Famous 80s Rappers

The 1980s saw the rise of a new musical genre, hip hop music. Along with it came famous rappers who brought a once-obscure genre to the mainstream. These guys have influenced our style so let’s take the time to remember these influential innovators. Below is a list of some the most famous rappers of the 1980s.

Run DMC – this hip hop group is usually credited for taking the genre into the mainstream. The trio was formed in the early 80s in New York City. Since then, they have made a name for themselves by collaborating with other artists outside the hip hop genre. Probably the best example would be their collaboration with Aerosmith in the song ‘Walk This Way’.

Beastie Boys – originally formed as a punk group, the Beastie Boys have crossed over into the hip hop genre to become the first all-white rap group in the music’s history. Since its inception in 1979, the group continues to enjoy fame and success. A proof of it is its nomination into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007. Did you know back in the early 80s one of the members of the Beastie Boys had his own shop at our very same spot? From what our neighbors told us, 2422 Telegraph Ave has its hip hop history!

LL Cool J – is the first artist signed by Def Jam, which is a famous hip hop label. He was signed in 1984 at the young age of 16 and since then, he has risen to become a respected rap artist who enjoys a career of over 20 years.

The three listed above are just some of the artists who have made a name for themselves in the early years of rap and who still enjoy the respect of the hip hop community through music and fashion.

Dookie Rope Chains

By popular demand we will be offering our dookie rope chains online! We will be stocking 30mm x 30in and 20mm x 30in gold and silver chains. Chains will be in next week instore just in time for the perfect Christmas gift!

If you look at some recent hip-hop videos, or even pictures from parties and concerts, you’ll notice artists such as Lil Jon, Nick Cannon, Kanye West, Pharrell Williams, Nelly and Nas bringing back the world-famous gold Dookie Run DMC rope chains — or as they were christened in the ’80s, dookie ropes (also known to some as dookie rolls and donkey chains). It’s a trend that’s making MCs think about the true-school innovators like Run DMC who first wore them and what gold ropes symbolized back in the day, as well as what these classic chains mean today.

Has the time come for MCs to put their platinum chains on ice? Not ice as in diamonds – they’ve been doing that for years. This time we’re talking about rappers setting their platinum down on the shelf for a returning favorite that’s old school to the heart like a dookie rope chain.

“It’s my way to pay homage,” says Cannon, whose new publicity shots show him wearing no shirt and a gold dookie rope chain. “Back in the day, most gold Run DMC chains were hollow. I had to go [with] the official one. Everybody been rocking platinum; you can’t tell platinum from stainless steel right now.”

“Platinum chains are wack, unless it’s a rope,” asserts Kanye West, who debuted his new heavy thick fat dookie gold rope in the video for Drive Slow. “I’m not trying to dis nobody’s chain, it’s just wack to me.”

Like Cannon, Kanye says gold dookie Run DMC ropes chains are appealing because they’re a nod to the past. “History repeats itself,” Kanye says. “It was throwbacks [jerseys], my album had the Tribe [Called Quest] sound. Now its gold ropes.”

Lil Jon agrees with Kanye’s theory about throwing it back. “We love the old school,” he says. “Everybody got pleasant memories of the ’80s. That’s when hip-hop was fresh and new, it was like a baby. All those pleasant memories, we trying to bring back. I grew up seeing the Slick Ricks’s, Run DMC’s and Big Daddy Kane’s dooky, but I was a kid — I couldn’t get no big-ass rope chain. I’m grown, I can do that now.”

“Things that are really authentic always return,” says original dookie-rope-rocker DMC Run DMC, one of hip-hop’s earliest innovators on the mic and in the jewelry department. “It ain’t a mere thing of just bringing the gold rope back. It means something.”

The 90s – The Era of Big

The 1990s saw an economic boom after the depression brought about by the oil crisis in the decade before that. Because of that, people had more money to spend and boy did they find ways, often outrageous ones, to flaunt and to spend all that.

This decade was the era of ‘Big’. Everything had to be big in size, impact and spending. Rock bands played in stadiums with fancy lighting and pyrotechnics. Even hairs had to be big so people spent a lot of money on hair sprays during those days. And yes, even earrings had to be of the extra large variety!

But one could not really be big for a long time during that decade. It was the 90s and people always craved for bigger things. In other words, there was a constant competition to become biggest whatever of them all. From oversized clocks as necklaces, chains and Cazal sunglasses. Another good example of this outrageous trend is the parachute pants. This style of pants was popular during the 90s. They were tight and usually had extraneous zippers all over.

While these pants looked normal enough, rapper MC Hammer took it over the top by taking its size to the extreme! Hammer had these really baggy pants (also known as Hammer pants) that were so huge, two people could fit into each leg of it.

People nowadays may find such crazy behavior funny, but who could blame the people of the era? Each generation has its definition of cool and in the 90s, the slogan was that bigger is always better. And how happy (and crazy) life was back then.

Do we see these Hammer pants coming back? Hmmm…We’ll see! =)

80s Neon Clothing

Take out your darkest pair of shades because this thing might blind you. No, we’re not asking you stare at the sun but rather to look at the neon clothes of the 80s.

Neon clothes can shock the uninitiated. Why? Because they are so bright that it is nothing that the first timers have seen in their entire lives. Actually, they are bright enough to be seen even at night. Nothing can get brighter than them except for halogen lights, maybe.

They were the in thing during the 80s and they were not only popular in clothes like sweaters but also in other fashion accessories such as shoe laces, hats, neon jelly jewelries and even on guitars! Popular colors were neon green and hot pink as well as the brighter varieties of orange and yellow. There were also shades of bright violet and blue but they weren’t as popular as their brighter counterparts. And as if one piece of neon clothing wasn’t enough, people back then actually preferred to match them with other pieces of neon clothing and accessories.

Neon is trying to make a comeback in the mainstream fashion scene with the latest from Coogi, Durkl, Caliber and more. Now would be good to have a pair of Cazal shades in handy because really, they can blind you far worse than a laser pointer or by staring straight to the sun. The world is a much brighter world to live in again. =)