Hip-hop integrates socio-cultural significances that profoundly affect young people’s perspectives towards everyday life and fashion. The globalization and commercialization of hip-hop culture in the digital environment, blurs its ethnic and cultural specificity. This written thesis argues that hip-hop fashion — rooted in a marginalized and radicalized local subculture — once traveled around the world and has now moved online.

Digitized hip-hop fashion has become a cultural movement that global youth actively participate in. Consumption both online and in real life is encouraged by “drop” marketing strategies that are popular with streetwear brands because they create constant excitement and hype. Our understanding of hip-hop fashion — beyond the context of the music — can be centered on the hype brands generate and how digital fashion platforms and social media personalities magnify that hype.

In this research, I bring forth timely evidence as a continued exploration of what is currently happening with hip-hop culture and how online fashion has affected younger generations. See more on issuu .