002 - MAJOR DISSERTATION

The dissertation critically examines the evolving role of rappers not merely as cultural icons but as primary agents of fashion innovation, economic disruption, and symbolic authority within the global style economy. Through a transdisciplinary lens, merging cultural theory, brand strategy, and postmodern semiotics, the research traces how hip-hop figures have transcended the passive role of muse or influencer to become active producers of aesthetic capital, challenging and reconfiguring the legacy structures of high fashion.

Through case studies analysis spanning from Run-D.M.C. to A$AP Rocky, the work interrogates the co-optation of subcultural codes, the emergence of rap-driven brand architectures, and the collapsing boundaries between music, product, and persona. The rapper is positioned not as a brand ambassador but as a metabrand, capable of dictating visual language, reframing taste hierarchies, and engineering desire at both grassroots and luxury strata. This dissertation argues that the fashion industry’s contemporary visual and commercial direction is no longer shaped from within, but is increasingly authored from the margins, where rhythm, narrative, and identity converge as dominant forces of style.