London
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- Dec 26, 2006
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McLaren was the father of punk as was Russell was the godfather of Hip Hop. They took underground scenes and brought them/sold them to the masses.Is he the biggest amplifier because he did it in a unique way (blended these trends well, made them more approachable, or whatever else), or were these style ideas going to blow up and he was there with the right combination of reach + early?
I feel like it was the latter, but I'll admit to it being a feeling, and perhaps I was standing too close to the proverbial Nick Wooster. Sales is a talent, and Kanye is probably the best salesman of self of his generation (it's basically him or Kobe: both really good at what they do, both given more even credit than that because they made sure they would get it, both attained legendary status off the synergy). But it feels weird to give him all this credit for a thing that was already happening. It's not quite calling Malcolm McLaren the father of punk (Ye has a lot more actual talent and a lot less cheap huckster), but it's not not that (I feel like SuFu absolutely should get more credit here, given those dudes were dressing like Kanye while he was still in his Polo hangover phase). As much as the ideas don't matter in world where cash in the register is the measure of us all, they do obviously matter on some level.
Who was the most influential men's fashion figure before Kanye?