Clipse Joins the Rappers With Clothing Lines List

File this under: Oversaturated, but the Clipse (the rap duo that came out with the song “I’m So Krispy”, ah the title makes sense now) is coming out with a clothing label. Guess they finally wised up and decided to follow in the footsteps of Jay-Z (Rocafella), G-Unit (G-Unit Clothing), Eminem (Shady), Diddy (Sean John), Pharell (Billionaire Boys Club), Nelly (Apple Bottoms), Andre Benjamin (who knows???) and Kanye (Pastelle). Glad you finally made it to the foray boys. The collection is filled the “usual suspect” streetwear and will add more items, such as jeans, to its repertoire in the near future. For more on the rapper/designer (a.k.a. thank god for licensing deals cause no records are selling) check below.

Pastelle [by Kanye West]

If one day you’re known from dressing like Carlton Banks and the next looking like a cast member from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, then no matter what you release from your line, your audience is going to be disappointed.

Pastelle may be the most polarizing label when it drops; it may be too out there for the conventional shoppers or too mainstream for the fashionista crowd. And anyone in the middle won’t trip, as Ralph Lauren & co already satisfies their wardrobe conundrums.

Plus, imagine the awkwardness of telling a girl that the sweater you’re wearing is from a label called Pastelle. You may as well tell her that you were born without a penis.

Eight 732 [by Young Jeezy]

After only dropping two albums, Young Jeezy decided that he may as well have his own line. Originally it was called U.S.D.A., after Jeezy’s click, but since the real USDA [the ones who inspect meat (nullus)] weren’t about to have their named soiled by Snowman, he had it changed to Eight 732, the letters that correspond the letters U-S-D-A on a standard telephone keypad.

You can’t make this stuff up. Trust us, we’ve tried.

Todd Smith [by LL Cool J]

Ladies may Love Cool James, but dudes probably won’t like his style. Sure, LL is the same guy that helped FUBU pop back in the day but considering that he’s not only about 20 years late to the rapper-wear game and is known more for having his shirt off than on, the likelihood of Todd Smith becoming the next Sean John is as slim as Immortal Technique having the number one video on 106 & Park.

Or LL for that matter.

Foreign Money (mens) & Double U (womens) [both by Lil’ Wayne]

It’s common knowledge that Lil’ Wayne spends more time drinking cough syrup and getting arrested than he does writing rhymes, so what makes him think people are going to be checking for his clothing line?

While no one has any idea what any of it looks like, (or if they will ever actually exist now that he’s looking at an up north trip) we will say that naming his women’s line “Double U” may actually take the award for Worst Name For a Rapper’s Clothing Line away from Young Jeezy.

RoyElz [by Juelz Santana]

Come to think of it, Juelz Santana may be in the running for the award of Worst Name For a Rapper’s Clothing Line too.

Santana could have taken the easy route and come out with a line of signature bandannas, but instead took the easy route as he is looking to drop apparel. As Allhiphop.com puts it RoyElz,

…does not imitate Dipset Capo Jim Jones’ Nostic clothing line.

Nostic [by Jim Jones]

That’s right, Jim Jones has a clothing line, too. But that’s all we’re going to say about that.

We like our Kufis where they are, thank you very much.

Trillion and Truly [by Lupe Fiasco]

Out of all the rapper-wear out there, Lupe’s line could be the Superstar breakout star.

Think about it: he’s got the loyal fan base, understands the market (he did have a blog on Hypebeast after all) and would be working with some of the big guys in streetwear from Japan and the U.K. to release his line.

But with recent claims of “shooting TEC-9s when we were babies,” it seems that Trillion and Truly could be end up being more ARME x Baby Gap than Maharishi x W) Taps.

CEO [by Dame Dash]

Dame Dash may not be a rapper by definition, but you’ve heard him on more tracks than those two other guys in The Black Eyed Peas, so he gets a pass. After he split from the Roc-A-Fella Dynasty, he attempted to launch his own clothing line aptly named, CEO. Presumably it’s for the Chief Executive Officer in all of us.

Think of it as the hip-hop equivalent to the Donald J. Trump Signature suit collection.

Shady LTD [by Eminem]

When Shady LTD. debuted, Eminem was one of the - if not the biggest- selling rappers out.

However, when Shawn Carter rocked Rocawear and it flew off the shelves. When Marshall Mathers rocked Shady LTD. and it was a clear indication that nobody would ever take Detroit Fashion Week seriously.

Makaveli Branded [the estate of Tupac Shakur]

We’re not really sure how putting the late, great Tupac Shakur’s face on pair of jeans pays homage to his life and legacy, but then again we’re really not sure how even in death, he’s still managed to release more albums than Raekwon The Chef, so we’ll digress on this one.

Fetish [by Eve]

Right now, Fetish is currently on its third launch.

It takes NASA less attempts to launch a shuttle into space and they’re successful without having had a TV show, multi-platinum albums, Dr. Dre or being BFFs with Gwen Stefani.

If the clothing game didn’t work out twice thus far, it may be time to wrap it up and apply the Fetish name to something more fitting, like a line of whips, chains and gimp masks.

We’d keep this post going but there’s way too many rappers with clothing deals to list. Feel free to throw them in the comments.

[Hint: Fabolous, Busta Rhymes, DMX, Snoop Dogg, Master P, Foxy Brown, & Lil’ Kim have all had clothing lines. As you can imagine, they’ve been awesome.]

Courtesy of Satchel of Gravel