All About Laughs
The lines between beauty standards between men and women continue to blur, thanks in large part to celebrities who use their platforms to dispel beauty norms. Women wearing tuxedos, men wearing dressings, the world is in a constant shift to show that no matter who you are, you should be able to dress however you’d like to feel cool. Lil Yachty is looking to cash in on this trend with a line of nail polish for men. He, like many other rappers in the hip-hop game, are determined to push the envelope of what is considered the norm.
Yachty is not the first rapper, or for that matter black artist, to adopt such ideas. As far back as James Brown and Little Richard, black music has a legacy of black men shaking it up when it comes to fashion. Prince and Michael Jackson took this a step further in the 80’s with sparkly outfits, make-up and androgynous appearances. It was then hip-hop acts that took the reigns. Andre 3000 was the poster boy for genderless fashion in the 90’s and early 00s. Kanye West has build much of his branding on fashion and ability to push the idea of what mens fashion looks like, inspiring a whole generation of artists from Kid Cudi to Lil Uzi Vert to follow suit. Most famously, Young Thug wore a dress on the cover of his 2016 No, My Name is Jeffery Album.
Kid Cudi made a splash at his recently Saturday Night Live performance wear a dress as well. It was a tribute to Kurt Cobain, a fellow boundary pusher. he tweeted “Virgil designed the dress for me. I told him I wanted to show love to Kurt [with] a floral print sundress and this man made a masterpiece. Thank You @virgilabloh ur a f—– genius!! Love you man we did it!!!” after his performance.
Im doin a collection w Off White and the dress will be included!!
— The Chosen One (@KidCudi) April 11, 2021
This past Monday, Lil Yachty took to social media to announce his latest forray into genderless fashion. “I’d like to introduce my new nail paint line @crete__co,” he captioned the post. “FIRST COLOR DROP MAY 21. 4 ALL GENDERS. FOR YOU, NOT THEM!” Fans who are interested in purchasing the polish can sign up at www.crete.co to receive early access to the company’s first limited-edition drop.
Speaking on the line, he said “It’s essentially like, it’s unisex, but I want it to be more focused on for men to use it, and to be more comfortable in their own skin,” the Lil Boat rapper added. “Because bro, it’s 2020, you know what I’m saying? Like it’s about to be 2021 — come on, what are barriers? We still have barriers?”
