Welcome to ‘Stay Fly,’ a new feature in The Hip Hop Museum Newsletter. Periodically, we will profile some of Hip Hop fashion’s most influential brands and designers. Given this is the first edition of the column, it only made sense to profile one of the most iconic and influential designers Hip Hop has ever seen, Maurice Malone.

Starting his brand in Detroit in the 1980s, Fast Company called Maurice the “Steve Jobs of denim.” However, it wasn’t just the Maurice Malone brand clothing seen on everyone from The Fugees to Tupac that cemented Maurice’s place in Hip Hop culture; in 1993, he founded The Hip Hop Shop in Detroit. The clothing store, which quickly became a gathering place and battling ground for the biggest names in Detroit Hip Hop, is best known for sparking the careers of Proof and Eminem. The Hip Hop Shop would be represented in Eminem’s hit-movie’ 8 Mile.’

The Maurice Malone brand is still alive, and Maurice is also focused on his other brand, Williamsburg Garment Company, which launched in 2012.

The Hip Hop Museum caught up with Maurice Malone to talk about The Hip Hop Shop and its iconic battles, his early struggles in launching the Maurice Malone brand, an interesting encounter with Tupac, and much more.

Maurice Malone Interview

Adam Aziz: How did Hip Hop impact the Maurice Malone brand in the early days?

Maurice Malone: I was heavily into Hip Hop. When I was doing the brand, I was a party promoter and a concert promoter at the same time. I used my parties to help sell the clothing products I made during the week. The parties helped generate revenue and introduce a customer base to my product. A lot of people would come to the parties to pick up the clothes.

AA: You opened the iconic ‘Hip Hop Shop’ in Detroit in 1993. As I understand it, it opened as a clothing store but quickly became a breeding ground for MCs, a place of iconic Rap battles. Do any specific battles or events that took place there stick out for you?

MM: One of the most talked about was when Proof battled Chris Webber. Chris was on Michigan’s ‘Fab Five’ at the time. Chris was also rapping at the time and came to the Hip Hop Shop to battle. This was after he called that infamous timeout against North Carolina in the National Championship game. Proof hit him with a line that said he couldn’t call a timeout, and everyone was laughing, and Chris never came back from that. People were laughing and talking about that for weeks. I remember Wu-Tang came through once before they blew up and did a free concert on short notice.

AA: When Eminem was early in his career battling at the Hip Hop Shop, were you looking at him like this guy is going to be a massive star in Hip Hop and one of the greatest ever?

MM: No, we didn’t. We thought of him as Proof’s sidekick. At the time, Proof was known as the best out of Detroit. In the late 90s, I started a record label, and Proof was supposed to be our first artist. When Eminem came out, Proof said he wanted to tour with him before he dropped his album. I used to play basketball with the guys at The Source magazine, and they would ask me if I had heard of Eminem, and I said, “Yeah.” They said he’s the best guy to come out of Detroit – he’s going to be big, and I would say yeah, but Proof is the best out of Detroit.

Later, when Proof and I were recording and ‘The Slim Shady LP’ had come out, I told Proof I thought you were the next one and the best out of Detroit, but I’m going to have to change that to the best at freestyling because Em’s writing is a lot better than yours.

AA: When you started building the brand, Hip Hop wasn’t the worldwide phenomenon it is today. What were your unique challenges in those early days of getting Maurice Malone clothing in mainstream department stores?

MM: One of my earlier partners owned a clothing store, and she had a space right next to her store. She let me rent it as an office. And that was the first location of the Hip Hop Shop, which I envisioned as a mecca for Hip Hop. You can come in and buy clothes, mixtapes, Hip Hop magazines, or just chill and talk. I envisioned it as a Starbucks for Hip Hop. The day before the Hip Hop Shop was supposed to open, my partner’s daughter came in with an eviction notice saying you can have your opening tomorrow, but my mama wants you out. She doesn’t want no Hip Hop on her block. She wasn’t a fan until later, as the culture grew. Luckily, I found a new space down the street for a third of the price I was paying her and three times the size. It ended up opening in the same area on Seven Mile about ten blocks down.

AA: How did your design and brand evolve when you moved from Detroit to New York?

MM: I always evolved. What I started with in the eighties looked different from the beginning of the nineties. I started selling to department stores in 1985 in Dayton Hudson Department stores. At the time, the only black designers and people I looked up to were Willi Smith, WilliWear, and Patrick Kelly. And I also liked Calvin Klein. He was a good jean marketer. Ralph Lauren with Polo. When my clothes first hit the department store, I was sitting right next to Polo and WilliWear, and I was like, I made it!

I was finding it hard to get my foot in the door in a lot of high-end specialty stores and boutiques. I would just be wearing a T-shirt and jeans like I had always been, and I don’t think they were taking me seriously as a straight black designer. At that time, when you envisioned a designer, you envisioned a European brand. I thought my name could have been better when I first started the brand. I thought I had to have some European-sounding name, and people kept saying Maurice Malone was good.

AA: Your newer company, Williamsburg Garment Company, has been around for a while now. For those who don’t know, what are the main differences between it and the Maurice Malone brand?

MM: Williamsburg is more of a classic, basic brand. We focus on raw denim and selvedge. It’s not about labelling. There is no labelling. My ideal brand when I started it is I wanted a high-quality brand that didn’t have a lot of labelling and identity on it. I didn’t want any embroidered pockets. I didn’t want tags on the outside. I wanted something clean and simple. I branded the jeans with their own unique coin pocket, and all the branding of the jeans is on the inside.

AA: What do you make of the resurgence of baggy jeans and baggy clothing?

MM: I just sent a tech pack to the factory to remake some Maurice Malone items. Because of the Internet, I always tell people that nothing goes away anymore. Fashion trends were driven by magazines and fashion media when I was coming up. Now, you can see all the trends online, and you don’t need to spend thousands of dollars on a fashion shoot to influence people. Everyday people are influencers now. People are so experimental now. You might wear something slim fit one day and then baggy the next. Nothing ever goes out of style.

AA: Last question. Your brand was so entrenched in Hip Hop. Does one specific memory or story stick out to you over the years?

MM: Coming up, we were doing a lot of homecomings, and we would go down to Howard University. I gave clothes to a bunch of people, including Tupac. Our website shows a picture of him wearing the Maurice Malone overalls. At this one party at Howard, Tupac and Biggie were there. Later that night, I saw Tupac at a party. We were at this little basement party. I was dancing with this girl who was my friend, and Tupac came up and was standing there staring at the girl. He did that for two songs, just staring at her. We eventually walked away, and she was like, who was that crazy guy standing there staring at me? I said that’s Tupac. She’s like, who’s Tupac? I said have you seen the movie’ Poetic Justice’? He’s also a rapper. She’s like, I didn’t know that. I would have started dancing with him if you had told me that.

Read more interviews on the Hip Hop Museum!