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This Week in Music and Fashion: A$AP Rocky, Grimes, the Weeknd, Nas and More

A$AP Rocky makes us wonder, is rappers taking shots at designers the new beef in hip-hop?

This week in music and fashion was an emotional roller coaster—which was only heightened by the dizzying feeling of fashion month coming to a halt. There were highs—Remy Ma's fashionable comeback, Grimes' debut webstore, Nas' new HSTRY lookbook—and lows: North West's father getting a little too excited about the leather jogging pant and dressing his one-year old daughter in a pair, A$AP Rocky vs. #BEEN TRILL# and Hood by Air, and the fall lookbook for the Weeknd's ill-fated clothing line. Even though fashion month is over, I suspect there will be plenty more to talk about next week, especially as A$AP Rocky embarks on the promotional cycle for his next album, inevitably explaining the lyrics of his divisive new song.

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GRIMES OPENS MERCH STORE, INSPIRES MANISH ARORA’S SPRING COLLECTION If you weeped when the prices of GrimesSaint Laurent t-shirt capsule collection were revealed, which started at £190, you can finally let go of your sadness. Grimes has just opened a webstore and not only are the offerings drawn by Grimes in a similar style as that t-shirt collection, they’re going for a much more wallet-friendly price. Right now she’s selling a sleeveless hoodie for $40 in grey and black and a t-shirt for $25 with the same tripped out logo.

Grimes’ unique style was also recently honored by psych-club kid designer Manish Arora in his spring 2015 collection. There were futuristic, holographic cutout platforms, bedazzled bike leggings and fanny packs, and hyper-surreal beaded dresses that would be hard to pull off if you’re not Grimes—or Grimes going to Burning Man, which is apparently where Manish envisions her wearing it. “We think of her going to places like the Burning Man Festival. A strong, independent, experimental woman!,” he said in an interview.

THE WEEKND DROPS HIS OFFICIAL ISSUE XO FALL 2014 LOOKBOOK The Weeknd’s creepy sexiness—which Drew Millard perfectly captured in his writeup of Abel’s Barclays show—is in full force in his fall 2014 lookbook. The girls in it might as well be wearing nothing because everything they have on is one step away from being taken off. To be honest, though, if someone dressed me in any of these clothes I would be itching to take them off ASAP too. You can see the whole sad thing here.

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NAS LAUNCHES HIS FIRST SOLO COLLECTION WITH HSTRY On the other end of the lookbook spectrum, Nas is finally going solo with his subversive menswear collection that he first released for fall 2013 in collaboration with menswear blogger Grungy Gentleman. Being that this is the 20th anniversary year of Illmatic—which he’s been promoting with limited screenings of his Time Is Illmatic documentary and, soon, will tour in support of the LP—Nas fittingly went with a retro approach, drawing from the 80s and 90s. If you squint really hard, you can tell that he recruited rapper Bishop Nehru and street style regular Everard Best as his models, who keep a very low profile in the lookbook.

REMY MA AND HOOD BY AIR’S SHAYNE OLIVER GO SHOPPING

Even though Remy Ma was just released from prison after serving a six-year sentence, the spirit of her tomboy streetwear style never left. Rihanna should be thanking her for championing menswear and sneakers and dresses back in the aughts. Now that she’s back, Hood By Air’s Shayne Oliver is catching her up to speed on all that she’s missed fashion-wise, with a shopping trip to Opening Ceremony.

A$AP ROCKY BEEFS WITH HOOD BY AIR AND #BEEN TRILL#

Don’t expect to see A$AP Rocky hanging with Hood by Air’s Shayne Oliver anytime soon. This week, while making his return, Rocky had an “I Am a God” moment, funneling his frustration with Hood By Air into “Multiply.” “HBA shit is weak, you can keep that/ I’m a trendsetter, you ain’t even peeped that,” he declared, breaking the hearts of thousands of fuccbois. It was possibly the most surprising lyric Rocky could have dropped, considering he pioneered Shayne’s career, championing his designs from the getgo and closing his first runway show—all things that played a part in the Kanye, Rihanna, Drake and Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour eventually taking notice. He also called out the art collective #BEEN TRILL#, led by designer Heron Preston and Kanye’s creative head Virgil Abloh: “I ain't really fuckin' with that Been Trill/ Swear them niggas booty like Tip Drill/ Nah I ain't really into throwin' shots/ But these mothafuckas better give me my props, word to Pac.”

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Was A$AP just trolling us? Was it more of a dis against other rappers jacking his style rather than the brands? Or did he have a falling out with HBA? I’m sure we’ll find out soon but the most head-turning thing about A$AP’s aggro-namedrops is that it highlights how much more influential fashion has become within rap. Heron Preston said it best when he brilliantly responded on Instagram, announcing he was selling t-shirts printed with an anti-#BEEN TRILL# still from the video, with the caption:

“what happened to rapper on rapper beef? the days of biggie vs tupac & jay z vs nas are over. Remember how Nas's "Ether" or Tupac "Hit Em Up" made you feel? Remember what that meant for rap music? The fact that a rapper dissed a clothing company is a huge sign of the times. does that mean rap is boring? has rap lost it's edge? Today, power in music is style. power is fashion. Let's keep this shit shocking and competitive! this is how you push things forward. and the song/video is good. let's continue to shake shit up! our culture needs it.”

Photo via Instagram

Marissa G. Muller does this every week. She's on Twitter - @marissagmuller.