Fabolous' 10 Favorite Air Jordans

Image via Complex Original

Fabolous says: "The Playoff XIIIs — this wasn't the first time, but it was one of the times Jordan made a color just for the playoffs, which was... Jordan-like. It was just something he would do to continue the brand and stand away from everybody else — I don't think anybody else was doing that at that time. You know, it was kind of like another revolutionary thing he did for the sneaker. When playoff time came, he would come with a different color just to symbolize that it was playoff time. I always kind of liked black shoes period, and him taking the XIIIs and making them all black and white is why I instantly became a fan of that shoe."

Fabolous says: "The Charcoal IXs, I wasn't crazy about the IXs, but of course I've had a few pairs of them, and the charcoal color was just one of my favorite colors. The color scheme of Jordans of course has always been black and red, or white, black and red; this one was black and red but they added the charcoal grey to it, and I think it just made a fine touch. I remember I got those when they first came out. Even though the OGs of those I guess have no change from what these are now, but I remember getting those original, and when I got 'em I was just like, 'man, these are just smooth, these are slick,' it was dark, it still had that touch of red, that red was so bright on it, it was like a dark shoe with like an infrared light on it. It was just a dope shoe too, to me."

Fabolous says: "The 1s are a little before time for me getting him, but what drew my appeal to it was how ill this guy Michael Jordan was that they banned his shoe. That made me look at him in a whole new light — and it was the first Jordan, so... And that also shows how much he was changing the game, too, because the NBA, they weren't ready for what he was bringin' in this shoe and bringin' together. He was ahead of the game kind of, just coming with new stuff they weren't even ready for."

Fabolous says: "Concords — now these were a pair that I ended up getting the first time they came out and I just remember the patent leather aspect — up to that point I hadn't seen...and I remember at first everybody was kind back-and-forth about the patent leather, certain people were saying Jordan was going too far, the design it was going a little too far. But I was one of the people — I was already brainwashed by Jordan at this time, so anything coming out was a need-to-get anyway, so I made sure that I got those Concords. One thing that I remember about getting those — it's crazy to me in these times now, where, I'm sorry to say unfortunately someone even died over Concords, but I remember getting them that first time and it wasn't a big deal, it wasn't hard to get at all. It wasn't a line — I just walked into a sneaker store in downtown Brooklyn, and just bought 'em, walked off, and thought nothin' of it."

Fabolous says: "The Aqua VIIIs, I believe I just fell in love with this for the color scheme and the two straps — it was just another new thing that they had. It was just another revolutionary shoe with stuff you'd never seen before on a shoe. The colors, it was different colors as well. I had never seen that purple color, and aqua, all around it was put together and made as a dope shoe."

Fabolous says: "I was a big fan of the Dream Team when that first originated, and I remember all the guys getting their own shoes done in Olympic colors, Jordan was in the VIIs at the time, and it was just a dope sneaker all around. I was already a fan of the VII — of course the Olympic color meant a whole lot, and then they had the number 9 on the back, from his Olympic jersey."

Fabolous says: "Some of my shoes, of course this one again is sparked by 'Do The Right Thing' — if you wear something, it's the same thing now where if an artist wears something it kind of skyrockets sometimes, me seeing Jordans in a movie, that was like the illest thing in the world. It was like a pair of shoes that I liked, that I wore — but it was universal. It showed that Jordans were so big that that shoe became a fixture in a movie! That shoe got almost a commercial in 'Do The Right Thing,' because the guy stepped on his shoe and even his attitude, how mad he was that the white guy stepped on his brand-new Air Jordans, it represented how we felt about sneakers and everything. That shoe alone was dope to me — I remember the commercials with Spike Lee, Mars Blackmon commercials. That was another thing that he sparked with shoes was dope commercials, Nike wasn't doing those type of commercials for somebody with such demand in the shoe game, and hope popular he was, and just how creative the shoe commercials was too, on top of that. A mix of those things had me in love with that Jordan IV."

Fabolous says: "The black and red VIs are in my top three — just for how sleek and clean it looks, that suede — the suede that was used on those shoes. I've had many suede shoes but there's something about the VIs, the smoothness of that suede, it just stands above any suede I've seen before. It was always just one of my favorite shoes for how dark and how strong the shoe looked — it almost symbolized strength or something like that in a sneaker."

Fabolous says: "I always thought the V shoe was dope — the grape, it was a colorway I'd never seen on a shoe before when I first saw them. Ironically I remember a lot of drug dealers around my way had them. And then I watched 'The Fresh Prince of Bel Air' and he had them on in the intro, and that kind of sold it. And they have always been nicknamed that to me as well, the Grapes aka the 'Fresh Prince Js,' that's always been my little nickname for them."

Fabolous says: "I wanna say the black/cement III was always a dope shoe to me because it was one of the first shoes that I saw Jordan wear in a game that were, like — not the hightops. That was almost revolutionary in basketball shoes, to have a mid-, lowcut kind of sneaker? I remember seeing that when I was young and and just always thought that was ill — it was such a basketball tradition that you wear hightop sneakers to play in, and Jordan just went completely against that and made this cool shoe. And I think that was the first time I saw that elephant print on a shoe — I was hooked on the shoe ever since then."