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by Brendan Dunne
Raekwon's "Purple Tape" Diadora project with Packer Shoes is far from his first footwear rodeo. His powerful Wu Tang clang brethren put together one of the most coveted sneakers of all time back in 1999. He dedicated a whole song to sneakers while your favorite hypebeast rapper was still in high school. And all the way back on Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... he stood on the block, Reebok, gun cocked.
At the launch of his latest collaborative gear with Packer, Sole Collector caught up with Rae to talk about what rapper he looks up to in the shoe game, rocking the very first Hot 97 Summer Jam, calling out fake sneakers, and more. Let the Chef take you on another one in this latest edition of Sole Collector Survey.
My first sneaker memory was in back in the Run DMC era, my first pair of adidas. I knew that I was gon’ wear sneakers forever. I been devoted to them ever since. It’s like, it’s something in the neighborhood that demands a certain kind of respect that you get when you wearin’ a good shoe. Adidas is top shelf. We was respected by the OGs. They looked at us like, “You got taste, you got potential for things.” It’s just a trend that spread worldwide through every urban or suburban neighborhood in the world. To be able to have sneakers that reflect who you are and what you’re about, it’s almost like something that’s intimate that is always with you all the time.
My most memorable show I would say has to be at Giants Stadium, the first time we did that with Wu Tang Clan, Enter the 36 Chambers. It was Hot 97’s first annual Summer Jam and we tore it down. 30,000 people – you would never think that many people would come out to see dudes perform at that level. I would say definitely Giants stadium. It’s serious right there.
The person I know with the most sneakers would be my brother Fat Joe. He been a sneakerhead since the early ‘90s. Ever since I met him, I never seen Joe without a pair of brand new sneakers on in my life. He’s definitely one of the dudes that I look to on a fashion level. He get busy and he’s a sneaker king. You got some dudes that’s into sneakers, but they don’t know what sneakers to get. He knows both worlds and he’s a big guy like myself, so we gotta stay fresh.
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My reaction when I first saw the “Purple Tape” Diadoras was like, first of all, I went back to being a fan. Like, “Wow, I got my own shoe.” When it came to footwear, I never had an opportunity where I could connect with a brand that would allow me to do what I want to do on a shoe. Knowing good guys like [Mike] Packer, that’s my partner as well and with the situation, we felt like we had the advantage to convince them that this could be something monumental.
You couldn’t tell me 20 years ago that Rae would be representing a purple shoe one day. Purple? It’s an ill color, but it’s a royal color. I mean, it took time for us to even wanna make it the right purple because you know, you just wanna be so cordial with everything and I’ve always been like that. I love fashion. I love statements. I love being innovative. That’s what I did, I got with the right team and they came with everything dope. The bottoms to reflect the piece of the tape. All we could do was just try to get as close as we want to with it and make it what it is. The one on the back for side one and then side two. The reflector. I like stuff like that. I’m really into that. Tongues, I didn’t want no big logos. I want it to look like a car and the team made it happen. I’m 100 percent proud of this shoe.
The most I’ve ever spent on some clothes? I might have a million dollars worth of shit that acquired over 20 years worth of time. I really slowed down on buying a lot of shit because it’s hard to get authentic shit. I’ve always been a dude that liked different stuff and just wanted to be able to have my own style. It’s hard to find certain things because everybody like to get what the next person got, which is cool. I grew up like that. I wanna be able to feel like, “Yeah, I got that too.” I’m on a different chamber. When it come to my jewelry, I want it different. When it come to my music, I want it styled differently.
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The best piece of advice I ever got was from the honorable Minister Farrakhan. I’m in a spiritual mind frame and I’m willing to be enlightened by something great. What he said to me was, “You have a voice. You are a great voice, you can speak for a nation of people and you don’t even know it. Take that as being a gift from God.” I appreciated that because I feel like the chosen one. I feel like we all chosen in our own way, it’s just about what we actually wanna do.
The first album I ever bought was Big Daddy Kane’s Long Live the Kane. This was a time with flat-top haircuts, sneakers, jewelry, Rakim’s Paid in Full. I might have bought all that at one time because that was my era. KRS-One and all of that shit.
Embarrassing sneaker stories? We been around dudes that came in with funny lookin’ Uptowns and we take ‘em to court. Like, “Them ain’t Air Force 1s, them are Air Force 2s.” You know, just takin' it there. When you in the hood, you gotta expect shit like that.
