A long time ago in NYC, before GHE20 G0TH1K, Shayne Oliver of Hood By Air threw a weekly party called "The Black Bunny" at one of the last actual club venues, Happy Valley. Each week, a particular club anthem was played, and that's when you knew the party had officially started, but not in a "turn up" way, but moreso, a "let me check myself; it's about to get real sexy" type of way. As soon as the first beat of Remy Ma's 2005 single "Conceited" dropped, the club knew to bring it, as if they were being filmed in a slow-motion, glamorous '90s hip-hop video. That visual is forever burned in our memory as a defining New York moment and, in many ways, the origins of HBA.
For 26-year-old Oliver and his generation, Grammy-nominated American rapper Remy Smith (who performs under the name Remy Ma) is a fashion and social icon. From her signature hairstyles to the overconfident message of female domination in a male-driven world, she is a source of inspiration to Hood By Air's now-classic dissection of urban, masculine, and feminine paradigms. The roots of this concept likely originated long before Remy, now 34, served a well-documented prison sentence after turning herself in for involvement in a shooting incident.
Meanwhile, in the six years the rapper was serving time, Oliver was steadily hustling in his climb to success. The rap star connection between the two was imminent, so Opening Ceremony had the designer fill her in on what she's missed and further explore their perspectives on style, including what Remy calls "couture hip-hop." Check it out in the video above.
Stay tuned... we're rolling out "Part 2" of this series next week.