Some of the funniest commercials on television in the few last years have arguably been the product of the Starburst “juicy contradiction.” “How can Starbursts be hard and juicy at the same time?”
Well, about the same way Kanye West can be dropping what some would label “conscious” rap with deep lyrics about being slaves to consumerism…and then collaborating with A.P.C to produce a line of basic clothing modeled after his aesthetic that notoriously features a $120 white t-shirt.
The collection consists of just a few pieces — two pairs of jeans, several hoodies and some T-shirts — retails for $120 to $280 and sold out in just a few minutes (after of course crashing the website) but some internet dwellers were having zero parts of Kanye’s “Hip-Hop” T-shirt, calling out the rapper for “exploiting” the pockets of his fans.
In “New Slaves” off his recently released “Yeezus,” Kanye raps:
“Doing clothes you would have thought I had help / But they wasn’t satisfied unless I picked the cotton myself / You see it’s broke nigga racism / That’s that “Don’t touch anything in the store” / And this rich nigga racism / That’s that “Come in, please buy more” / What you want, a Bentley? Fur coat? A diamond chain? / All you blacks want all the same things”
Well Kanye has picked that cotton, and now thou shall pay up.
Twitter users sounded off, calling the “Hip Hop” t-shirt ridiculously high priced, but while they were tweeting, people were buying, and of course, ruining fashion for everyone by up-pricing the items drastically and placing them on eBay almost immediately.
To play devil’s advocate, A.P.C has long been producing clothing at this pricepoint, and for the most part, Kanye’s collaboration has opened up the French brand to a whole new demographic – and we doubt Yeezy priced these items himself. And on the other hand, is Kanye really living what he is rapping?
Yeezus is simply speaking Swaghili, but should the masses be upset about his contradictions in music and design?
Sound off and let us know your thoughts below.
