, with the “Away” portion scheduled to arrive on Dec. 22. Prices range from $100-$170. As for Curry’s next move, we will all just have to wait and see.
“I’m working on being a top notch super villain, not an angry one, I’m just plotting like a motherfucker," he says. "You’re going to see my plotting come to life when all these motherfuckers just start getting rich out of nowhere."
