Ramellzee—the artist, theoretician, and rapper with a name derived from a mathematical equation—died last week. His outfits were some of the most intimidating and amazing of any artist (or fashion designer) in the history of ever. A lot of his stuff looked sort of like Shredder and Optimus Prime's love child.Rammellzee in Style WarsRamellzee first found notoriety as an MC and graffiti artist in New York in the late 70s before appearing in the films Wild Style and Style Wars. After that, Michael Basquiat funded his single "Beat Bop," which some call the best hip-hop single of all time. Rammellzee carried the mad outfits and stoned-out prophecies of afrofuturism beyond the early 80s. Rumor has it that he could freestyle for hours on subjects like thermodynamics, astrophysics, and linguistics--sort of like a fresh Stephen Hawking with rhythm and no wheelchair. He was also known for talking about himself in the third person, like most self-absorbed rappers tend to do from time to time. But perhaps the most impressive part of Rammellzee's eccentric life were his outfits. Rammellzee made his costumes out of garbage, building the sort of outfits that go with a guy who'd name his loft the "battle station." In short, Rammellzee had fantastic style and knew how to communicate it.Typical Rammellzee outfit features included flame-throwers and built-in sound systems (seriously). He labeled his outlook, which was evident through his costumes, "Gothic Futurism," although it's really got nothing to do with Gareth Pugh. The main thrust was that, like medieval monks and calligraphy, graffiti writers are able to bring the musical and mystical power of the written word alive—an essential task because the power of letters was being held back by the corruption of the Roman alphabet, or something like that (read more about it here).His name was derived from RAM, plus M for magnitude, Sigma (Σ), the first summation operator, L for longitude,
L for latitude, Z for z-bar, plus a couple more summation operators (Σ) for good luck.Fashion wise, Gothic futurism and the related theory of "Ikonoklast Panzerism" resulted in great outfits. London-based designer Noki—with his sloganeering, metaphorical connections, word creation, and habit of talking in the third person—owes a lot to Rammellzee.Fashion's got a lot going for it, but Rammellzee and his unique combination of brains and ridiculous costumes leave a gap that the fashion world will have a tough time filling.DARYOUSH HAJ-NAJAFI
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L for latitude, Z for z-bar, plus a couple more summation operators (Σ) for good luck.Fashion wise, Gothic futurism and the related theory of "Ikonoklast Panzerism" resulted in great outfits. London-based designer Noki—with his sloganeering, metaphorical connections, word creation, and habit of talking in the third person—owes a lot to Rammellzee.Fashion's got a lot going for it, but Rammellzee and his unique combination of brains and ridiculous costumes leave a gap that the fashion world will have a tough time filling.DARYOUSH HAJ-NAJAFI
