KISH KASH (RADIO DJ, STREET FASHION HISTORIAN & SNEAKER COLLECTOR)
HIP HOP & FASHION
KILLA KELA: You are a huge fan of Hip-hop and street culture, especially the fashion & history of it all. Talk to me about the love you have for the scene.
KISH KASH: I just love all aspects of hip-hop and I’m so very blessed to be enjoying it & working within the field of the passion I love. Back in the day what it came down to was making sure you’re up on everything and make sure you’re flexing, and your look is patterned up. We we’re wearing the latest stuff and trying to be the first to get it.
Ultimately, Hip-hop culture is the catalyst that provoked change and it’s mad how it’s like permeated through into like high fashion now because the whole thing originally was reappropriate in high fashion and making it into a look that worked on the street. I love that.
KILLA KELA: A lot of the fashion back in 80s and early 90s Hip hop it really was ahead of curve, wasn’t it?
KISH KASH: We were ahead of the curve, that’s right exactly it. The thing is the pioneers always get ripped because no one has the vision to understand what’s going on at the time.
KILLA KELA: Do you think a lot of people that were in the rap genres of the time would wear the things they were as a nod to the mystique of them being like slightly underground and street or do you think it was to a nod to the the people and the culture?
KISH KASH: Put it this way right, if you’re watching your football team right, you’re not wearing the other team’s colors so if you’re on the street even if you aren’t up to naughty things or if you’re affiliated with them, you’re going to all dress the same or you know or be influential to each other, that’s what it comes down to. Everyone puts their own twist on it and that what Hip hop is all about.
KILLA KELA: What is your go-to fashion brands at the moment?
KISH KASH: Polo, I’ve been polo since day one. On the feet Nikes, Adidas, Rebook. New Balance, Puma if you can get good pair of pumas. There’re some new brands as well that are emerging which I like On Running, I like Hoka, ASICS sometimes can have a bit of flavour as well there’s a whole host of brands out there, it’s very exciting at the moment.
KILLA KELA: Me and you go way back, in fact you’re one of the people that inspired me to do the things that I’m doing with the Podcast but, the thing that I have noticed with you is that you are all about paying things forward and progressing.
KISH KASH: Yeah, the word description of progression is a forward movement so what you don’t want to is regression that’s going backwards. You’ve got to pay things forward for flowers to bloom, you’ve got to water otherwise things die. If the story doesn’t continue than everything that we have done was in vain. So, t’s all about perpetuating the knowledge, perpetuating the talent, nurturing it, and making sure that they get to make the world just a bit more beautiful.
FULL PODCAST EPISODE
Today’s podcast we are jumping into conversation with one of the forerunners in Sneaker talk, street fashion and street culture fact checking.. the man about town, UK cultural historian & DJ Kish Kash passes through for a chat! We’re talking Sneakers, Dapper Dan, pioneering acts who helped drive change into popular culture and fashion. The boombap era, the bling era, the music, acts old and new pioneering. We also get into Kish’s world – Documenting, attaining a mass collection of sneakers and rarities, his passion for food, music, Soho radio and way more.. this is Kish Kash’s podcast!