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Lee Jeans Jacket Worn by Prince Whipper Whip
Lee Jeans Jacket Worn by Prince Whipper Whip

Lee Jeans Jacket Worn by Prince Whipper Whip

Performing artist Prince Whipper Whip
Associated name Grand Wizard Theodore & the Fantastic Five
Datec. 1980
Mediumdenim
DimensionsOverall (HW): 25 7/8 × 57 1/2 in. (65.723 × 146.05 cm)
Credit LineMoPOP permanent collection
Object number2001.506.1a
Text Entries

Lee was a prominent brand of streetwear jeans that many local B-boys and artists would wear during the early era of Hip-Hop. Denim jeans and jackets also were considered one of the first canvases for Hip-Hop in the ’80s where people would paint names on the side of a person’s jeans. Airbrushed lettering was a major fashion statement and design that represented the vibrant colors of graffiti art and allowed artists to wear designs of their names, groups, self-portraits and cartoons to represent who they were and where they were from. One of the major airbrush painters of the ’80s, during the birth of Hip-Hop, was King Phade, who was painter and co-founder of the Shirt Kings. He grew a fan base with his custom airbrushed t-shirts and sweaters, remixing street culture and street art onto clothing, and became the first to popularize and commercialize graffiti as a Hip-Hop clothing brand.

*Design artist unknown.

Prince Whipper Whip (James Whipper II, b. 1962) is of Puerto Rican descent and an original member of Grand Wizzard Theodore & the Fantastic Five, also known as the Fantastic Freaks or simply Fantastic Five. The Fantastic Five was an old school Hip-Hop group, best known for their 12” single, “Can I Get A Soul Clap” (1980). The group also appeared in the film Wild Style (1982) and recorded a song in 1994 with the Cold Crush Brothers.

Lee denim jacket. Front of jacket is plain. Back of jacket is a painted picture of a man pointing with a hightop fade. The words Cold Diss Records is painted next to image. The words Whipper B Whip are at the top of jacket in red letters and Old School is written at the bottom in gold.
CopyrightThis work is issued under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) License. For more information, go to https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
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Lee Denim Jeans Worn by Prince Whipper Whip
Prince Whipper Whip
Date: c. 1980
Medium: denim
Object number: 2001.506.1b
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