B is for Balenciaga… Over the coming weeks, we will be looking at the brands across MR PORTER’s roster that have shaped the wordplay of rap – and how hip-hop has in turn shaped them. Read our previous feature on adidas here.

Founded in 1937, Balenciaga didn’t appear on hip-hop’s radar until some seven decades later, and even then, the uptake was slow. According to song lyric aggregator Genius, the brand was referenced by artists only three times before 2010. Mr Chris Brown was an early adopter, while shortly after the turn of the decade, rappers Ms Nicki Minaj and Pusha T were among the first to pay homage to the Parisian house. But with the arrival of Mr Alexander Wang, installed as the brand’s creative director in 2012 (the same year Complex magazine declared “Balenciaga’s got the game on lock”), and his successor Mr Demna Gvasalia in 2015, the picture changed.

In part, these two designers brought the brand in closer alignment with contemporary streetwear trends. But hip-hop itself was also shifting in its stance towards clothing. Not just the brands being mentioned, although that was part of it – designer labels had long been part of the lexicon, but a new generation were switched on to a wider portfolio of brands. “Versace and Gucci references go back a little while – Biggie’s ‘Versace shades watching ya’, for example – but Balenciaga is definitely more recent,” says Mr Shad Kabango, presenter of the Netflix documentary series Hip-Hop Evolution. “I would say in the last five to six years, it has become a more commonly referred to brand.” 

The clothes rappers aspired – and could suddenly afford – to wear had pivoted sharply, towards more elevated brands. But rather than just an affectation signalling success in the rap game, fashion has increasingly become the focus of the lyrics themselves. According to NME, some 36 designer labels are name-checked across A$AP Rocky’s 2012 debut album Long.Live.A$AP. However, few were afforded the prominent placement of Balenciaga, with the rapper being careful not to spill purple syrup on the brand’s sneakers in single “Fashion Killa”. The following year, future Versace collaborator 2 Chainz boasted “I got balance and them Balenciagas” on “Employee Of The Month”.

“The freshest clothes are no longer on department store racks, they’re on fashion runways or in hyper-exclusive collaborations that most people can’t access,” says Mr Eric Eddings, host of The Nod podcast and TV show. “That exclusivity is important. If everyone has it, it ain’t rare. It won’t give you clout.”

Under Mr Gvasalia’s guidance in particular, Balenciaga used its leverage within hip-hop to become one of the fastest-growing designer labels. Instantly recognisable – and Instagrammable – the brand has not just reappropriated streetwear, but borrowed motifs and logos from the wider world, from Ikea to Mr Bernie Sanders. It’s a ploy that Mr Gvasalia first developed at Vetements, the label he set up with his brother, Mr Guram Gvsalia. Hip-hop, too, has its own name for this process of reusing and renewing ideas, built into its DNA: sampling.

“Balenciaga” appeared in the lyrics for more than 200 tracks in 2018 alone – the year after the launch of the Triple S sneaker, and two years on from the Speed’s debut. This includes Ms Lauryn Hill labelling herself a “Balenciaga mama” and Tyler, the Creator seemingly spending more on his luggage than his airfare in “Okra”. Not that such a show of wealth automatically grants the wearer social mobility: on 2019’s “Teardrops”, Kano complains that “the Balenciagas didn’t blend us in”, the implication being that if you’re black, there are some places where you still won’t get your foot in the door, no matter the shoe it’s in.