The Style of Sound: Hip-Hop’s Best and Worst Merch Drops of 2020

An album release typically comes with an accompanying merchandise rollout, but some rappers release better designs than others.

From the stage to the runway, The Style of Sound is a series that explores the intricate relationships forged between your favorite artists and their iconic fashion statements.

Written by Thomas Galindo

If you’ve ever heard any rap song (ever), there is a good chance the artist you were listening to threw in some bars about fashion and what designer clothes they wear. Rappers love to let their listeners know how stylish they are, so it’s no surprise when they seize the opportunity to release clothes of their own. Pairing fashion with images and phrases referencing them and their new music, rappers often release excellent styles. In a year where many artists did not bring in revenue through shows and concerts because of the global pandemic, rappers instead looked to merchandise to rake in money, with some designs executed much better than others. Here are four of the best and four of the worst merch drops by rappers in 2020.

THE best

Amine

Aminé’s sophomore album Limbo dropped in early August, and the young Portland rapper employed a simple, clean aesthetic for his album cover as well as the accompanying merchandise. The designs featured a black and grey theme, with a pop of color coming from the bright lime green “limbo” logo, which gave the merchandise a vintage, early 2000s, Apple iPod nano vibe. The sensible, casual color scheme and t-shirt/hoodie/sweatpants designs don’t stand out much, but bring a unique, not-too-busy look for a versatile list of settings.

Megan Thee Stallion

Along with the recent release of Meg’s debut commercial album Good News came a limited, cute collection of tops on her website. The “Good News Personalized” hoodies and tees are a simple, fun look imitating a newspaper front page. The shopper can choose one of several pictures of Megan, use a photo of themselves, or a photo of them and their friends with the title “Good News” and select from a few captions. Also included in the collection are a number of different colored crew neck sweatshirts with a photo of Meg in a stallion silhouette which makes for a neat design.

Gunna

Accompanying Gunna’s May album Wunna came an interesting and very unique merchandise catalog including ashtrays, lunchboxes, and tops. The highlight of the drop was the inclusion of astrological themes that were featured throughout the album. Each zodiac sign got its own T-shirt with an image of the constellation on the front, along with a description of the qualities of that sun sign. The color schemes, in addition to the creative direction of the album and accompanying merchandise, were fresh and charming.

Lil Tecca

Lil Tecca released his first studio album, Virgo World, in September of this year and reflected his innocent, calm demeanor, with accompanying merch that is subtle, but trendy. The eco-friendly, art teacher theme of the merchandise brought T-shirt designs that look comfortable and laid-back. A cute tote bag which ties into the album’s title also champions climate change awareness in a palatable fashion.

The Worst

Lil Uzi Vert

Lil Uzi Vert’s aura has always radiated a very ‘out-of-this-world,’ visionary vibe that was especially prevalent with the release of his extravagant, space-themed album Eternal Atake in March. However, the clothing that came with this album’s release was uninspired and tacky. The “graphic design is my passion” meme-looking merchandise just slapped Microsoft Word Art onto T-shirts with the hope of them gaining traction. No thank you, Baby Pluto.

YG

Around the time of Donald Trump’s dethroning after the 2020 Presidential Election, YG felt it was important to drop a pack of merch apparently mocking conservatives. But the sexually graphic, politically driven merchandise is not easy on the eyes, whatsoever. Most of the shirts include innuendos alluding to Trump screwing over the country and perhaps these ideas should have stayed in the drafts.

Trippie Redd

Just as bad as the album cover for Trippie Redd’s October release, Pegasus, was the merchandise that came with it. The cover depicts Trippie riding a pegasus in outer space, and it seems as if, when creating the tops for this collection, no effort was put in — at all. Some of the tops are intended to be ironically bad and involve memes, but they are all pretty much unwearable.

Thundercat

Jazz-funk musician Thundercat, who is well respected in the hip-hop/R&B industry, released his album It Is What It Is in April. Along with it came a small collection of hoodies and tees that lack any creativity or style. Most of the ensembles are the same design: Thundercat’s unrecognizable logo on the front offered in different colors. The collection doesn’t try to tie into the album whatsoever and seems like a huge missed opportunity to create a special look that capitalizes off the success of this album.

AESTHETICSAfterglow ATXDecember 18, 2020thomas galindo