From baggy jeans to rhinestones: Hip-hop’s denim legacy

In less than six decades, hip-hop has risen to become one of the world’s most popular musical genres. In 2023, nearly a quarter of all streams on Spotify were hip-hop, and the fashion popularized by the scene’s hit artists has taken off almost as much as the music. Hip-hop fashion has set its fair share of denim trends: baggy cut, airbrushed, low rise and rhinestoned. UATL Black culture reporter Christopher A. Daniel takes a look at some of Southern hip-hop’s most iconic contributions to denim fashion. Watch the full denim episode of "Curiosities of the South" on the AJC’s YouTube channel now. Subscribe to discover how the South lost one of its most iconic industries, how Georgia helped launch Japan’s denim boom and whether American-made denim can make a comeback. Credits & Sources: AJC | Getty Images | BAPE | True Religion Jeans | BET | Jermaine Dupri, Lil Wayne, Bell Biv DeVoe, Wreckx-n-Effect, Another Bad Creation, Kriss Kross, Dem Franchize Boyz, Nelly, Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Young Money, Jeezy/YouTube