A look into the costumes hip-hop/rap artists wear in their music videos

1. Costumes
In Rap/Hip-Hop music videos.

2. In most rap videos, especially in the UK, there will be a lot different people all wearing similar/the same
clothing. This is usually a tracksuit or casual clothing. This is because this is seen in society as a kind of
‘uniform’ and those who wear it conform with others and they are seen as part of the group. Clothing like
this is often stereotyped as clothing that people wear because they are going out to cause trouble. Examples
of this are in Skepta’s ‘Shutdown’ video and Professor Green’s ‘Jungle’ video.

3. Branding
In rap/hip-hop music videos the clothing that is worn is usually from a well known brand and is considered
designer clothing. This is often to show that the people in the video have money to be able to buy expensive
clothing. However the artist may have gained a sponsorship deal with a certain company and they may be
wearing their clothing because it is part of a certain contract. For example in ‘Big For Your Boots’ by Stormzy
we see a lot of Adidas clothing throughout the entire video.

4. Jewelry
In most rap/hip-hop videos the artist will want to show off their wealth by wearing a lot of different jewelry.
Artists will wear golden rings, golden neck chains and expensive watches to show the audience that they
have earnt a lot of money from being a musician. An example of this is Tinchy Stryder in his ‘Game Over’
music video as he is wearing multiple neck chains and then holds up his wrists to show off a golden bracelet
and a golden watch. Many of the artists will also link the visuals and the lyrics by showing off their jewelry
whilst singing about it. An example of this is in the ‘Lightwork’ music video by Tinie Tempah who says “Got
10 gold chains, I'm just Shabba Rankin” whilst we get a close up of his chains on his neck.