Big K.R.I.T's Adidas 1's In Da Club (2005)

Back in the twlight of 2009 I promised myself I'd never buy another pair of Adidas again because my poor wittle pinkies deserve better than to be shredded by their narrow toeboxes and living oop north it's near-impossible to disassociate the 3 stripes with provincial Gallagher doppelgangers, Madchester casualties, and every male Scouser under the age of 50 (uninteresting fact of the day according to my pal Graham at Adidas : they sell hundreds of pairs of the reissued P.T Trainers a week in Liverpool); basically the worst people on earth. The boycott remains steadfast 8 months later, and if I could resist those gorgeous suede vulcanized Campus highs in wine red from earlier this year then it'll be a doddle to resist anything else Adidas care to throw at me in the future.

Maybe the kid Big K.R.I.T feels my pain because he's been wearing Nikes in every picture I've seen of him since his post-K.R.I.T Wuz Here internet hype this year, but way back in 2005 he was all about extolling the merits of venturing out to his local Mr Ritzies in those horrible techy Adidas 1 runners which came out that year. Adidas 1's In Da Club isn't a classic of the genre like Raekwon's Sneakers, My Adidas by Run Dmc, T.I & P$C's My Air Forces, Read These Nikes by Geto Boys, The Pack's Vans, It's The Shoes by Curtains, Busy Bee's Converse, Air Forces by Jeezy, Schoolly D's Put Your Filas On and Footlocka Crew by Little Bruce; but it's worthy of a place somewhere in the best-of-the-rest category alongside the likes of They Call Me Puma by Seeborn & Puma, Do The Fila And The Peewee Dance by M.C Boob AKA Steady B, Sleepin' In My Nikes by Seagram & Scarface, and Yukmouth & Jeezy's Air Jordans.

Big K.R.I.T ft. Jay-O - Adidas 1's In Da Club



I heard this somewhere back in 2006 (maybe streaming on Myspace or some random Yousendit link) around the time I Got Me Some BAPES by Soulja Boy and Vans by The Pack were poppin', and Dunks by Yung Joc and the aforementioned Curtains tune were bubbling on the 'net/mixtapes/radio playlists, so I figured that we were in for an era of regional non-Air Force 1 specific sneaker themed tracks by new rappers looking for a breakout hit. That didn't quite happen (sure, Wale had Nike Boots and Mickey Factz had I Like Your Supras in '07 but it never quite blossomed into a full scale trend with legitimate hits or Mook-B from D4L making Fresh Ta Def In My Makavelli Brand AF1 rip-offs) and I hadn't the foggiest idea who'd made Adidas 1's In Da Club until that recent issue of XXL with the Big K.R.I.T feature where he was talking about how it was his first regional hit in '05 which he then spent the next half decade struggling to follow-up and then escape from under.

A pattern emerges here with K.R.I.T, Lil B and Curtains all gaining notoriety for footwear fetish songs in 2005/2006 and then undergoing a creative rebirth to become blog darlings by 2010. Does this mean that Treal Lee & Prince Rick (who are great, btw) are set to reappear in 2014 with an ambient album of Pimp C pastiches delivered in Puba-esque personas that Brandon Soderberg is going to declare even better than Donuts, which will then spawn a myriad of omnipresent viral video singles on WSHH.com? Does this also mean every currently hyped new southern blog-rapper has an obscure regional hit about footwear recorded when they were teenagers out there somewhere? Is the world really ready for World War Y3 by Jackie Chain, Umbro Do Me by Pill, and Superga Lover by Freddie Gibbs?

Bonus beats :

Little 7 & Haas C-B - Sneakers



Recently discovered and tracked down a copy of the 12" of this one after the Fat Lace homies mentioned it. If you've ever wondered what might've happened if lil' Les from the 2 A Gangsta's Fairytale intros or Jeff from De La's The Mack Daddy On The Left and Brainwashed Follower skits (both of whom had way more swag than proper child rappers like Superkids era Tragedy, Chi-Ali, either of the shorties from Illegal, or Wayne circa True Story) and a friend had made a song in 1986 about athletic footwear with the "Bobos they make your feet feel fine, Bobos they cost a dollar ninety nine.." taunt that Bobbito talks about in his Where'd You Get Those? book then, well, here's your answer.

Lil' Wyte - Ice White Soljas



Really wanted something by the token cracker protege from the Hypnotize Minds camp in my Great Rap Songs By Caucasoids post but figured the southern-rapper quota was already full with the T-Bo & Mike Da Hustla, Bubba Sparxxx, Paul Wall, and Yelawolf choices, so this is an excuse to finally post something by Lil' Wyte with his tribute to coke-white Reebok runners AKA the second best song on his sophomore Phinally Phamous cd after the awesome By 2 Da Bad Guy with DJ Paul. Wyte refers to his Reeboks as soljas because they put in work with him running from po-po, stomping people of either sex and making love to a lady of undisclosed origin on a day trip to the seaside, but I've ever been able to assertain if he means Reebok Classics as in the crappy plastic eighties model favoured by proles here in the UK or those hideous nineties models Juve and his boy Lil' Solja were waving about in the air in the Solja Rag video?