Why did hip-hop fall in love with caps? 'A middle-aged man's cap travelogue.'

Why did hip-hop fall in love with caps?

The baseball cap eventually became a flag for the streets.

Walking through the city, you often see the "NY" logo.

Two white letters on a navy blue cap.

Of course, it is the New York Yankees logo.

However, the person wearing that cap is not necessarily a baseball fan.

They might not know a single Yankees player.

They might have never watched a game.

Even so, the "NY" cap is worn all over the world.

You see them on Japanese streets, at train stations, at music festivals, and at the local convenience store.

For a long time, I found that a bit strange.

It's not a team they support.

It's not the city they live in.

And yet, why do people choose that logo?

As I looked into it, a history that cannot be explained by baseball alone came into view.

There was the city of New York, there was hip-hop, and there were young people trying to express who they were.

Caps did not suddenly become popular because of hip-hop.

New meaning was given to hats that were already on the streets.

This time, I would like to trace the story of how the baseball cap transformed into a symbol of the street.

Hip-hop was born from within the city

When discussing the history of hip-hop, the South Bronx of 1970s New York is impossible to avoid.

The Bronx at that time faced severe problems such as poverty, unemployment, drugs, violence, and regional devastation caused by urban policies.

However, at the same time, there was the life of diverse residents, mainly Black and Latino, as well as families and community connections.

Hip-hop was not simply music born from a rough neighborhood.

It was a culture where young people tried to create their own voices and places to belong, even amidst hardship.

A party held in a Bronx apartment complex on August 11, 1973, is often cited as its symbolic beginning.

DJ Kool Herc used two turntables to extend the part of a song where dancers got most excited—the break.

Young people who could buy music but found it difficult to have their own performance venues or opportunities to showcase their work rearranged existing records to create new expressions.

The DJ connects the sounds.

The MC layers the words.

The youth dance.

Graffiti is painted on walls and trains.

Music, rap, dance, and art.

Hip-hop was more of a culture where multiple expressions born in the streets were linked together rather than just a single music genre. The Smithsonian also introduces hip-hop as a community-based youth art culture that includes DJing, MCing, breakdancing, and graffiti.

You don't need a grand hall.

You don't need expensive instruments.

Even without anyone's permission, you express yourself in your own place, using your own words.

From the beginning, hip-hop had a spirit of 'creating meaning for ourselves.'

Caps also entered into that culture.

The baseball team logo was also the name of the city.

American professional sports teams are strongly tied to their regions.

New York has the Yankees and the Mets.

Los Angeles has the Dodgers.

Chicago has the Cubs and the White Sox.

Detroit has the Tigers.

The 'NY', 'LA', or 'D' embroidered on a cap is not only a team emblem but also the initials of the city.

Therefore, wearing a team cap carries two meanings.

One is to support the team.

The other is to show which city you belong to.

For a young person raised in New York, a Yankees cap was not a brand from a distant world.

It was a familiar symbol that already existed in their own city.

If you see the logo, you know the name of the city.

If you see the name of the city, you are reminded of the place where you live.

A cap could, without using words,

'I am from here'

show that.

That is a little different from just stating an address.

Pride in one's city.

Memories of having lived there.

Connections with friends.

A lifestyle that is difficult for outsiders to understand.

They were able to layer such things onto a small logo.

The Yankees' 'NY' logo has been used on the team's caps since the 1920s.

That symbol, carrying a long history of baseball, eventually came to be worn not only by players but also by movie stars, musicians, and hip-hop artists.

A baseball team's hat transformed into a flag for the streets.

That was the crucial point where caps and hip-hop connected.

New Era brought 'the same thing the players wear' to the streets.

A company that cannot be overlooked here is New Era.

New Era is a hat manufacturer founded in 1920 in Buffalo, New York, USA.

They began manufacturing caps for professional baseball teams in the 1930s, and in 1954, they created the '59FIFTY,' the iconic model that continues to this day.

The 59FIFTY does not have a size-adjustment strap on the back.

It is a cap known as 'fitted,' where you choose the size precisely to match the size of your head.

The crown maintains its shape firmly, and it is sold with a flat brim.

It is that dignified shape familiar in today's street fashion.

By the 1950s, New Era had grown into a manufacturer supplying caps to multiple Major League Baseball teams.

And in 1993, they became the official on-field cap supplier for all MLB teams.

In other words, the caps players wore in actual games and the caps young people got their hands on in the streets were connected by the same lineage.

I think this is important.

What the hip-hop youth were looking for was not a decoration that looked like a baseball cap.

It was an authentic team cap, the same as what professional players wear.

Even if it's difficult to dress head-to-toe in luxury brands, a cap is within reach.

Moreover, with just that one item, you can wear the name of a city, the history of a team, and an authentic presence.

New Era delivered the 'real thing' from the baseball stadium in a form that young people in the city could use for self-expression.

That is likely what greatly expanded the meaning of the cap.

Why did rappers choose caps?

When people think of hip-hop fashion, many imagine thick gold chains, big sneakers, and baggy clothes.

