Westside Gunn of Fashion Rebels / Griselda
Like most of us right now, Westside Gunn is at home.
In his particular case, however, the Griselda Records rapper happens to be recuperating rather than simply quarantining. One of a number of hip-hop figures who’ve had to contend with coronavirus complications, including Houston rap legend Scarface and the tragically departed Bronx emcee Fred The Godson, he’s now on the other side of a bout with COVID-19, something he kept a secret from fans and the general public from his diagnosis up until the beginning of his recovery period.
“I'm pretty much good now, bro, just little short winded going up up the stairs,” he tells me over the phone, seemingly overall in good spirits. “It’s not like I’ve been outside going here and there.”
A businessman through it all, Gunn put out a brand new album last Friday on his label called Pray For Paris along with a corresponding clothing drop from his proprietary streetwear line Fashion Rebels. Both the cover art and some of the limited edition apparel features design courtesy of Virgil Abloh, artistic director for Louis Vuitton's men's collection and CEO of his own highly influential Off-White brand. Their mutual admiration dates back to the design superstar’s preceding and prescient Pyrex Vision line, of which the rapper was a fan. But it would take an invitation to Paris Fashion Week this past January for the two to link properly.
Gunn’s simultaneous release strategy for music and merchandise has been a cornerstone of his Fashion Rebels and Griselda enterprises for some time, an approach that continued with last year’s Shady Records group album What Would Chinegun Do with rappers Conway The Machine and Benny The Butcher. With a devoted and growing fanbase on both sides, short-run items like hoodies and t-shirts timed regularly sell out in short order, reselling online for far more than the original price. Unlike most rappers who do merchandise bundles with their music to finesse the Billboard 200 album rankings, he seems far more interested in selling clothes than topping the charts.
“Everybody wants to get paid for doing the thing they love to do,” Gunn says, fully cognizant of the privileged position he’s ended up in after all these years. “I've been in the streets, I've been to prison. I have to go higher, doing it the right way.”
How did going to France as Virgil Abloh’s guest for Fashion Week spark the kind of the idea for the Pray For Paris record?
The whole trip just inspired everything. These are brands that I’ve spent countless dollars on, Off-White, Louis Vuitton. I went to the Casablanca show. These are brands that I’ve already spent top dollar on faithfully. So for me to be going out there, getting fitted to wear it, sitting front row at the shows with this actor, this actress, this model, people that I’m fans of, it was a crazy experience. Partying with Pop Smoke, you know what I’m saying?
I really didn't meet [Abloh] until I went out there, but we knew each other offline. He’s a big Griselda supporter, buys every vinyl and every shirt. He knew I was a big wine guy, like come to my restaurant, there's no way you can come to Paris and not see me. We just linked, and I was at his restaurant and we were playing hip hop, ‘cause he has a private room. He just played vinyl; he don't do CDs. We were listening to original wax and I was so inspired, like I need a studio. He set one up the next day.
One thing I really like about Pray For Paris is the choice of samples, ranging from monologues by wrestling great Ted DiBiase, The Million Dollar Man, to Ghostface Killah dissing Martin Shkreli. But you open the record with audio from the record-breaking Leonardo da Vinci Christie's auction. Why was that?
Because this is high level art. I had to start with the $400 million piece, Salvator Mundi. I wanted people to come into it just like, yo, this is this is next level. I kinda wanted to introduce the streets into the art world. A lot of people that listen to my music, they like the raw, the griminess, that boom bap. But they don't collect art or study art. So before you hear me rhyme, I want to introduce you to the art world, because that's basically my music. These are art pieces. That's the message I've been giving out to let people know this is my Salvator Mundi to the world—Pray For Paris.
Westside Gunn of Griselda and Fashion Rebels
How has the Fashion Rebels brand evolved over the years alongside your Griselda Records?
I remember just a couple of years ago I was trying to push the brand. A couple people was rocking it. I'd do a drop, maybe I’d do a hundred of them. But now, people are catching on. The more popular the music gets, of course, the more people are copping the clothes—which is a blessing. I had the clothing line before Griselda Records. I knew the music would help the clothing brand, Griselda by Fashion Rebels.
I’ve always been a trendsetter, bro. I always had with newest sneaker, the newest shirt, the news jean and hat. I would wear my [Fashion Rebels] shirt with a thousand dollar pair of sneakers on. People would be like, yo, what's that? But it really wasn't on a large scale. When I just decided that I wanted to really go hard on the music, this was going to go hand in hand. The more popular I’d get, people were gonna see me in it. This last [Pray For Paris] drop I’d did right now, it's doing pretty good but also the project is doing pretty good. But now that I went to Paris, fashion just took over my soul. I’m ready to go crazy and take my design to a whole other level.
That strategy appears to be working, with the Fashion Rebels drops online proving to be notorious sell-out events. How did you cultivate this kind of customer loyalty to the brand?
Just being authentic, being real, being myself. Griselda has a cult following and I guess I'm the cult leader. I kind of know what they want and know what they love. People just trust me as well. Griselda has the best fans in the world. They know everything is going to be top quality. I might charge $60 for something that the next man would charge 400 for. I don't try to overdo it. I make it affordable for everybody. I keep it limited. I keep the value of what you’re rockin’ high. People like wearing a shirt that they know is rare. Only a thousand other people might have this shirt in the world,
Growing up and being in the streets, it was always about supply and demand with me. I didn't care what I sold. It was just like, if you need it, I got you. Other people wanted to sit on a corner, the typical drug dealers back in late ‘90s and early 2000s, sit on the quarter and hand-to-hand. Me, I was the guy that wanted to be the guy who went to Atlanta and got it for cheaper, came back and sold it to the guy that did the hand-to-hand. I always was a step ahead of the next man.
COVID-19 is having a significant negative impact across businesses right now. How is this affecting what you do, and what are you hoping to accomplish this year with Fashion Rebels and Griselda given that?
I don't think it’s going to affect anything [for me] but tours. That's really the only thing that's going to hurt the plans we had going on, things like The Roots Picnic. We was about to do Rolling Loud. We had a second leg planned for the What Would Chinegun Do tour cancelled. I can’t do a Pray For Paris tour. Who wouldn't want this album right here on tour?
As far as Griselda by Fashion Rebels, no matter what man people still gotta get dressed. People still want the latest. If you look at Instagram right now, dudes and chicks, they not looking bummy. They’re still looking good in every post. And with the malls being closed, this is the time to actually do more. I don't have as much competition. So if I'm producing designer quality clothing and you can't go to the mall, where else you going to go? I actually think it’ll help in the fashion department. The music, we can do that in our sleep. You might hear another two, three Griselda projects in the next two, three months.
