Brooklyn‘s Fabolous recently dropped his Summertime Shootout 2: The Level Up mixtape. The project ablaze the Interwebs and streets over the Labor Day Weekend. Fresh off the final summer holiday, it was announced that the lyrical rapper is Footwear News latest cover star. On the cover, the fashionable emcee and sneaker collector wears a pair of Saucony Grid 9000. He also sports a pair of Converse Larry Bird Weapon Retro.
Photographer Annie Tritt lensed the shoot. Inside, Fab spoke exclusively with the publications about his personal style, fondness for sneakers from the 90s, and opening up his own sneaker shop in the next year.
Below are some excerpts:
Who is the leader in the sneakerhead world?
I think there’s a best in different categories now. There’s always classics — they get their just due and respect. There’s a new wave of [Nike] Flyknits, I like them, they’re very comfortable. My mom was never a big sneaker person because she didn’t like how heavy sneakers were. You know how 1990s sneakers, they were all heavy? My mom wasn’t with it, so now I’m about to introduce my mom to Flyknits and stuff, see if she could hang — these are the kind of shoes she would like. She would buy cheap shoes because they were cheaply made but light — she liked light shoes on her feet, she didn’t like a heavy bulky shoe.
How did you come up with your own personal style?
It’s really about comfort for me now, what I feel comfortable in, whatever vibe I wake up feeling like. I constantly change what look I’m wearing, what shoes I’m wearing T.day I’m wearing Filas; at the shoot, I wore Converse and Saucony. I like to be versatile; I like to be diverse [and] try to keep all the styles I’ve seen and liked or became accustom to and mix it up.
Are there any designers or labels you’re particularly fond of?
I grew up in the 1990s, so I like a lot of the styles that were going on then. The design of the shoes, to me, was truly ahead of their time — a lot of the classic Jordans and a lot of the retro stuff that’s coming back now is really all from that time period. Some of them were slept on — they were worn by living legends of the time or connected to people who were bigger-than-life stars, and they’ve moved on and new stars have appeared, but those shoes still have a connection with people. I like that ’90s era of style and swag.