However, caps had a slightly different role than those items.

Caps are relatively easy to get your hands on.

You can wear them every day.

Even with the same clothes, changing the logo on your head changes the meaning.

And above all, you can show where you came from.

For hip-hop, your hometown is not just a profile.

Which city you grew up in.

Which region's peers you are connected to.

What kind of environment you are creating your words from.

That was part of the music and part of the identity.

That is why a rapper wearing a team cap was not just choosing a trendy product.

Wearing New York.

Wearing Los Angeles.

Wearing Chicago.

Wearing Detroit.

Placing the name of a city on one's head to show that one is speaking from that place.

The cap was a small flag.

A flag that tells a person's background without them having to say a word.

Of course, not every artist chose only the team from their hometown.

Sometimes they chose based on color, shape, or the beauty of the lettering.

Sometimes they matched it to the color scheme of their entire outfit.

However, including such free choices, hip-hop transformed the cap from a piece of sports equipment into a language of self-expression.

Players wear them.

Fans wear them.

And artists wear them, giving them new meaning.

The same cap began to carry different stories as it moved from place to place.

The reason why caps spread to the world

Hip-hop, which grew up in the Bronx in the 1970s, eventually spread beyond New York, across the United States, and then to the world.

Records.

Radio.

Music programs.

Music videos.

Movies.

Magazines.

The artists reflected there didn't just carry their music.

They also carried their way of speaking, their gestures, their sneakers, the size of their clothes, their jewelry, and the way they wore their caps.

The power of video is immense.

When people listen to music from a city they don't know, they also look at what the person who created that sound is wearing.

A flat brim.

A 59FIFTY worn low.

A large team logo on the front.

These became the visual language of hip-hop.

In the 1990s, as hip-hop grew into a global pop culture, caps also became established as fashion that transcended the boundaries of sports.

In 1996, at the request of film director and avid sports fan Spike Lee, New Era produced a red Yankees cap that differed from the traditional team colors.

The idea of enjoying an official team cap in 'one's own colors' became one of the turning points that expanded the subsequent custom cap culture.

Caps moved from teams to the streets.

From the streets to music.

From music to the world.

And after spreading to the world, each country and region added its own meaning to them.

In Japan, too, cap culture permeated through hip-hop, skating, and street brands.

At first, it might have been a longing for overseas styles.

However, eventually, Japanese brands and artists also began to put their own logos and words on caps.

Culture is not just imported.

The people who receive it remake it to fit their own place.

An expression born in the Bronx began to take on different stories in cities around the world.

What Hip-Hop Gave to Caps

Hip-hop did not invent the cap.

Baseball caps had existed long before that.

Team logos and New Era existed before hip-hop as well.

Even so, hip-hop brought a major change to the history of the cap.

It gave the hat a new role.

Something to block the sun.

Something players use in games.

Something fans use to support their team.

To that, it added:

Something to represent your city.

Something to show your connection to your crew.

Something to signal your favorite music or way of life.

These meanings were added.

Hip-hop was also a culture of reinterpreting things that already existed into its own language.

Connecting parts of records to create new music.

Turning city walls into places for new expression.

Turning sports sneakers into symbols of fashion.

Turning baseball caps into flags of self-expression.

Even if you cannot create something expensive from scratch, you can change the meaning of things that are close at hand.

That is where the creativity of hip-hop lies.

Caps were loved not just because they were cheap and convenient.

It was because you could carry your city, your crew, and your aspirations within a small hat.

Caps speak without saying a word.

The next time I see an "NY" logo in the city, I will look at it with slightly different eyes than before.

Of course, it is the New York Yankees logo.

But at the same time, it is also a symbol of the city of New York.

Within it, there is baseball, movies, music, and hip-hop.

Over many years, various people have layered meanings onto that logo.

The person wearing it is not necessarily conscious of all that.

They might just like the shape.

They might have chosen it because it goes well with black clothes.

But even if the wearer does not know it, the logo carries history on its back.

Sometimes, people wear stories that are longer than the things they have chosen.

This time, I learned that hip-hop did not just make caps popular.

Hip-hop gave caps a new meaning.

It turned baseball caps into city flags and team logos into a language of self-expression.

Wearing a cap means,

"I am rooting for this team."

It is not just about conveying that.

'I have a place in my heart for this city.'

'I love this music.'

'I want to place myself within this culture.'

It is also about quietly conveying these things.

A cap does not speak out loud.

However, that does not mean it is not saying anything at all.

The small logo on top of one's head shows the world they love to the outside, just a little bit.

The hat that left the baseball stadium for the streets met hip-hop and became a tool for people to express their own stories.

Thinking about it that way, the next thing to be curious about is the logo.

It is not just 'NY'.

'LA' is there too.

'D' is there too.

'SOX' is there too.

There are corporate logos, and there are street brand logos.

Why are we drawn to those symbols?

And what kind of cities, people, and stories lie beyond those logos?

Next time, I would like to take a closer look at the small marks embroidered on caps.

A logo was not just something to indicate a brand.

It was a story that a person could wear.

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