RI$I$M

When it comes to style, I brought a lot to the game. I like to be different, G. I always had visions in my head on how I like to be seen, so I could get fly all day and look like a live rap nigga. When I first became Tony Starks, it was like, I had this Tony Starks shirt. It was like red and kind of cream, a little bit and shit. The collar was just on some real ill shit and red is my favorite color, anyway. When I put it on I felt like that nigga! I make the clothes work for me. That’s why I could throw on the robe and don’t look soft in it. Because it belongs, like, “I’m that fuckin’ iron-man nigga about to take over the whole fuckin’ city!”

People always wanna know how I got started with the robe. I used to smoke a lot of wet back in the days. One time I was in Beverly Hills, all high and shit, and I seen an ill robe! Looked like it was Nautica-mad flags on it. I tried it on and it was looking bangin’! So I’d wear it outside, all wetted up and shit. After me and Rae did that Wallabees shit-boom, boom-came through with the silk shirts and all that other shit, I kept it moving and rocked the robe in the “Criminology” video. Niggas like Puff Daddy was loving me for that. Like, “How the fuck he gonna come through in the ill robe? Come on, son.” Niggas couldn’t really understand, but I was just too big for them.
I wanted the bird piece to go with the robe, so I could go on stage and just be that nigga that I am. The bird comes from growing up in Stapleton. This nigga named Dusty and a lot of other Jamaican niggas was getting real heavy with the truck jewelry. So I’m like, “Y’all niggas want to get heavy? Alright, we gonna get heavy then!” And that bird was heavy-four fuckin’ pounds. They had to melt down, I think, a kilo-and-a-half of gold, and money made my shit ridiculous. But it made a statement.

Style is deeper than clothes and jewelry, though. That’s why I fucked with the ice cream in the “Apollo Kids” video. The nigga in the ice cream truck came through by the set. You know my mind goes with shit, so I’m like, “Oh shit, let me get an ice cream.” Boom, boom. Then it’s, “Yo, shoot this shit.” Niggas on the set was buggin’. I had sprinkles on my shit and all that shit, ice cream drippin’! Whatever I think in my head that might look fly, knowing me, I’m gonna hold that down.

That goes to show you, at the end of the day, style is about much more than that material shit-it’s me! It’s just like, you could put me in an ill fur and I’ll bang anybody out in the fur. It’s ’cause I got that swagger. I know how to tilt that hat. It’s how I walk; it’s how I talk. It’s my bop, how my jeans is cut, how my jeans lean on my boots, how my shirt lean on my belt, how far my shirt is tucked in my pants, halfway. It’s all about my charisma and my confidence, that’s where the style really comes from. If I got a mirror in front of me or not, I know how to look good. A lot of niggas don’t know that. Do you?

props to complex