Streetwear Brands Can Tell Us What’s Next In Music | Off The Record

Photo: Donny slater

“Off The Record” - a series by The Mercer Edition, where insider voices join The Mercer to write about the topics they’re navigating within their respective industries, and across Creatives and Culture more broadly.

For Episode 1, we teamed up with Donny Slater, seasoned strategist and serial entrepreneur with a wealth of knowledge when it comes to culture, to share his take - streetwear brands can tell us what’s next in music.

There's always been a uniform.

"THE CLOTHES AND THE CULTURE TOLD HIM WHAT TO BUILD BEFORE HE BUILT IT."

Tupac Shakur - Shot by Mike Miller

The blog era I came up in had its own dress code

Malcolm Gladwell explained this without knowing he was talking about hip hop.

"THE TIPPING POINT ISN'T WHERE SHIT STARTS AT. IT'S WHERE COMMERCE USUALLY COMES IN AND MAKES SHIT CORNY. BY THE TIME YOU SEE IT ON THE LEAST TASTEFUL PERSON YOU KNOW, THE PEOPLE WITH TASTE HAVE ALREADY MOVED ON."

Samara Cyn

What the clothes are saying right now.

"WHEN YOU SEE SOMEONE IN BARRIERS YOU KNOW SOMETHING ABOUT THEM BEFORE THEY SAY A WORD."

The artists are here right now

"GIVE THEM A UNIFORM TO SHOW THEIR BELIEFS IN ROOMS YOU'RE NOT IN."

Community and culture isn’t scalable, but it is a moat

The clothes speak before the music plays, the question to ask yourself is are you listening to what’s going on?

Streetwear Brands Can Tell Us What’s Next In Music.