Hip hop shop pops

There are jeans hanging everywhere on the walls: black denim, gold washed denim, and pretty much any other color you can think of except an average boring pair of blue jeans. What you hear is B96 and an R&B and rap station playing from speakers in the back.

The store isn’t neat. It isn’t new, but it’s broken in. If you want to know what to get Reese is there to help to you. He knows what’s in style and keeps up with the trends.

The Hip Hop Shop is about culture changing with the trends and selling what will sell, even if it’s not always attractive. In fact, Reese doesn’t like everything he sells.. “If it’s ugly it will probably be my top seller,” he said.

Reese has been in business since 1987. “It was a year after I quit drinkin’ and druggin’,” Reese said. At his peak, Reese had three different stores, one in North Minneapolis, one in St. Paul, and the one on Lake Street. His remaining store on Lake Street has always been the busiest.

Reese doesn’t judge his life on business anymore. Instead, it’s all about “health, friends, and feelings.”

He is right now trying to find his spiritual side. He wears a cross around his neck as well as “going to Church and reading the word.” He just got married a few weeks ago and likes his casual life of marriage and managing just one store.

Business might not be that strong for Reese right now but his store is a cultural mainstay. He recently sold an outfit to the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul. When staffers came in and asked what was hot, Reese sold them a full denim jacket and jeans covered with baseball patches. He displays the same outfit on a wire mannequin in the front of his store.

The biggest winter trend for Reese was graphic hoodies. These oversized hooded sweatshirts are printed with everything from large diamond screen prints to dollar signs.

Anything oversized is key, Reese said, and the bigger the better. He has guys coming in buying size 38 when they should be wearing a size 32. They sag their pants so they hang low. Reese carries sizes up to 7XL in shirts and waist sizes in the 50s for pants. Both sizes are well above the industry standard, but Reese can sell them.

The Hip Hop Shop does carry women’s clothing also but it’s about 70 percent men’s to 30 percent women, another switch from the industry norms of dual gender clothing. Men’s clothing is clearly the focus. All the men’s clothing is up front and the women’s is in the back.

Women’s styles are opposite of how men wear their clothes. Everything has to be tight. They wear jeans that are glued to their thighs.

Apple Bottom jeans, St. Louis’ rapper Nelly’s women’s clothing are some of the name brands the Hip Hop Shop carries. Reese said that they aren’t really that special except they fit a woman with curves, meaning a tiny waist and a big butt.

There is kind of a standard set on women that isn’t there for men, Reese said. The woman have to have good bodies to follow the trends and the men they can have any kind of body they want and still look good in whatever they wear because it’s all hidden underneath the oversized clothing.