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The young rap billionaire Drake has a new album out this week. It's probably fantastic! But more important than any critical assessment of his music, it's another opportunity for Drake to assert his commitment to the bemusing art of wearing really awful chunky-knit sweaters.
When it comes to policing hip-hop fashion, Drake is far from alone in favoring the type of sweaters that grandmothers like to knit. In fact, on the basis of this top five round up, it seems that committing heinous sweater crimes is a must if you want to achieve mega rap stardom.
5. Kanye West
Foppish Kanye likes to think he knows everything about fashion. But there's never an excuse for being seen out and about in a horizontally-striped sweater where two shades of pink are the predominant motif. It's a folly 'Ye himself seems to have belatedly realized, as he craftily pops the cuff of his white shirt to minimize the pink attack.
4. Snoop
Trust the ever cheerful Snoop to get into the Chrimbo season by donning an awful Christmas sweater that just so happens to feature a snowman looking suspiciously like Young Jeezy's pro-crack-selling logo. Dragging on a blunt, Snoop looks warm and snug, like he's in a post-eggnog reverie. The Santa hat is a fitting exclamation point on top of a fine festive ensemble.
3. Jay-Z
Where young 'Ye goes, old man Jay-Z inevitably follows. So since the two have become official BFFs, Jay has become smitten with the sweater game. For a promotional appearance on the Daily Show, Jay sported a tight-fitting grey sweater that, improbably, looked like someone had rolled black paint all over it. Still, it's better than those grandpa cardigans he also insists on wearing.
2. Drake
Drake likely wasn't born when The Cosby Show's Cliff Huxtable was popularizing the chunky-knit sweater to the world. But today no one rocks more Huxtable-approved sweaters than Young Money's moody millionaire. His sweater de resistance? The grey-saturated, geometric-patterned wooly monstrosity he chose for his “Headlines” video.
1. The Notorious BIG
Can we just let this one caption itself? Biggie's love of ugly-ass Coogi sweaters is well-documented; here he laid down an insurmountable marker in the hip-hop sweater field. It's as if Puffy ran a Picasso picture though a particularly gaudy Photoshop filter and then printed out the pattern and knitted it for BIG as a platinum present. So lurid is the woolen outcome, Biggie only can bear to rock it while wearing shades.
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