Journalist Sowmya Krishnamurthy has spent a large part of her career documenting hip-hop culture. Over the course of her writing career, she’s written pieces for XXL, TIME, Complex and countless other publications. For her non-fiction debut, she was inspired to speak with the savants, the unsung heroes, stylists, and the non-household names that are responsible for rap’s relationship with fashion. This idea sparked following a piece she’d written for XXL. Fashion Killa: How Hip Hop Revolutionized High Fashion is a dissection of the symbiotic partnership between hip hop and style-–it details interesting and imperative moments that were influential such as the beginning and the disappointing demise of Dapper Dan’s original Harlem atelier.
To Krishnamurthy, Fashion Killa provides an opportunity for her to explore how with grit, lyrical prowess, and sartorial inclinations, individuals like Lil’ Kim, Foxy Brown and Kanye West pushed down barriers to create a path for themselves in fashion. Others such as Diddy, Dapper Dan, Kimora Lee Simmons, and Virgil Abloh also receive their flowers—their journeys are highlighted in a unique manner that feels compelling, rather than stuffy. Krishnamurthy describes things from a bird’s-eye view but also injects the book with a bit of her own personal storytelling, by doing so she willingly offers up how she transformed from a hip hop superfan to an intern and later, a journalist in the lauded space.
“When I was putting together the [book], it was really important for me to tell this story in a way that really showcased its integrity and its importance,” the author said on a Zoom call. “I felt it would just be a great contribution to hip-hop as a whole,” she added. To keep the book interesting, she details the start of hip hop in 1973 and its roots in The Bronx, Harlem, and…
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