Category: Hip-Hop

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by defunkd (@defunkd) I got this sweatshirt about 10 years ago in a bundle of vintage clothing from a second-hand clothing mill in the Netherlands. I had no clue what it was, but it seemed promising and of the rap tee genre. This was also amid the tri-blend t-shirt goldrush, where it seemed any print on a tri-blend tee would fetch more money. And this just so happened to be a Russell Athletic tri-blend sweatshirt, so I thought, I could really have something unique here. And I wasn’t wrong. This ... Read more

In fourth grade I had a babysitter named Kelly who would pick me up from school in her maroon cargo van without any back seats. She was probably nineteen or twenty then. She took me and my brother to Baker’s Square once but mainly brought me home from school and waited around until one of my parents got home from work. Kelly had a boyfriend named Jeff, who was six or seven years older than her, by my estimate. He liked the band Danzig but otherwise seemed like a loser. Jeff accompanied Kelly to pick me up more than once, ... Read more

What is Rap Tee Style? Rap tee style can be described as a collage of imagery layered on a background, typically featuring numerous faces. The fonts are typically outlined in white, with a color inside that often has a shading effect on it. Generally, the tees have a wide variety of colors. This style is often used to describe non-hip hop t-shirts, that aren’t technically Rap Tees – like Tiger Woods or even the Back Street Boys. And of course, they are bootlegs, unlicensed merch. Bay Club Bay Club-tagged vintage 1990s t-shirts are extremely valuable in today’s market. They typically ... Read more

FULL DISCLOSURE: I only started paying attention to NFTs about three weeks ago. I am not an expert on any of this, quite the opposite really, the vast majority of it still baffles me. I’m the clueless person referred to in the headline. I was just barely smart enough to mint a vintage t-shirt so I figured I would share my experience with the community. This idea started when my pal Matt started talking about them and their potential in the world of vintage t-shirts. I pay attention when he’s spitballing ideas, he entered the vintage t-shirt game years before ... Read more

In 2009 I was lucky enough to interview DJ AM about all things vintage tees. What impressed me more about his collection was that he was happily willing to lend the time to participate (we were a much smaller operation at the time.) There was no runaround with an agent or rep and I didn’t have to hound him to get a response. (Admittedly, I just scoured through our email correspondence again and was thoroughly reminded what a solid guy he was.) The last emails are particularly fitting as to what’s going on right now… From: James Date: Wed, 15 ... Read more